On Tuesday, U.S Attorney Bryan Schroder’s office released the sentencing memorandum that the Department of Justice filed in federal court regarding 2011 KeyBank robber, Gerardo “Gary” Cazarez- Valenzuela (“Gary Valenzuela”).

Valenzuela, who was a KeyBank Vault Manager at an Anchorage KeyBank on the Old Seward Highway in 2011, concocted an intricate plan to empty out the bank’s vault of $4.2 million. He began planning his scheme well in advance, and in June asked his brother in Seattle, identified as RCV, to obtain a gun for him.

On July 8th, 2011, two and a half weeks before Valenzuela pulled off the huge heist, he “falsely trained new employees on vault procedures in Anchorage, Alaska, effectively removing dual controls over the vault,” DoJ said in the memorandum. With that “false training,” Valenzuela’s plan was almost fully in place.

On July 26th, Valenzuela purchased his girlfriend a ticket to Seattle, then two days later, stole $30,000 from the bank and chartered a private jet to take him to Seattle on July 29th, the day of the robbery.

On the 29th, Valenzuela “told the branch manager he was going to organize an ice cream social for bank customers,” the U.S. Attorney said. This gave Valenzuela the excuse to stay after hours without other employees present under the guise of cleaning up after the social.

All alone in the bank with the vault’s dual controls disabled, Valenzuela loaded $4.2 million into boxes and rolled the money out to his vehicle on a cart after setting the vault’s lock timer to not unlock until Tuesday, the maximum time for the timer. He went to his chartered jet and flew to Seattle. 

Once Valenzuela landed in Seattle, he went directly to his brother’s apartment and picked up the AK-47 he had his brother procure for him and dropped off $500,000 with his family. The money was designated his “fail-safe plan” and to be money that he would still have when he got out of jail if he got caught.

Following that, Valenzuela met up with his girlfriend, got a hotel room for the night before going out the next day and using $19,000 of the stolen money to buy a vehicle. They used that vehicle to drive through California and on to Tijuana, Mexico, where they left it, and Sunday, boarded a bus with intentions of traveling to his uncle’s home.

On Monday morning, August 1st, Valenzuela and his girlfriend were subjected to an interior checkpoint stop. When Mexican authorities randomly checked their luggage, they came upon $3.8  million in cash and Valenzuela’s firearms. Both were promptly arrested on smuggling charges.

The next day, on Tuesday, the lock timer finally released and it was then discovered that $4.2 million had been purloined from the bank. Once the bank discovered that the stolen money had been seized by the Mexican authorities, they would expend over $500,000 in attorney’s fees recovering the stolen cash.

Valenzuela has pleaded guilty to one count of Theft of Bank Funds and does not dispute that he stole at least $4.3 million from the bank. That count has a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison and a fine of $1,000,000 with five years of supervised release.

In the U.S. Attorney’s sentencing memorandum, DoJ is asking for nine years in prison, restitution of $535,080, and five years of supervised release. they will present evidence at Valenzuela’s sentencing hearing on April 29th in U.S. District Court.

Image: Valenzuela Wheeling stolen funds from the bank.

Image: Stolen funds in luggage stolen from KeyBank. Image-DoJ

Image: Valenzuala’s AK-47. Image-DoJ

  funds, keybank, mexico, plan, sentencing, theft, valenzuala, vault