Debt finally topples a Las Vegas high roller. Former Frye executive charged with fraud

[Liberal_in_LA]

Debt finally topples a Las Vegas high roller
Omar Siddiqui, a top executive at Fry's Electronics, was coveted and coddled by Las Vegas casinos. Now he faces fraud charges.

By Richard C. Paddock
6:32 PM PST, February 14, 2009


Casinos vied with one another to lure the high-stakes Bay Area gambler to their tables. They flew him to Las Vegas on private jets. They put him up free in opulent suites. And they extended him millions of dollars in credit on his signature alone. He was good for business.

Siddiqui, who made $225,000 a year as a top Fry's Electronics executive, once lost $8 million in a day.

It was not Siddiqui's only debt or even his largest. Court records indicate that the 43-year-old businessman gambled away as much as $167 million at casinos over the last decade. Yet even as he amassed huge IOUs, casinos around the country continued to lend him millions more.

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Siddiqui's high-wire act began to unravel in October. A colleague went into his unoccupied office and found spreadsheets detailing millions of dollars in secret payments Siddiqui allegedly received from firms that sold products to Fry's. The co-worker scooped them up and took them to the Internal Revenue Service.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-gambler15-2009feb15,0,4058562.story

[BlooInBloo]

1. Wow. That's all an executive makes? They must have some bad-ass bonuses.

[Robbien]

2. "He was straight out of GQ magazine," Vakil said. "He was just oozing arrogance."

His boss at Frys loaned him over ten million dollars!

The IRS had a nineteen million dollar lien on his home!


There is just too much money floating around this story. It is truly sickening.

[Donnachaidh]

3. and anyone who was DUMB enough to lend him money or extend him credit

Should be slapped in the head, and should EAT their losses.