Ex-FinCEN Veteran Sues Resorts World Over Firing After 50 Suspicious Reports

Preston Banks says he spent three years tracking an "Argentina Scheme" of up to 150 patrons on unverified funds, that executives called the behaviour "cultural", and that he was dismissed 27 days after his final report while the casino banned 28 of the patrons and chased $12 million in unpaid credit. Resorts World calls the suit frivolous.

• Preston Banks, Resorts World Las Vegas's former compliance director, filed suit in the United States District Court on 14 September alleging whistleblower retaliation under the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020 and wrongful termination under Nevada law, Casino.org reports from the complaint
• Banks, who joined in September 2022 after about 16 years at FinCEN, says he identified a cluster of international patrons, first from Argentina and by 2024 numbering 60 to 150 from Mexico, Paraguay, Uruguay, Italy and Spain, whose stated sources of funds could not be verified and whose listed businesses "did not exist or could not be located"
• More than 50 suspicious activity reports had been filed on the group by September 2024, the complaint says; it alleges executive vice president of casino operations Al Meranto described the behaviour as "cultural"
• Nine days after Banks's 2 September 2025 report on the "Argentina Scheme", the casino banned 28 patrons and referred about $12 million to $13 million in unpaid credit to the Clark County district attorney; Banks was fired on 29 September
• The suit also alleges the version of his report shown to a Nevada Gaming Control Board agent in March 2026 omitted key details; Resorts World, which paid a $10.5 million fine in March 2025 over anti-money-laundering failures, "strongly denies the allegations" and calls the action frivolous

The Compliance Director Who Says He Was Fired for Finding What He Was Hired to Find

Preston Banks, formerly director of compliance at Resorts World Las Vegas, filed a lawsuit in United States District Court on 14 September alleging that he was dismissed for repeatedly warning supervisors about suspicious gambling activity, according to Casino.org's account of the complaint. The suit pleads whistleblower retaliation under the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020 and wrongful termination under Nevada law, and seeks reinstatement or front pay, double back pay with interest, compensatory and punitive damages, and legal fees.

Banks joined the Strip property in September 2022 after roughly 16 years at the Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. According to the complaint, he soon identified a small cluster of international patrons, initially described as predominantly Argentine, whose stated sources of funds could not be verified and whose businesses, as listed on casino credit applications, "did not exist or could not be located". By 2024 the group had allegedly grown to between 60 and 150 people from Mexico, Paraguay, Uruguay, Italy and Spain. Internal records cited in the suit describe unverified funds, credit fraud, repeated third-party marker payments, coordinated or "coached" wagering, chip passing, chip walking, bankrolling, minimal gaming, offsetting bets and bill-stuffing.

Banks says he recommended restrictions from 2023, including a prohibition on certain third-party payments, and that while those were adopted, the casino's anti-money-laundering committee repeatedly minimised the concerns and delayed action. By September 2024, more than 50 suspicious activity reports had been filed on the patrons, the complaint says, and at a committee meeting days later Banks says he learned that the father of one patron had been implicated in an unlicensed money-transmitting matter involving Wynn Las Vegas. Senior executives nonetheless downplayed the activity, he alleges, and in one meeting executive vice president of casino operations Al Meranto is alleged to have characterised it as "cultural".

On 2 September 2025 Banks submitted a comprehensive report on what he called the "Argentina Scheme" to chief compliance officer Jennifer Roberts and other compliance staff. Nine days later, Resorts World banned 28 patrons associated with the alleged credit fraud and referred their accounts to the Clark County district attorney to collect approximately $12 million to $13 million in unpaid casino credit. Banks was fired on 29 September 2025. He says his supervisor and the human resources director told him he was being terminated because of the illegal gambling scheme; he protested, "I detected it, you're killing the author", and was told by HR director Bob Napierala that the decision came from "the C-suite", according to the complaint.

The Report the Regulator Saw

The suit further alleges that Resorts World altered the report Banks had submitted. At a March 2026 meeting with a Nevada Gaming Control Board agent, Banks says he was shown a version that omitted key details, including the "cultural" comment and information about an exception to a third-party payment policy he had opposed. He has also filed whistleblower complaints with the Department of Labor, FinCEN and the Justice Department's corporate whistleblower awards pilot programme; OSHA has not ruled and no hearings are scheduled in the civil case.

Resorts World told the Las Vegas Review-Journal: "It is unfortunate that Mr. Banks has elected to file this frivolous action relating to the termination of his employment. Resorts World strongly denies the allegations and characterizations in the lawsuit. We look forward to addressing these claims in the appropriate forum and have no further comment." The property agreed in March 2025 to pay $10.5 million, the second-largest fine in Nevada gaming history, to settle a regulatory complaint over anti-money-laundering failures and patrons tied to illegal bookmaking, after which it overhauled its leadership and appointed Roberts as chief compliance officer. Every allegation in the complaint is Banks's and is denied; none has been tested in court.

The Timeline Is the Case

Strip out the characterisations and the complaint rests on four dates: a report on 2 September, 28 bans and a referral to prosecutors on 11 September, a dismissal on 29 September, and a regulator meeting the following March. If those dates are as pleaded, the casino acted on the report's substance within nine days and removed its author within the month, which is the sequence a retaliation statute exists to examine. Resorts World's answer will have to explain the 27 days, and "frivolous" is not an explanation. The property's difficulty is that the AMLA whistleblower provisions were written for exactly this fact pattern, and a plaintiff with 16 years at FinCEN knows how to plead it.

A Second AML Story at the Same Property Inside Eighteen Months

The March 2025 settlement was supposed to close the chapter on Resorts World and money laundering. This complaint alleges that the conduct it describes ran from 2022 to 2025, overlapping the period the regulator was investigating the first matter, and that the report shown to the Control Board in 2026 was incomplete. Whether or not a court agrees, the Board now has a former compliance director on the record saying he was shown an altered document by his own former employer, and it has the power to ask. A licensee that has already paid $10.5 million for AML failures and installed a new compliance chief does not want its regulator asking whether the paperwork it filed afterwards was complete.

"Cultural" Is the Word Every Compliance Officer Will Recognise

The allegation that an executive described coordinated marker payments and chip walking by a group of Latin American patrons as "cultural" is denied and unproven, and it is also the single most quotable line in the filing, because it names the tension that every casino compliance function lives with: the customers most worth keeping are the ones whose funds are hardest to verify, and the people who verify them do not bring in the revenue. Nevada's regulator has spent two years telling the Strip that this tension must be resolved in compliance's favour. A lawsuit that alleges it was resolved the other way, at the property already fined for it, is going to be read in Carson City whatever a federal court eventually decides.

Preston Banks says he found the scheme and lost his job for it. Resorts World says the case is frivolous. The regulator that fined the property last year will be reading the version of his report that it was not shown.