LV operators sue former employees

Monday, March 11, 2002 | 11:05 a.m.

Coast Resorts Inc., operator of the Orleans hotel-casino, and its insurer Great American Insurance Cos. sued a former Orleans audit clerk, alleging she misappropriated $141,951 by falsifying cash disbursement slips to obtain the cash.

Angelique Mendoza, who was hired on June 14, 1997, to oversee audits of general ledger accounts and terminated on Jan. 7 after the problem was discovered, was also accused of falsifying cash summary sheets and general ledger entries to hide fraudulent cash disbursements that allegedly occurred between May 1999 and December.

The suit said she used the money to pay her home mortgage, car expenses and other costs associated with the birth of her child. Tirso Dominguez, spokesman for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, said there haven't been any criminal charges filed against her to date.

Great American, which said it insured Coast against employee theft, said it wants to recover $50,000 it paid to the hotel-casino operator on Feb. 4. Coast wants an order to recover the remaining $97,951 from Mendoza.

Mendoza could not be reached for comment.

Separately, the El Cortez hotel-casino sued its former cage manager, Carolyn Masten, alleging she owes the downtown Las Vegas property $615,000 for an unpaid loan, gambling markers and "held checks."

Masten, who was El Cortez's cage manager from 1965 through September 2001, was accused of failing to pay $82,854 in loans and granting herself $532,706 in funds from the El Cortez casino cage in exchange for casino markers and "held checks" that were never cashed allegedly at her order.

Masten could not be reached for comment on the El Cortez's allegations.