The former deputy commander of U.S. Strategic Command denied that he counterfeited poker chips he used at an Iowa casino in June 2013, according to a Nov. 24 Associated Press story. In two recently released statements—written last spring to Navy officials— Rear Adm. Timothy Giardina said he found the fake poker chips in a bathroom stall at the Horseshoe Casino in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Pottawattamie County, Iowa, Attorney Matt Wilber last weekend alleged that DNA evidence found on three counterfeit $500 poker chips indicates that Giardina actually made the phony chips, according to a Nov. 22 Omaha World Herald article, but Wilber added that he doesn’t expect to prosecute Giardina. Released last week, a Naval Criminal Investigative Service report states that the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Laboratory DNA Branch found Giardina’s DNA under the “sticker portion” of the fake poker chips, which disguised $1 chips to look like $500 chips. After military leadership caught wind of the casino incident, Giardina in October 2013 was dismissed from STRATCOM, and reassigned to Navy headquarters in Washington, a change that accompanied a one-star drop in rank from vice admiral to rear admiral.
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