Trucker faces sentencing in extortion plot

A Tennessee truck driver who obtained confidential gaming documents and tried to use the information to extort hundreds of thousands of dollars from Las Vegas hotel-casinos is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 30, according to the U.S. Attorney's office.

A jury on Friday found Jeffrey Greer, 49, guilty of interfering with commerce by threats or use of fear and use of an interstate facility in aid of racketeering activity.

Greer worked as a driver for French Trucking Co., which was responsible for transporting paper refuse from Southern Nevada to an Alabama recycling plant.

In March 2007, Greer unloaded locked bins full of documents at the plant but found hundreds of sheets with confidential information about customers who frequented Harrah's and the MGM Grand.

During his four-day trial, prosecutors played secretly recorded phone conversations during which Greer said he immediately realized he had valued documents. The papers included high-rollers' Social Security numbers, credit card information and credit lines, information that witnesses testified would be happily accepted by the casinos' competitors.

"The first thought in my mind is Harrah's would not be happy with this floating around," Greer was heard saying in a phone conversation recorded by federal agents.

Greer threatened to sell the information to competitors, hawk it on e-Bay or offer it to tabloid media outlets, prosecutors said.

He told executives at Harrah's and MGM Grand that he would return the papers if they each paid him $250,000 and gave him a 30-day security consultant contract worth $100,000. Greer intimated that he got the information by hacking into the casino operators' computer systems.

In May 2007, Harrah's executives and FBI agents posing as Harrah's employees met with Greer in Tennessee. They retrieved the papers after giving him bogus checks. He was arrested as he left the meeting.