Hotel project gone wrong, Russian billionaire flees to the U.S.

A wealthy Russian businessman has fled to the U.S. after receiving death threats when he launched a lawsuit against a close friend of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

Ashot Egiazaryan, 45, said he was considering seeking asylum after accusing some of Russia's most influential people of swindling him in a real estate deal in Moscow.

He claims he was subjected to groundless police raids, personal smears and anonymous death threats for two years as he struggled to hold on to his $2billion stake in the Moskva hotel project.

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Bendigo publican jailed for $4.5m theft

The former publican of a Victorian hotel has been jailed for manipulating nearly $4.5 million from the TAB which he used as an "overdraft".

David John Keogh, 43, was the publican of the One Tree Hill Hotel in Spring Gully, near Bendigo, when the pub struck financial troubles.

In 2008, Keogh, a pub TAB licensee, issued more than 1000 TAB vouchers, each with amounts averaging about $5000, but did not pay for them, the Victorian County Court heard on Monday.

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Russian Police Raid Deutsche Bank in Hotel Probe

Russian police raided the Moscow offices of Deutsche Bank AG, Germany’s biggest lender, today as part of a criminal investigation into fraud in the reconstruction of the Hotel Moskva, investigators said.

Officials believe $87.5 million was stolen from a company controlled by the city government, the Investigative Committee in Moscow said on its website today, without detailing Deutsche Bank’s connection to the case.

The probe was to do with “a criminal case on alleged embezzlement during the reconstruction of the Moscow Hotel” that relates to an unnamed client and not to the bank itself, Deutsche Bank said in an e-mailed statement today. “Deutsche Bank continues to operate as normal,” it said.

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Idaho Cashier, Pleads Guilty to Stealing $100K From Dairy Queen Cash Register Over 20 Months

BURLEY — A former Dairy Queen employee recently pleaded guilty to stealing nearly $100,000 from the chain’s Burley burger joint.

Lisa Ann Fabela, 31, of Burley, agreed Friday to plead guilty to grand theft for taking $97,590 from a cash register at the Burley Dairy Queen from April 2007 to December 2009. She’ll be sentenced in Cassia County 5th District Court at 11 a.m. March 22.

The Cassia County Prosecutor’s Office recommends Fabela serve 1 1/2 years to 10 years in prison. She will also undergo a mental health evaluation before sentencing.

Under the plea agreement, Fabela will be ordered to pay an undetermined amount of restitution to her former employer and will retain the right to appeal her sentence.

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Eat and Run Crimewave Hits London Restaurants

MORE London diners than ever are doing a runner from restaurants without paying the bill, newly uncovered Metropolitan Police figures show.

According to the statistics unearthed by The Independent newspaper, police were called to 330 eat-and-run incidents in London in 2010 compared to 249 in 2009, a rise of some 33%.

It's the first time the 300 barrier has been broken and follows a stable period when, for five years, the figures for restaurant-bill escapees hovered around the 250 mark.

Though the real eat-and-run figure is

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Hey, what the check?!

Eating in a restaurant and leaving without paying the tab — known in police parlance as “theft of service” — rose almost 20 percent in the city last year, up from 315 arrests in 2009 to 376 in 2010, according to the NYPD. Of course, those numbers don’t include the many scofflaws who successfully “lick and split.”
Even celebs have been busted. Last week, actor Gary Collins was arrested for allegedly skipping out on a $59.35 bill in a Biloxi, Miss., restaurant. The 72-year-old TV personality spent the night in jail before being released on $5,000 bail.

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3 accused of taking copper piping from NH hotel

BEDFORD, N.H.—Police in Bedford, N.H., say three men are accused of removing copper piping and other items from a hotel that's currently closed and up for sale.

The three were arrested Saturday morning in connection with a robbery at the Quality Inn Convention Center.

WMUR-TV reports an officer was patrolling when he saw a dark-colored pickup truck drive to the back of the mall toward the Quality Inn. He found the men behind the building.

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Actor Gary Collins Accused of Felony 'Dine and Dash'

JACKSON, Miss. -- Actor and former TV host Gary Collins was in a south Mississippi jail early Wednesday, charged with a felony after being accused of leaving a restaurant without paying his bill, police said.

Rodney McGilvary, assistant chief of the Biloxi Police Department, confirmed that Collins was charged Tuesday night with defrauding an innkeeper. He was taken to the Harrison County Detention Center in Gulfport and held on a $5,000 bond.

Authorities said Collins was expected to face a court hearing during the day Wednesday.

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Man Robbed, Shot By Woman At Tulsa Hotel

A man was hospitalized overnight after police say he was shot and robbed by a woman.

It happened shortly after eleven o'clock Sunday night. Police were called to the Tulsa Inn & Suites where they found the victim suffering from a gunshot wound to the leg.

The man told police he was from out of town and was eating at a restaurant when he was approached

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Robbing a restaurant? There isn't an app for that

NEW LONDON, Conn. — An accused would-be restaurant robber had a change of heart Wednesday, after cooks at the establishment grabbed knives to defend themselves.

Police said Jerome Taylor, 20, wore a mask as he entered the Northern Indian restaurant on State Street Wednesday afternoon.

He pulled what the cooks thought was a gun and demanded money, according to police. But the cooks grabbed knives and said they weren't handing anything over.

At that point, Taylor became apologetic and told the cooks he was only kidding and that he needed money for his child, police said.

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Bellagio Casino Robbed

Las Vegas Metro police spent much of Tuesday morning reviewing surveillance video after a gunman wearing a motorcycle helmet and leather jacket robbed a pit area of the Bellagio casino.

The robber, according to witnesses, parked his motorcycle in the north valet -- an entrance off Flamingo Road east of Interstate 15 -- allowing him to make a quick getaway.

No one was injured during the robbery, which happened just before 4 a.m.

A Metro spokesman told the Associated Press the robber may have escaped with as much as $2 million in chips.

Police said the robber fled on a motorcycle westbound on Flamingo Road away from the Las Vegas Strip

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Hotel manager stole $5m to cover debt

A County Court has heard a central Victorian hotel manager was struggling with debt when he stole close to $5 million from the pub's betting agency. David John Keogh, 43, faced court today and admitted to 12 charges. The thefts happened throughout 2008 when Keogh was running the One Tree Hill Hotel in Spring Gully. He issued more than 1,000 betting vouchers without payment to help cover the hotel's bills, while the majority of the funds were then put back through the agency to settle the account. Defence lawyers told the court Keogh had treated the funds as an overdraft and had not used the money to fund an extravagant lifestyle.
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Not all going well at Chavez's “Socialist McDonalds”

Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez has created a fast-food restaurant chain to promote his brand of Socialism, according to a top-secret diplomatic cable released from Wikileaks in the Cablegate scandal.
The January 19 cable, reprinted by The Atlantic, discusses the December 22 opening of Arepea Socialista, a sort of Socialist answer to Capitalist fast food chains. The restaurant serves arepeas, a thick type of tortilla sandwich, for about a quarter of the price of competing commercial enterprises, using ingredients and other products from government-owned companies. The diplomat who visited the place noted the fast service, and that customers only paid for what they ate after their meal. Staff said they served some 1,200 customers a day.

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Ex-manager charged with stealing from South Brunswick hotel

Michael Clegg, 30, of East Windsor is accused of stealing from the Princeton Hampton Inn on Route 1 over the past year and a half.

Police say Clegg, the onetime general manager, created fake vouchers that showed that the hotel received services from a company called Mercer Catering. The vouchers allegedly were submitted to the hotel’s parent company, Scotto Brothers Enterprises.

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Former Delray Beach hotel manager charged with grand theft

DELRAY BEACH — A 39-year-old hotel manager was charged Tuesday with grand theft and organized scheme to defraud after she took the meaning of customer service to another level.
Britt Stefanowicz began working at the Residence Inn on Atlantic Avenue in 2003, a Delray Beach police report says. She became general manager of the hotel about three years ago and started conducting fraudulent transactions to help a guest not have to pay his balance throughout 2009.

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A burglar has walked off with a hotel cash register in broad daylight in Sandown.

Police say it is alleged someone went into the Parkbury Hotel on the Broadway and stole a cash register from behind the bar at approximately 2.30pm on Thursday, November 18, 2010.

The register contained approximately £100 in cash.

Investigating officer PC Rob Quick of the Isle of Wight's Targeted Patrol Teams (TPT) said: "This was a burglary carried out in broad daylight by someone who we believe knew exactly what they wanted to steal. Enquiries over the past week have established that the area around the hotel was busy with passing pedestrians and motorists. It's believed the burglar walked out of the hotel carrying the cash register. I'm appealing to anyone who may have noticed someone acting suspiciously near the Parkbury Hotel last Thursday afternoon to contact police."
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Man uses fake Bob Dylan security pass to order 178 pizzas.. then disappears without paying

A restaurant has fallen victim to a prankster who had them make 178 pizzas by claiming they were for singer Bob Dylan and his crew.
An imposter wearing a fake pass for a Dylan concert called in an Antonio's restaurant and placed the huge order worth more than $3,900.
He told the owner the pizzas were for Dylan and his crew who had appeared in concert in Amherst, Massachusetts.

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Armani Hotel (Dubai) waiter 'stole from guest's room'

DUBAI // A waiter at the Burj Khalifa's Armani Hotel, accused of possessing more than Dh300,000 in stolen cash and goods, yesterday admitted stealing from a guest's room at the luxury address.
KM, a 20-year-old South African, told the Dubai Criminal Court of First Instance that he stole around Dh1,500 in cash from the room of a Saudi hotel guest on August 10. Earlier this month he was charged with stealing a Kuwaiti businessman's Dh53,000 gold Rolex watch.

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Super 8 Guest robbed of $350,000

(Hospitality Business News) Police are looking for two men they say pulled off one of the highest-dollar robberies ever to take place in the area after they stole $350,000 in jewelry from a guest staying at the Super 8 Motel in Dumfries VA.

Police said on Nov. 18 at 8:14 a.m. a 50-year-old man from Great Neck, N.Y., reported to police that two unknown men pulled up in a silver four-door vehicle and blocked him in while he was trying to get into his car parked at the hotel, located at 17416 Jefferson Davis Highway.

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Thieves Lasso ATMs, Drag Them Away

Two men who were videotaped using a Ford pick-up truck to tow away automatic teller machines at local businesses are wanted by Delaware State Police.

From Aug. 14 to Oct. 22, the ATM thieves have hit two restaurants and one gas station in Delaware. In the early morning hours, their method of operation has been to break the glass of the business’ front door, tie a tow strap around the ATM, and then drag the machine out of the building.

The two men successfully stole ATMs from Buffalo Wild Wings in Bear, Del., on Sept. 19, and the Shell Station on Limestone Road in Hockessin, Del. Oct. 22. They attempted to tow an ATM out of a Hooters restaurant in Newark, Del., but the machine was bolted to the ground.

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