It’s been a bad week for would-be casino robbers. On the same day that the ‘Bellagio bandit’ made his rather unwilling debut in a Las Vegas courtroom, five suspects have been arrested over last week’s $180k heist from Caesars Atlantic City. The New Jersey State Police Casino Gaming Bureau have four men and one woman in custody, including 19-year-old Izyiah Plummer (pictured), who used to work as a security guard for Caesars Entertainment. The five face charges including robbery, aggravated assault, receiving stolen property and weapons offenses.
In the early hours of July 21, two masked men armed with a pistol confronted Caesars security personnel. After ordering the guards to hand over a couple boxes full of cash, the suspects were observed fleeing in a dark-colored sedan. While not yet at liberty to disclose full details, police say they exercised search warrants on residences in AC and Pleasantville, recovering “a large portion of the money” and some articles of clothing they believe the suspects were wearing at the time of the heist. Police haven’t identified which of the five are believed to have been the gunmen.
Across the state, a judge has given legal okay to an even bigger heist. At a hearing in Camden on Wednesday, the judge overseeing the (second) bankruptcy of Atlantic City casino Revel has approved a controversial deal that will see five top executives collect $1.75m in bonuses. Following Revel entering bankruptcy protection for the second time in June, these five execs somehow managed to institute an incentive package rewarding them for attaining certain performance benchmarks, like maintaining cash flow above a certain amount before the property goes on the auction block on Aug. 7.
The unnamed execs will split a $225k pot should Revel sell at auction for $150m or higher, while other blocks of cash ranging from $175k to $300k will be split if/when each cash flow benchmark is/was attained. Trustees involved in the bankruptcy proceedings had suggested these benchmarks were set so low as to be more or less automatically attainable. The Press of Atlantic City quoted one trustee wondering why there were “few, if any, facts that bridge the gap between what each [exec’s] duties are versus any additional or extraordinary duties to be undertaken.”
On Wednesday, US Bankruptcy Judge Gloria Burns said she was “satisfied that it’s an incentive plan and it’s good” for both the casino and its owners. Last week, AC Mayor Donald Guardian told reporters that there were as many as six serious bidders sniffing around Revel. If one of them’s willing to pay at least $150m, those five execs will have at last found the silver lining in the dark cloud that has hung over Revel since the ill-fated project opened two years ago.
