Two Men Charged in Multi-Million Dollar Fake Casino Ponzi Scheme

Federal authorities based in Utah have arrested two men for operating and alleged $25 million Ponzi scheme related to a fake casino project in Mexico. Their goal was to get victims to invest in it. 

In another casino-related scheme, a man was found guilty in an elaborate $700k AI trick. 

The Men Arrested

The men arrested and charged are Thomas Paul Madden, 66, of Washington City, Utah, and Jeremy Tyler Grabow, 54, of Ladera Ranch, California. 

They claimed they were involved in a large casino project in Mexico through a make-believe computer systems company, Savitar. According to prosecutors, they jointly controlled it. 

Madden has been charged with four counts of wire fraud, while Grabow and he are both charged with wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy. 

The Fake Casino Scheme 

The scheme began in 2021. They told, at minimum, 10 victims they were working in a partnership with MGM Resorts, Mexican tour operator Cabo Paradise, a data center company Datapod, and the Mexican Lottery to begin their project. 

They also said that the casino would be built in Cabo San Lucas, and they told victims that they’d already received millions of dollars in investments. 

Of course, none of that was true. 

However, this scheme generated about $2 million. This was used to pay earlier investors and personal expenses. 

While this was going on, Madden was operating another scheme through another bogus company, Cascade. 

Since 2017 with Cascade, he has promised investors returns on penny stock sales. Instead, he has spent the money on Ponzi payments and personal expenses. In all, Madden received about $23 million from about 200 people. 

Other Ponzi Schemes

In 2023, Madden was arrested for giving bad checks to investors while continuing to seek other investments. This came despite his felony conviction in the Utah Fifth District Court in 2024. 

On March 7, 2023, Madden asked the judge for a probationary sentence so he could “meet restitution obligations to investors,” and also told him that the “project down in Cabo … could be funded as soon as next week, which will bring in substantial funds,” per court documents.

A federal grand jury returned an indictment last week, which led to the arrests.