Vegas bouncer charged in diamond theft

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LAS VEGAS, Oct. 16 (UPI) -- A former bouncer has been charged in the case of a California diamond merchant who dropped millions more than he planned at a Las Vegas strip club.

Jeweler Eli Abdalnour went to the Spearmint Rhino on June 2, 2009, carrying $10 million in stones in a bag in his pants, according to court documents cited by the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

After leaving the club, Abdalnour realized he had lost the bag. A manager returned it, but he later found two diamond rings missing, one worth $2 million and the other $960,000.

One of them turned up in New York two months later, and a dealer in the Cayman Islands led investigators to bouncer Matt Keneley, a former NFL football player, and his wife, Antoinette, a schoolteacher. They were arrested Aug. 27, 2009, and indicted Friday by a Clark County grand jury on charges including felony possession of stolen property and conspiracy to possess stolen property, the Review-Journal reported.

A friend helped them sell the smaller diamond at a Las Vegas jeweler's. All told, the jewels netted just $98,000, 3.3 percent of their retail value.