(WHDH) — A woman is facing criminal charges after investigators say she stole about $1 million in cash, casino chips, and valuable jewelry from a professional poker player earlier this summer.
Svitlana Silva, 46, of Arizona, was arrested Sunday on charges including residential burglary and possession of stolen property valued at more than $100,000, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.
World-renowned poker champion Antonio Esfandiari and his father, Bejan, reportedly called police in mid-July to report that they had returned home to find $150,000 in cash, hundreds of thousands of dollars in poker chips, a diamond bracelet, and an array of designer watches missing from a safe in their Las Vegas condo.
Esfandiari told investigators that Silva had access to his condo because she had been living with Bejan “off and on for several months,” a police report obtained by the news outlet indicated. Bejan said Silva had access to his personal electronic devices, which contained saved passcodes.
Silva was nabbed this past weekend after Esfandiari learned that she had bought into a high-stakes poker game with $300,000 in poker chips from the same casinos that his were from, according to police.
She was later arrested in the parking lot of Aria Casino, a resort on the Las Vegas Strip.
Esfandiari has earned more than $22 million in his career, including three World Series of Poker bracelets.
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