Girlfriend of Knights minority owner nabbed in $500K theft
The girlfriend of Golden Knights minority owner Gavin Maloof is facing theft and money laundering charges in the transfer of nearly $500,000 from his phone since 2020.
A warrant for the arrest of Jennifer Courtemanche, 44, of Marina Del Rey, California, was issued on Wednesday and a judge permitted her to be free on bond pending her preliminary hearing set for March 11, court records show.
Courtemanche was arrested on suspicion of money laundering, theft of $100,000 or greater, two counts of theft of $25,000 to under $100,000, all felonies, and gross misdemeanor counts of conspiracy to launder and commit theft, based on a warrant from the Metropolitan Police Department.
Maloof, 67, with his brothers George and Phil were founding partners of the Golden Knights with Bill Foley, but the brothers now own less than 1 percent of the NHL franchise. Gavin Maloof said in interviews with Las Vegas police in February and May this year that he received harassing text messages and photographs on his mobile from a different voice over internet protocol phone numbers, based on the warrant.
A police detective who investigated the alleged harassing messages traced a unique online address to Courtemanche in April and asked Maloof if he knew anyone named “Jennifer” and he replied “Yes, Jennifer Courtemanche, she’s my girlfriend,” the warrant states.
The detective allegedly found evidence that Courtemanche had stolen $465,000 from Maloof by using the Apple Cash digital payment application available to iPhone users since April 2021, based on the warrant.
Later, the detective determined from the probe that Courtemanche and her purported talent agent, Brittany Burgess, 35, of Falmouth, Mass., together took $498,000 from Maloof via Apple Cash going back to December 2020.
Maloof told police that while he had not spoken to Burgess for about 12 years, he had permitted her to use his number to act as Courtemanche’s talent agent, but police reported that Burgess’ calls were actually only “portrayed as auditions for different TV shows or movies.”
From 2020 to 2023, a total of 214 Apple Cash transactions were made over two phone numbers to Maloof’s phone for transfers or attempted transfers from his Apple Cash account, of which 184 were successful in obtaining funds, police reported.
The phone numbers from which the cash transfers were made ended in 8787 and 1688, both allegedly found to be associated with Courtemanche and Burgess, police stated in the warrant.
From Dec. 24, 2020, to Dec. 14, 2021, the pair allegedly obtained more than $93,000, then took $275,000 from Jan. 1, 2022, to Dec. 27, 2022, $75,000 from Jan. 25, 2023, to April 13, 2023, and then stole another $53,000, according to the warrant.
Afterward, “Courtemanche and Burgess, acting together, laundered $205,550 of the money,” police stated in the warrant.
“This was done with the knowledge that the funneling of funds in this manner concealed the location, source, ownership, or control of the money,” based on the warrant.
The warrant stated that there was enough probable cause to also arrest Burgess for alleged theft, money laundering and conspiracy but she does not appear in Justice Court records as being arrested or charged.
“I don’t have any comment on this case at this time,” Courtemanche’s Las Vegas lawyer Ryan Helmick said.
Maloof and a spokesperson for the Golden Knights were not available to comment.
A previous version of this story incorrectly reported Gavin Maloof’s current ownership stake in the Vegas Golden Knights.
Contact Jeff Burbank at jburbank@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0382. Follow him @JeffBurbank2 on X.
