Carona

If Sheriff Mike Carona ever has cause to bone up on the casino business, he won't need to look further than his campaign donors. That list includes at least four Las Vegas entrepreneurs whose businesses have had brushes with the law. Each has contributed the maximum $1,500 to Carona's re-election bid.

Earlier this month, the Register wrote about Rick Rizzolo, owner of the Crazy Horse Too strip club. The club is under federal investigation for racketeering. In 1985, Rizzolo pleaded guilty to attacking a patron with a baseball bat. Carona adviser Mike Schroeder tells us that the sheriff is returning that donation.

Frank Fertitta Jr. is founder and former chairman of Station Casinos. Federal investigations linked him to a money-skimming operation in 1985, but he was never charged or sanctioned. Nonetheless, Missouri gaming officials in 1992 refused to issue a gambling permit to Station unless the company guaranteed Fertitta would have no part in its management, according to published reports.

Bruce Becker owns Becker Gaming Inc., which donated to the sheriff. In 1995, Becker was charged with 18 misdemeanors for allegedly misleading regulators on an application for his gaming license, according to published reports. The charges were dismissed because the one-year statute of limitations had expired.

Blake Sartini is co-founder and former chief operating officer of Nevada-based Station Casinos. While he was with that business, Station lost its Missouri gambling license after other company executives ignored a subpoena to testify in a corruption probe. Sartini was not called to testify. Station later paid more than $1 million in fines for several offenses, including allowing juveniles to gamble.

Schroeder said that Carona knew none of these contributors and that they apparently had been invited to the same May fundraiser (at the Ritz) by a Carona supporter (Fred Glusman) who knew them.

"There's no way we're going to know the background on all these people," Schroeder said. "Besides Rizzolo, I don't think any of these guys have been convicted of anything. Give me something about what they've done wrong, and I'll look at giving their money back."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Steve Miller's comments:

For years, I've been telling you that Las Vegas, and the state of Nevada are being run by remote control by an elite group of ex-patriots who commute to LV from their homes in Laguna Beach, California. Many can be seen at the executive terminal at the John Wayne Airport as they get on and off private jets that whisk to and from LV in thirty minutes. Otherwise, they hang with the likes of Jan Jones, Oscar Goodman, and Kenny Guinn at a Newport Beach restaurant call the Ritz. Well, now a few of our "pillars of the community" have been identified by an astute Orange County Register columnist and two investigative reporters, as our city's best try to influence a local election. As you will see, our "pillars" are not being flattered in this report. It seems that folks we respect in these parts are considered less than upstanding citizens in more conservative climes -- strange bedfellows that should keep their noses out of local Orange County politics lest their sordid pasts be exposed for all to see. - SM

SUSPICIOUS TIMING. On April 26, 2005, Mayor Oscar Goodman made a surprise
first-time visit to Steve's home. Coincidentally, just one day earlier, Goodman's
former client, Joey "The Clown" Lombardo, was indicted in connection with 18
murders. Lombardo is a suspected hidden owner of the Crazy Horse Too. In the
street, Steve scolded Goodman for protecting his former clients at the blood
soaked topless bar. Goodman's excuse for not taking action against the bar's
license? "I can't take action in the middle of a federal investigation." However,
one year earlier, on March 4, 2004, the city council fined Crazy Horse competitor
Jack Galardi one-million dollars in the middle of a federal investigation. Could
his stubborn refusal to stop the carnage be the result of his possible fear of
personal retaliation from one or more of his murderous former clients? Or is he
just paying them back for helping start his criminal defense attorney career?
Meanwhile, since his mysterious visit, bar patrons continue to be extorted,
beaten, and robbed.
(AmericanMafia.com photo by Mike Christ)

Steve Miller writes nationally syndicated columns on organized crime and political corruption for American Mafia.com: http://www.americanmafia.com/Inside_Vegas/Inside_Vegas_Archive.html
and Twisted Badge.com: http://stevemiller4lasvegas.com/TwistedBadgeStories.html
Visit his website at: http://www.stevemiller4lasvegas.com/
------------------------------------------
Steve believes some things that happen in Vegas should not stay in Vegas. To subscribe to his insider E-Briefs, send your e-mail address to: SteveMiller4lv@aol.com. Write ADD in SUBJECT
Or if you would like to un-subscribe to these sometimes-too-frequent E-Briefs, REPLY with REMOVE in SUBJECT

Carona's colorful cast of campaign contributors