Chips ahoy!
The Naval admiral who was the No. 2 officer in charge of all US nuclear weapons is under a 𒆙criminal probe for allegedly trying to pass a pile of counterfeit chips at an Iowa casino🐽, officials said Saturday.
Navy Vice A𒊎🅘dm. Tim Giardina may have had his finger on the button, but his other hand was on a “a significant monetary amount” in bad chips, said special agent David Dales of the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation.
He has been suspended for the past three weeks from🃏 his duties as second-in-command at US Strategic Command, officials said in announcing the startling suspension Saturday.
Omaha-based “STRATCOM” oversees the country’s nuclear-armed bombers, intercontinental missiles and submarines👍.
Giardina has been ♛under investigation bღy the Naval Criminal Investigation Service since July, a STRATCOM spokeswoman said.
The career submarine officer is now barred from any duties requiring 💧a security clearance or relating to nuclear weapons, the spokeswoman said.
Iowa investigators stationed at the Horseshoe Casino in Council Bluffs discovered t♈he allegedly chintzy chips.
The matter was serious enough that STRATCOM’s top commander, Air Force Gen. Robert Kehler🐼, reached out to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel to recommend that Giardina be reassigned pending the in🐷vestigation, officials said.
White-collar crimes such as embezz♉lement and fraud are the most common associated with gambling, experts sai🃏d.
“Gambling, especially Internet gambling, is a huge issue in the military,” said Keith Whyte, eඣxecutive🦄 director of the National Council on Problem Gambling. Military personnel are twice as likely as civilians to have a gambling pathology, he said.