Citibank And Casino Cash Gone In 60 Seconds And Bad Guys Comped

Citibank And Casino Cash Gone In 60 Seconds And Bad Guys Comped

Bill Singer, Contributor

To Ara Keshishyan’s credit, he had an idea – illegal as it may have been – and he ran with it. According to a federal Indictment unsealed on October 26, 2012, in the Southern District of California, Keshishyan recruited at least 13 individuals, all of whom were recently arrested in the Los Angeles, CA area, as part of a conspiracy. The rip-off isn’t all that complicated in terms of its goal but the mechanism of getting there was damn clever.

Here’s what the Indictment alleges:

Ara Keshishyan put together a crew and gave each of the participants so-called “seed money,” which they deposited into Citibank checking accounts that each had recently opened. Thereafer, the crew traveled to the following casinos:

• California: Morongo, Pechanga, San Manuel, Agua Caliente, Chukchansi, and Spa Resort
• Nevada: Tropicana, Wynn, Bicycle, and Whiskey Pete’s (Las Vegas); and Harrah’s (Laughlin)

After arriving at their targeted casino, the conspirators went to on-premise cash advance kiosks and withdrew multiples of the deposits that they had previously made into the Citibank accounts.

Apparently, Keshishyan had discovered a glitch in Citibank’s security protocol whereby multiple withdrawals made within 60 seconds of each other at the kiosks would result in cash payments from the various cages at the casinos. The deposits and withdrawals were each kept under the federal transaction reporting level of $10,000 so as to conceal detection.

Being the alleged brains of the operation, Keshishyan kept the collected funds and doled out cuts to his conspirators. His take was generally used for gambling. On top of having gamed the Citibank cash advance process, Keshishyan and his crew were often “comped” into the casinos with free rooms based upon the level of their gambling.

NOTE: An indictment merely contains allegations and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

The defendants include: Ara Keshishyan, 29; Ara Harutyunyan, 30; Artur Harutyunyan, 24; Vahe Asatrian, 29; Sarkis Mooshidian, 37; Levon Karamyan, 58; Migran Yamalyan, 30; Seryozha Harutyunyan, 59; Lianna Avetisyan, 24; Ashot Oganisyan, 30; Ovsep Sarfyan, 33; Daniel J. Thomas, 56; Hilda Hakverdyan, 53; and Asatur Asatryan,33. As of October 30, 2012, Levon Karamyan remains a fugitive. All 14 indicted defendants were charged with conspiracies to:

• commit bank fraud and
• to illegally structure financial transactions to avoid reporting requirements.,

Each of the conspiracy charges is punishable by up to five years in prison, and a $250,000 fine.
Defendant Keshishyan is additionally charged with 14 counts of bank fraud, each of which is punishable by up to 30 years in prison and a $1,000,000 fine. The indictment also alleges forfeiture in connection with the crimes charged.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/billsinger/2012/10/29/citibank-and-casino-cash-gone-in-60-seconds-and-bad-guys-comped/

NLRB Threatens Native Sovereignty

By Fred Wszolek

October 4, 2012

In 2004, largely under the mainstream media radar, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB or Board) dispossessed Native Americans. But this time, it was not their lands that were being taken away—it was their sovereignty.

It all began with Big Labor. In an effort to increase its declining membership, Big Labor saw the casinos operated by the Indian tribes on their reservations as an attractive organizing opportunity. If unionizing the casinos required undermining their sovereignty, so be it.

The Supreme Court may soon be asked to decide whether this was legal.

The Casinos Provide Tribal Governments With A Needed Source Of Revenue

Many Indian tribes, like the San Manuel Band of Serrano Mission Indians, were dispossessed of their historic lands and moved to arid, unproductive lands that were insufficient to support them. Tribal members lived in deplorable conditions and unemployment was high, and many subsisted largely on non-tribal welfare.

Conditions began to change in 1988, when Congress passed the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, which accelerated Indian gaming operations. Casinos began to provide a solid source of revenue for tribal governments, enabling them to build schools, roads, and water and sewer facilities, and to provide housing and job training to their members. By 2004, the year the NLRB took action at the behest of union bosses, Indian gaming operations collectively generated nearly $20 billion in gross revenue and employed nearly 600,000 people. Today, those numbers are significantly higher.

NLRB Ignores Its Own Precedent and Inherent Tribal Sovereignty

For decades, the Board recognized the unique sovereign status of Indian tribes to regulate themselves and declined to assert jurisdiction over tribal business enterprises located on the reservation. The NLRB said it was “clear that individual Indians and Indian tribal governments, at least on reservation lands, are generally free from state or even in most instances federal intervention, unless Congress has specifically provided to the contrary.”

What was once “clear” to the Board then became blurred by Native American prosperity.

In a decision known as San Manuel Indian Bingo and Casino, the NLRB abruptly changed course – ignoring Congressional silence on the application of the Act to Indian tribes. It failed to accord any weight to the effect its decision would have on fundamental aspects of Native American sovereignty. And it trivialized Indian sovereignty in a manner never contemplated by Congress or the Supreme Court.

According to the Board, tribal self-governance is limited to “intramural” matters such as tribal membership and domestic relations. When a tribe engages in a successful business operation that employs non-members, the tribe loses its exemption as a sovereign entity—unlike local, state and Federal governments that employ non-residents, but remain exempt from the Act. This includes its ability to regulate tribal commerce and to exercise civil jurisdiction over non-members on the reservation without federal government interference.

All this was necessary, according to the NLRB in San Manuel, because “[a]s tribal business have grown and prospered, they have become significant employers of non-Indians and serious competitors with non-Indian owned businesses.”

According To The Department Of The Interior (DOI), San Manuel Is Inconsistent With
Federal Indian Law

The Department of the Interior, the agency charged with the responsibility of overseeing the Federal government’s relations with Indian tribes, does not share this point of view.

Not long after the NLRB began an investigation of the Little River Band of Ottawa Tribe for violating the Act under the authority of the Board’s decision in San Manuel, the Department’s Solicitor’s Office wrote the NLRB. The Solicitor wrote that the agency was without authority to proceed “as a matter of Federal Indian law” and urged the agency “to put an end to this enforcement action as soon as possible.” When the Board ignored DOI’s entreaty and issued a complaint anyway, the Solicitor announced that she would file a brief with the NLRB on behalf of the tribe.

In an administration beholden to Big Labor this was a cardinal offense, and one can only imagine what transpired behind the scenes in response to DOI’s apostasy. Although the Department eventually backed down, its letter to the Board made clear that it was doing so only “in the context of individual cases.” The Department asked for a meeting with the Acting General Counsel to discuss whether and how the Act should be applied to Indian tribes.

Meeting or no meeting, the NLRB has continued to apply the Act to tribes and their wholly-owned enterprises located on the reservation. And San Manuel remains an open invitation to union agents to encroach on tribal lands to organize tribal employees.

Supreme Court May Decide The Issue

The Board’s decision in San Manuel was upheld by the D. C. Circuit Court of Appeals, but a case pending in the Tenth Circuit is unlikely to have the same outcome. The Tenth Circuit court has already disavowed the reasoning employed by the NLRB in San Manuel. A split in the circuits will make San Manuel ripe for Supreme Court review.

Congress Should Step In and Protect Tribal Sovereignty

The Board’s decision in San Manuel insists on separating the tribe’s commercial enterprises from its governmental functions, ignoring reality and the distinctive nature of tribal governments. It penalizes tribes for participating in the national economy and achieving the economic self-sufficiency that has always been the goal of Congressional Indian policy.

The Workforce Fairness Institute strongly supports a Congressional effort to undo San Manuel and restore the ability of Indian tribes to enact laws and be ruled by them and to regulate their wholly-owned commercial enterprises located on Native American lands. Indian sovereignty should be respected, not undermined, by the NLRB or anyone else.

Fred Wszolek is a spokesperson for the Workforce Fairness Institute (WFI).


Read more:http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/ict_sbc/nlrb-threatens-native-sovereignty http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/ict_sbc/nlrb-threatens-native-sovereignty#ixzz28etqFYcs

Gambling Addict planned to kill husband

Wife made plans to kill husband, San Bernardino police say
Mike Cruz, Staff Writersbsun.com
Created: 04/11/2012

SAN BERNARDINO - The slaying of a local television repairman last week was in the works for years, complete with drawings of the house he lived in and a scheme to take his possessions as well as his life, according to police.

There had been three failed attempts to kill John "Jack" Cone, 64, each having a common denominator: his estranged wife, Laurie Jean Cone, 46, according to an arrest warrant affidavit obtained by The Sun.

She was arrested April 4 on suspicion of conspiring to kill him, and two days later pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder. Also charged in the death are Shawna Bayless and Gary Gallion, both of San Bernardino, though their connection to the case was not immediately clear.

What was clear to investigators last week was what Laurie Cone originally told police as they began investigating her husband's death.

She and the couple's 23-year-old daughter, Jackie, had returned from a day of gambling at San Manuel Indian Bingo and Casino early in the morning of April 2 to find the electric gate to John Cone's North Sierra Way repair shop - which doubled as the family home - forced open and his beaten body inside.

For the moment, that was the story.

And, in fact, investigators confirm in the police report that Laurie Cone and her daughter were captured on security footage at the San Manuel casino.

But the story emerging from investigators goes back years, painting a picture of a 29-year marriage tainted by a gambling addiction and the three failed attempts on John Cone's life.

The 3 alleged attempts

Over the last five years, Laurie Jean Cone had approached at least three men to kill her husband, who also was tipped off about an attempt to take his life just days before he was killed, according to the police affidavit.

According to the affidavit, Laurie Cone gave one man, the ex-boyfriend of her daughter, a 9-mm handgun in 2007 and asked him to "shoot her husband in the head and take his cash," offering him $5,000 to do the job.

She allegedly offered another man a truck if he did the job; and she allegedly promised another man between $7,000 and $9,000 and a split of her husband's gun collection and gold and silver bars in his safe.

The third man also told detectives that Laurie Cone contacted him for a murder for hire after he knew her for only a couple of days, according to the documents. He had been allowing Laurie Cone to stay at his residence for a few days because she had nowhere else to go.

She had even given him details to help him do the crime, such as a hand-drawn map showing the location of the bedrooms and a gun office, where John Cone kept his gun collection, according to the affidavit.

Laurie Cone reportedly told the man that she wanted it done before her daughter was released from Glen Helen Detention Center in Devore.

A different man told detectives that after Laurie Cone offered to give him a truck to kill her husband, he declined the offer and told his mother.

His mother told detectives she called John Cone on the Friday before his death and told him his wife had approached her son to kill him, according to the affidavit.

On April 3, Laurie Cone took a polygraph exam at the police station. The polygraph examiner told detectives the test showed deception. Laurie Cone stormed out of the building and did not continue speaking to detectives, according to the affidavit.

Her attorney told police later that day she would not make any further statements. The next day, she was arrested at 4:30 p.m. and taken to West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga.

Gambling addiction

Aside from the background of the alleged attempts to kill John Cone, other details emerged from the police reports about his death.

The investigation showed John Cone was severely beaten with an unknown hard object and suffered severe blunt force trauma to his head.

John Cone was bound at the ankles and arms with duct tape and computer cord. Computer cord also was around his neck. The assault occurred in the bedroom, according to police.

John Cone was also a licensed arms dealer and his gunroom had been forced open. Federal agents believe that 17 long guns, such as rifles and shotguns, were taken.

Surveillance cameras, which had been mounted inside and outside the business - D/C Radio and Television - had been damaged. Police say a recording device may have also been removed.

John Cone's 2003 Ford F-150 truck was missing. Police said they recovered the vehicle in Highland.

Investigators said the Cones had been in a relationship for 29 years but had been separated three weeks because of Laurie Cone's "compulsive and addictive gambling problem." She had been staying with a friend.

Jackie Cone told The Sun that her parents had been separated for two months because of her mother's gambling addiction.

"Mom said she was never coming back here and that she got all her stuff. She took dad's things and sold them for gambling money," Jackie said. "My dad was fed up. He changed all the locks, and my mom got pissed."

Police say John Cone's wife and daughter were the last persons to see him alive at 11 p.m. April 1 and the first ones to find him dead.

Attempts to reach Deputy Public Defender Richard Lafianza, who represented Laurie Cone at her arraignment, were unsuccessful.

Source: This report is based on a Sesslin Affidavit, or supplemental police report, which includes probable cause information from police supporting the arrest of the suspects. The Sun obtained a copy of the report this week from Laurie Cone's case file in San Bernardino Superior Court .


Two more charged today in death of San Bernardino TV repairman
Mike Cruz, The (San Bernardino County) Sunsbsun.com

Two more suspects were charged and arraigned today in connection with last week's beating death of San Bernardino TV repairman John "Jack" Cone.

Marie Bayless and Gary Michael Gallion appeared before Judge Kenneth Barr in San Bernardino Superior Court and pleaded not guilty to murder, robbery and burglary charges.
Prosecutors filed the charges today in a criminal complaint in San Bernardino Superior Court.

Bayless, 39, and Gallion, 29, both of San Bernardino, return to court Wednesday to confirm the appointment of their lawyers. A preliminary hearing was scheduled for April 18, the same day as one set for Cone's wife, Laurie Jean Cone, who was arraigned on Friday in connection with his death.

At a preliminary hearing, a judge will hear witness testimony and review evidence to determine if sufficient probable cause exists to hold over the defendants for trial on the charges.
Bayless and Gallion were arrested Friday in connection with Cone's homicide. They were both already in custody on unrelated charges, according to San Bernardino police.

Deputy District Attorney William Lee is prosecuting the case. Conflict-panel lawyer JP Serrao represented both Gallion and Bayless at arraignment, and he had no comment after the proceedings.

Both Bayless and Gallion are being held on $1 million bail. Bayless is in custody at West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga, while Gallion is in custody at Central Detention Center, in San Bernardino, according to sheriff's jail logs.

Cone's wife of 29 years, Laurie Cone, 47, told police early last week that she discovered her husband's lifeless body on the morning of April 3 inside his home and business - D/C Radio and Television - in the 2100 block of North Sierra Way, after she had a night out with her daughter at a local casino.

Laurie Cone was arrested Wednesday in her husband's death, and county prosecutors charged her with first-degree murder. It was just days after the Cones' 29th wedding anniversary.

Police say an investigation showed that Laurie Cone, conspired to have her husband killed for personal financial gain. Laurie Cone pleaded not guilty to the charges at her arraignment Friday in San Bernardino Superior Court.

Wife arrested in slaying for gambling $$$

Wife arrested in slaying of TV shop owner in San Bernardino
Joe Nelson and Rick Sforza, The (San Bernardino County) Sun

SAN BERNARDINO -- A woman who said she discovered her husband dead inside his television and radio repair shop on the day of their 29th wedding anniversary has been arrested in connection with his slaying, police said.

Police arrested Laurie Jean Cone, 47, at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday at the office of criminal defense attorney Michael Scafiddi, in the 400 block of North Arrowhead Avenue, in San Bernardino, sheriff's booking records show.

It was unclear Thursday if Scafiddi or any of the attorneys working in his office were representing Laurie Cone, who is facing charges of murder and conspiracy to commit murder. She was booked Wednesday at the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga, where she was being held without bail.

Cone is suspected of conspiring to have her husband, 64-year-old John "Jack" Cone, killed for financial gain. Homicide investigators plan to have their case submitted to the District Attorney's Office for review this afternoon, San Bernardino Police Lt. Paul Williams said.

Detectives continued their search Thursday for John Cone's white 2003 Ford F-150 quad cab pickup, which was stolen during the commission of the crime late Sunday or early Monday morning. Roughly 20 guns were also stolen, police said.

Police said Jack Cone suffered trauma to his body consistent with a homicide.

"The investigators are working diligently. It's a very complex case," Williams said, adding that detectives were following a trail of solid leads Thursday and aiming to close the case quickly.

During an interview with The Sun Monday, Laurie Cone said she found her husband, whom she had been separated for roughly two months, dead in his television and radio repair shop, D/C Radio and Television, in the 2100 block of North Sierra Way. She said she went to the shop about 4:15 a.m. after spending the night with her daughter, 23-year-old Jackie Cone, gambling at San Manuel Indian Bingo & Casino. She said she discovered the electric gate had been forced open.

D/C Radio and Television, fortified by a black wrought iron fence in the front, a roughly 10-foot-high chain link fence in the back and three satellite dishes sprouting from the front yard, also served as the home of Jack Cone and his daughter Jackie.

On Thursday, Jackie poured through her father's personal belongings at D/C Radio and Television, which was up for sale at the time of the slaying. She said police asked her to check her father's computer for any documents or information that may be helpful in their investigation.

She said her parents have been separated for the last two months because of her mother's gambling addiction.

"Mom said she was never coming back here and that she got all her stuff. She took dad's things and sold them for gambling money," Jackie said. "My dad was fed up. He changed all the locks, and my mom got pissed."

Jack Cone's cousin, Dorothy Dosey, said she went to his home/business Monday after being informed of his death. There, she met up with Laurie Cone, who said something that stuck in Dosey's mind, given the circumstances.

"She said she's not going to quit gambling for anybody, that she was never going to stop," Dosey said Thursday. "I don't know why, but she did."

Jackie Cone said her mom may have been stealing from her father following the couple's separation to support her gambling addiction. She said her father owned hundreds of guns,

Brian Lewis, left, a San Bernardino homicide detective investigates the slaining of James Cone, 64, who was found dead Monday. His wife was arrested Wednesday in connection with his death. (LaFonzo Carter/ Staff Photographer)but believes she sold most of them.
"I'm not sure if he sold them or what. He'd been selling things getting ready to close the business and I'm not sure if he sold the guns," Jackie Cone said. "So I'm kind of looking for serial numbers (on her father's computer) too."

She said the story her mother told The Sun on Monday, at least the part about her mother and father's wedding anniversary, wasn't entirely true.

"My mom said that she was looking forward to celebrating her anniversary with dad. That was a lie, all lies," Jackie Cone said. "My parents were married on April 1st, and Monday was the 2nd. I used to joke with him, my dad, about them being married on April Fool's Day."

Now, Jackie Cone is faced with perhaps the biggest struggle of her life: moving on.

"I don't know what I'm going to do now. I'm only 23, and I've basically lost both my parents," she said.

Staff Writers Ryan Carter and Lori Consalvo contributed to this report.



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Nazi Low Rider uses counterfeit bills at San Manuel

Man charged with using counterfeit bills at casino


A suspected member of the Nazi Low Riders and his wife have been charged with using counterfeit money at the San Manuel Indian Bingo and Casino in Highland.

The state Department of Justice said Tuesday that casino staff suspected Donald Thrash of Ontario and his wife Kerry were gambling with counterfeit bills in December and called police.

Special Agent Dave Vialpando says agents searched Thrash's home in Ontario and found more than $1,000 in $5 bills that were washed and reprinted to look like $100 bills. They also found drugs and evidence that he belonged to a white supremacist street gang.

Vialpando says criminals are foolish to commit crimes in casinos because their actions are caught on video tape, which makes it easy to prosecute them.