A former manager at a popular Las Vegas hotel got a bit greedy, and it has landed him in jail.
In this post:
How a former Aria manager stole over $770K
Brandon Johnson, a former manager at Las Vegas’ Aria Resort & Casino, has been arrested for stealing more than $770K from the resort over the course of roughly a year. He has been charged with 13 counts related to theft, including two for at least $100K. He’s now being held at Clark County Detention Center on $100K bail.
The property caught onto Johnson’s behavior in July 2023, when MGM Resorts’ financial crimes unit reached out to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police, regarding an employee who was conducting fraudulent refunds.
Long story short, a single Chase debit card number was entered into the reservations system hundreds of times, to issue refunds from previous guest stays. An audit determined that over the course of a year, roughly $776K was stolen using this method, across 209 refunds. He ramped this up significantly, starting with two fraudulent refunds per month in July 2022, all the way up to 37 fraudulent refunds per month in July 2023.
It’s not entirely clear to me whether he was somehow refunding stays that guests had completed with the authority he had, or if he was trying to redirect legitimate refunds to his card.
Johnson had a long career at MGM, as he worked there starting in 2007. He then left his role, but was rehired in 2013, and most recently had the position of operations manager.
How the employee got caught for his actions
You’d think that a single credit card being used for dozens of refunds would have triggered something in the property’s system, though ironically that’s not what actually started the investigation.
Rather, in July 2023, another Aria manager noticed that Johnson was suddenly buying a new home, luxury vacations on private jets, and expensive dinners. The manager asked Johnson about this, and he claimed that he had become a chef for rich clients as a side hustle. The manager had never heard of Johnson mentioning he was a chef, so became suspicious.
This caused the manager to look into Johnson’s work transactions, which raised a red flag. Johnson had completed several refunds in the reservations system, which is when the company launched an internal investigation.
When the police got involved and were able to subpoena his bank records, they determined that he was spending a lot of money at stores like Louis Vuitton and Versace, and was making bank transfers between accounts, for amounts of up to $160K.
Johnson quit his job during the investigation, and voluntarily surrendered to the police on September 1. However, he declined all police interview requests.
Bottom line
A former manager at Las Vegas’ Aria Resort & Casino has been arrested for sending over 200 fraudulent refunds to his debit card, totaling over $770K. He engaged in this scheme for roughly a year, and was only caught when a manager noticed his lifestyle suddenly got more extravagant, which caused an internal investigation to take place.
My gosh, it’s amazing how greedy people get sometimes, because of course it was going to end this way. It’s one thing to do this once or twice (which is bad enough), but to do this hundreds of times is of course going to get caught.
What do you make of this Las Vegas hotel story?
Wow. Didn’t he as an employee know that he could be tracked and caught? He worked there he didn’t understand the system! As sophisticated as the Aria is, why did the system not detect something? I bet it will catch everything now.
From the movie: WALL STREET: GREED IS GOOD.
Bought a Cadillac
MGM deserves this for ending the Partnership with Hyatt.. or was it otherwise? nevermind.
I worked at a hotel with a gentleman who created a frequent stay account and was adding points to the card. I am not sure if he was selling the points for money or what, but he did have a lot of points on the account when he was caught. More businesses should have internal auditors.
Last Name "Johnson"? Hmmm!
David Duke, is that you?
should of just said he got lucky with crypto. chef on the side lol common man.
We actually received a room comp from Brandon over New Years this year. And, yes I did confirm we actually received the comp lol.
Frank Abagnale, the author and subject of "Catch Me if You Can," has found that people who commit this kind of crime just keep doing it until they get caught.
Who's going to do it only once or twice? It's got to be a rush getting away with it. And the next time you need cash, it would be almost impossible to resist.
Wouldn’t take Abagnale’s word on anything given how “Catch Me If You Can” itself is mostly made up… allegedly
I guess he's never seen Goodfellas.
"Didn't I tell you not to get anything big. Didn't I tell you not to attract attention!?"
Exactly!!!!
He’s fortunate he didn’t pull this sixty years ago or they’d just now be finding his body in lake mead.
Has this guy never watched any crime movies? Do not splash the cash.
I'm kind of amazed he thought he'd get away with it. I'd expect to see "bought a house in a country that lacks an extradition policy with the US"... I guess these aren't criminal masterminds.
I've always wondered if these luxury stores/companies are on the hook when it's found out that money was spent there that was stolen? I mean on RHOSLC it was said that Jen Shah spent like $1Mil+ at Louis Vuitton IN CASH.....like isn't that suspicious enough? I know in the jewelry world, if a Pawn Shop buys and sells a stolen piece within a set amount if time, they are required to pay/give it back AT...
I've always wondered if these luxury stores/companies are on the hook when it's found out that money was spent there that was stolen? I mean on RHOSLC it was said that Jen Shah spent like $1Mil+ at Louis Vuitton IN CASH.....like isn't that suspicious enough? I know in the jewelry world, if a Pawn Shop buys and sells a stolen piece within a set amount if time, they are required to pay/give it back AT THEIR OWN COST. These companies are publicly traded too, how much of their earnings are stolen/laundered/etc? Anyways, interesting issue.
I don't think they are. Otherwise, there would be some serious problems selling to oligarchs... who definitely drive revenue and made serious coin stealing from the people of Russia.
I am surprised Chase didn’t flag these transactions as fraudulent.
He got stupid plain and simple.
But spending so much stolen money must feel so good, couldn’t think of any better way to live life!
…will he be rehired (again) in a few years. I’m sure he never stole anything else on his previous employment stint with mgm.
Having had to deal with mgm for many refunds over the years (often due to credits not being automatically issued) I can confirm it is a very manual system. My guess is he would just go in and remove incidental charges from folios then issue a refund
What a dummy
All that $money$ just to buy some dumb a$$ luxury items...
Could have set himself up for life if he wasn't DUMB, STUPID, and GREEDY, all at the same time,,,,
What we don't hear about are the people who are more clever about it. ...
I'm not sure what you mean. He did indeed SET HIMSELF UP for life. If he gets out on good behavior, he can always be a chef for the rich.