TRENTON
– Attorney General Anne Milgram and
Acting Criminal Justice Director Deborah
Gramiccioni announced that a New York couple
pleaded guilty late yesterday to receiving
stolen property for gambling at the Borgata
with $1 million that the woman stole from
her employer.
According
to Gramiccioni, Jamine Alabre, 28, of Westbury,
N.Y., and her boyfriend, Mathurin Ambroise,
34, of St. Albans, N.Y., each pleaded guilty
to a charge of second-degree receiving stolen
property before Superior Court Judge Bernard
E. DeLury Jr. in Atlantic County. Under
her plea agreement, Alabre faces a sentence
of six years in state prison. Ambroise faces
a three-year prison sentence. Judge DeLury
scheduled sentencing for the couple for
Oct. 24.
On
Jan. 17, 2007, the Division of Criminal
Justice obtained an indictment charging
the couple with money laundering and receiving
stolen property. Warrants were issued, and
they were arrested that day by the Nassau
County, N.Y., Sheriff’s Department.
Alabre had been charged in New York in 2005
with grand larceny for stealing $1 million
from her former employer, IPSOS, an international
marketing firm on Long Island.
The
indictment obtained by the Division of Criminal
Justice Major Crimes Bureau alleged that
between January and October 2005, Alabre
and Ambroise laundered more than $500,000
of the stolen cash using slot machines in
Atlantic City casinos, particularly the
Borgata Hotel and Casino. Alabre and Ambroise
were observed by Borgata personnel in May
2005 putting large amounts of currency into
the high limit slot machines. Borgata personnel
alerted the Financial Crimes Unit of the
New Jersey State Police Casino Gaming Bureau,
which investigated.
In
pleading guilty, Alabre admitted she stole
$1 million from IPSOS. She and Ambroise
each admitted that they used the cash to
gamble at the Borgata. IPSOS conducts market
surveys in which cash payments are included
in mailings as an incentive for recipients
to participate. As an accounting coordinator,
Alabre was responsible for obtaining the
cash needed for mailings from the bank.
She inflated cash orders, stealing the additional,
unauthorized cash she had requested.
The
investigation was led by Detective Sgt.
First Class Paul Spirit of the State Police
Financial Crimes Unit. Detective Eric Weiss
of the Division of Gaming Enforcement assisted
in the investigation. Deputy Attorney General
Yvonne Maher of the Division of Criminal
Justice Casino Prosecutions Bureau prosecuted
the case and took the guilty pleas.
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