Mohegan Tribe fires employees accused of major theft at casino

Wednesday, January 20, 2016

The Mohegan Sun Pocono in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Photo from Facebook

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A commercial gaming facility owned by the Mohegan Tribe of Connecticut was the victim of a huge inside job, authorities in Pennsylvania said.

Two former employees of the Mohegan Sun Pocono are accused of cheating the casino out of hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to news reports. They allegedly created duplicates of player cards, added $478,100 in free slot play to them and worked with a frequent patron who used the cards to take $418,793 in fraudulent slot machine winnings.

All three individuals are now facing numerous theft, identity theft and conspiracy charges. The defendants include Robert Joseph Pellegrini, the former vice president of player development at the casino, and Rochelle Poszeluznyj, a former beverage server. The frequent patron was identified in news reports at Mark Joseph Heltzel.

In related news, the facility was forced to pay slot machine winnings by hand on Monday due to a glitch in the computer systems, The Wilkes-Barre Citizens' Voice reported. The problem has since been fixed, an executive said.

Get the Story:
3 charged in casino conspiracy that netted $400K (The Scranton Times-Tribune 1/20)
Nearly half million dollars stolen from Mohegan Sun in suspected 'inside job' (MassLive 1/20)
Slot machine ticket printing hampered by glitch (The Wilkes-Barre Citizens' Voice 1/20)
‘Inside Job’ Rips Off Mohegan Sun of Nearly Half Million Dollars (WNEP 1/19)