Vegas witness reveals Mac’s c/c PIN was working

(CNS): An employee of Global Cash Access Incorporated, a company offering cash services at casinos throughout the United States, explained Wednesday how McKeeva Bush had taken advances on his CIG credit card using both their ATMs and cashier services. Testifying via video link from Las Vegas, Jonathan Marquez confirmed the use of the former premier’s card on several occasions from the crown’s documented list of transactions at the firm’s ATMs, where he had used a PIN to access money, despite telling his government colleagues that the PIN for the CIG card did not work. Bush had said this was why he had used casino cashier services to get money he needed for medicines and security staff when travelling.

The fraud expert from the company, who supplied the crown with the documents supporting Bush’s use of his own credit cards as well the government card, went through various transactions the former premier made in casinos. Appearing mid-way through the deputy governor’s evidence on Wednesday, the court interposed the evidence as it was delivered on a live video connection.

Marquez explained that Global Cash Access offered people access to money via ATMs in the casinos on their debit or credit cards and that they also allowed people to make a cash advance with a teller, which was a way of circumventing the daily limits placed by banks and credit card companies on cash withdrawals on most cards. He confirmed that Bush had taken cash from cashiers and ATMs in several different casinos, including the Venetian, which was described as a major casino on the strip. 

The witness indicated several late night and early morning cash advances that Bush had made on his cards in casinos in Las Vegas and Florida on his government card, as well as his own in the ATMs using a PIN to get cash. Then, in some examples on the same night Bush would use the cashier services, where he would sign on a transaction for a cash advance, which would give him access to much larger amounts and get round the cash limit for any twenty-four hour period. The witness confirmed Bush’s largest single cash advance transaction on the corporate card was $4,000.

He also confirmed that the crown’s documents demonstrated that Bush would sometimes use the ATM service with a PIN number until he exceeded his daily limit, and then after failed attempts move on to the cashier and direct advances.

Following his arrest regarding the cash withdrawals, according to their evidence, Bush had told several senior civil servants, including Kenneth Jefferson, Sonia McLaughlin and Franz Manderson, that because his PIN did not work and he had difficult using the card in ATMs, he had used cash advance services in casinos toget the money he needed to buy medicines and armed security when travelling overseas.