Three former Tropicana employees have been indicted in New Jersey for allegedly stealing a list of the casino's top players.
The list is said to contain more than 20,300 names along with phone numbers, addresses and ratings. Tropicana estimates the list's value at $108 million.
The three defendants worked together for Tropicana in Atlantic City, New Jersey three years ago; John Conklin as marketing vice president, Justin Litterelle as marketing analyst and James di Marco as an unspecified employee in the marketing department.
According to allegations, Conklin instructed Litterelle to download the list so it could be used as leverage in their future jobs. Conklin later became vice president of relationship marketing at Borgata and Litterelle became national marketing for Bellagio in Las Vegas, resigning voluntarily after one year on the job.
"We charge that these marketers stole one of the most valuable assets of the casino," Attorney General Anne Milgram said in a news release. "This type of corporate espionage and theft involving proprietary information is a very serious crime."