SCRANTON — This is an official press release from the U.S. Department of Justice (USAO - Pennsylvania, Middle), published as received.
SCRANTON - The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that a former Mohegan Sun Vice President for Player Development was sentenced June 16, 2017 in federal court in Wilkes-Barre by Senior Judge A. Richard Caputo, to serve 32 months in prison on the charge of conspiracy to commit money laundering.
According to United States Attorney Bruce D. Brandler, Robert Pellegrini, age 51, of Mountain Top, pleaded guilty to a money laundering conspiracy in December 2016. According to the Indictment previously returned in this case, Pellegrini conspired with Rochelle Poszeluznyj, age 39, of Kingston, and Mark Heltzel, age 52, of Dallas, to defraud the Mohegan Sun Casino by engaging in a money laundering scheme involving the use of stolen names and PINs (personal identification numbers) that were tied to players’ loyalty club cards. It is alleged that while employed as a cocktail waitress at the casino, Poszeluznyj had access to the names and PINs of casino players as she served them beverages. Poszeluznyj stole the names and PINs of those players and provided them to Pellegrini, who then used the stolen information to create duplicate player club cards. Pellegrini then loaded the duplicate cards with “free play” credits and provided them to Heltzel to gamble with, primarily at poker slot machines. The scheme began in May 2014 and continued to April 2015, netting the defendants winnings in the approximate amount of $422,147.55.
Sentencing dates for Pellegrini’s co-defendants, Heltzel and Poszeluznyj, are pending.
In addition to the prison term, Senior Judge Caputo also ordered that Pellegrini be supervised by a probation officer for one year following his release from prison. He was further ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $420,147.
The charges stem from an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service Investigations and the Pennsylvania State Police. Assistant United States Attorney Michelle Olshefski prosecuted the case.
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