Police say man kidnapped Las Vegas business owner after wife stole $20M

Police have accused a Henderson man of abducting the owner of a construction company where his wife worked after an IRS investigation found she had embezzled $20 million.

William Costa, 42, was arrested Friday and faces charges of kidnapping, conspiracy to commit kidnapping, battery, extortion and coercion in connection with the Thursday abduction of Larry Gilmore, according to the Metropolitan Police Department.

According to a Metro arrest report, an IRS investigation had found Costa’s wife, Cynthia Marabella, stole $20 million from Gilmore’s company, Gilmore Construction, over a seven-year period. The company’s website said she worked there as the company’s financial controller.

Costa’s attorney did not respond to requests for comment Monday afternoon. Marabella could not be reached for comment, and state and federal court records did not show a recent criminal case for Marabella.

Gilmore declined to comment, but said Marabella no longer works for his company.

Costa’s bail was set at $1.5 million on Saturday, according to court records.

Crash became kidnapping

On Feb. 20, Gilmore left his house to drive to the office, according to Metro.

At Starr Avenue and Dean Martin Drive, he noticed a purple Lamborghini at a stop sign, which matched the vehicle the IRS told him Marabella had purchased with the money she embezzled, according to Metro.

While he was looking at the Lamborghini, a Chevrolet Suburban rear-ended his vehicle. A man who seemed friendly and apologetic got out of the Suburban to speak with him, but then showed him photos of his wife and children, the report said.

A second man then got out of the Suburban, punched Gilmore and put his neck in a choke hold, forcing him into the vehicle, Metro said.

The suspects placed Gilmore’s iPhone and Apple Watch in a signal-blocking bag so his devices couldn’t be tracked, restrained him with zip ties and covered his head with a bag, according to police. One of them drove his Porsche away, according to the report.

After a 10-minute drive, police said, the men transferred Gilmore to a truck and drove him into the desert, where they punched him in the stomach, told him to get on his knees and held a gun to the back of his head.

“It was at that moment, he believed he was going to die,” Metro said.

Instead, someone removed the hood. That’s when police said he noticed William Costa, a man he had known for about 12 years.

Costa gave him two choices, according to police. The “good option” was to tell the IRS “the money was given as a gift or investment for a business” to get the charges against her dropped, the report said.

The “bad option” was that if Gilmore couldn’t “make Marabella’s charges go away” or talked about the incident to anyone other than his father, Costa would kill Gilmore’s family, but leave him and his father for last, so they could witness the slayings, Metro alleged.

According to police, Costa showed Gilmore knives and said he had “assisted cartels.”

“You don’t want to know what I’ve done with these knives, and I don’t want to show what I’ve done with these knives,” the report said Costa told Gilmore.

Gilmore “pleaded with Costa who agreed to let him talk to his father and business partner about ‘Fixing’ this matter,” according to the report, and Costa said he would be “forever indebted to him” if he could get the charges dropped.

Costa and the other men drove him to M Resort, where his Porsche was parked in the lot, police said. Although Gilmore was scared, he decided to report what happened, police said.

Metro found an Instagram page for CSS Group 1, a security business tied to Costa, which showed what appeared to be students bound and hooded, police said.

Contact Noble Brigham at nbrigham@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BrighamNoble on X.