LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Two woman are facing charges after being accused of stealing over $400,000 from Gavin Maloof, whose family owns a minority stake in the Vegas Golden Knights.
According to the arrest report, Maloof initially contacted police on Feb. 15, 2023 after receiving "increasingly harassing" text messages and photos from over 37 multiple Voice Over Internet Protocol, VoIP, phone numbers. Investigators state after most of those numbers were created, there was an initial phone call and/or text message to a phone number that belonged to Jennifer Courtemanche, who Maloof identified as his girlfriend.
When police spoke with Maloof on April 22, 2023, Maloof told them he discovered Courtemanche stole about $464,000 from him via Apple Cash. However, his team was just starting to go through the accounts to determine the exact amount stolen. He also told police that Courtemanche was friends with Brittany Burgess and he believed she may have been involved as well.
Maloof told police he noticed there were at least two duplicate contacts saved in his phone with phone numbers that didn't belong to those contacts and that he noticed a "substantial amount" of Apple Cash transactions from his phone to those numbers. Investigators stated those numbers belonged to Courtemanche and Burgess.
The report states that Maloof said he would occasionally give his phone to Courtemanche when "her agent" called her on his phone and that he thought those calls would be about auditions for different TV shows or movies. However, investigators said devices contained text messages between Courtemanche and Burgess around the time periods for the dates of the Apple Cash transactions and that's when they would transfer the money.
According to Las Vegas police, investigators got a warrant to search Courtemanche's home in Los Angeles to ask about the alleged harassment. The report states police attempted to call Courtemanche on the phone number linked to the harassing messages. However, phone records show as detectives were knocking on her front door, the "phone was turned off", which police said they believed "was an attempt to conceal the phone's location." Officers said during the search, Courtemanche repeatedly denied making any calls or texts.
The report states that after reviewing financial transactions associated with the accounts, they found between Dec. 24, 2020 and April 13, 2023, there were a total of 214 attempted Apple Cash transactions that totaled $498,448. Of that, they found 184 transactions were successful and totaled $444,648.
Courtemanche and Burgess were both arrested. Court records show they are facing theft, money laundering, conspiracy to commit theft, and conspiracy to commit money laundering charges. Courtemanche is scheduled to be in court for a preliminary hearing on March 11, 2024 and Burgess is scheduled to be in court for a pre-trial hearing on Nov. 15, 2023.
