The
s - - t is about to hit the fan!
Rizzolo's parole officer
petitions the court.
Related jury trials to start
on March 9.
"On December 17, 2009, the offender
was asked to sign a
Payment Schedule for U.S. District
Court Clerk in which
he was requested to make monthly payments
towards
his restitution and fine. Mr. Rizzolo
declined, stating
that he would not sign the document
at the advice
of his attorney." -
Eric Christiansen, U.S. Probation Officer
INSIDE VEGAS by Steve Miller
AmericanMafia.com
March 1, 2010
LAS VEGAS - This week's column is extra
long in order to prepare readers for several upcoming trials that have
long been awaited.
Based on three events that took place during
the month of February 2010, it's becoming obvious that United States Federal
Judge Philip Pro has had enough of racketeer
Rick Rizzolo and his ex-wife Lisa's shenanigans.
The first event occurred on February 22,
when U.S. Magistrate Judge George Foley ordered Rizzolo to pay attorneys
for unpaid
beating victim Kirk Henry $5,000 in legal fees.
Henry's lawyers Stan Hunterton and Don
Campbell successfully argued that Rizzolo had hired James
"Spud" Kimsey, an ex-con paralegal, to ghost write over fifteen Motions
and court filings on which Rizzolo signed his name as a Pro Se litigant,
i.a., acting as his own attorney. However, Rizzolo did not mention that
he was not the actual author of the documents as required by law.
Kimsey was a pawn used by Rizzolo to stall
the case for at least six months, and Kimsey
is being prosecuted for Contempt of Court. However, it's Rick
Rizzolo who should be held responsible for paying Kimsey to author numerous
court filings that Rizzolo signed. I hope Judge Pro disposes of the
Kimsey case, and puts the onus on Rizzolo for tampering with the justice
system.
The second event occurred on Friday, February
26, when the Federal Court issued a surprise ORDER
scheduling multiple civil and criminal trials in which Rick Rizzolo is
the Defendant:
"Attached hereto is a list of the civil
and criminal cases that are presently scheduled for the two-week stacked
trial calendar before the Honorable Philip M. Pro, United States District
Judge, at Las Vegas, Nevada, commencing on TUESDAY, MARCH 9, 2010 at 9:00
a.m. in Courtroom #7C."
The list of cases has not yet been released
with the exception of Kimsey's Contempt of Court case. Other cases are
expected to include Henry's three Motions to Compel Rick Rizzolo to produce
financial documents; and Henry's Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act case against
Rick and Lisa Rizzolo for hiding their fortune in the Cook Islands to avoid
seizure.
But
the most intriguing court action of last month came when United States
Parole Officer Eric Christiansen petitioned
the court to modify Rizzolo's conditions of release based on his refusal
to sign a Payment Schedule to pay Henry, the IRS, and other court ordered
debtors. (Rizzolo in dark glasses. AmericanMafia.com photo by Mike Christ)
Chrisiansen wrote: "The Judgment and
Conviction clearly orders the offender to pay $11,723,340 in restitution,
jointly and severally (emphasis added), with the Power Company
and a $250,000 fine. However, the Plea Agreement Section I.1 states, 'As
part of the global pleas being taken in this case, The Power Company, Inc.
is pleading guilty to a violation of Title, 18, United States Code, Section
1962(d) and agreeing to make restitution to Kick and Amy Henry in the aggregate
amount of Ten Million Dollars upon the sale of the Crazy Horse Too. Defendant
Rizzolo, as principle owner of The Power Company, Inc. meet its obligation
to make restitution to Kirk and Amy Henry in aggregate amount of Ten Million
Dollars upon the sale of The Crazy Horse Too....' ”
The obviously confused parole officer then
writes; "Rizzolo contends that he and the Power Company, Inc. entered into
a plea agreement with the Government to make restitution to Kirk Henry
upon the sale of the Crazy Horse Too. Furthermore, Rizzolo lamented
that the Government forfeited the Crazy Horse Too for restitution
purposes and through neglect caused the property's value to be substantially
diminished (emphasis added). Rizzolo objected to making any payments
until the Crazy Horse Too is sold per his plea agreement."
"In order to avoid ambiguity, it is requested
that Rizzolo’s conditions of supervised release be modified as requested
above. It is therefore requested that the Court issue a summons for the
offender and that a hearing date be calendared," wrote Christiansen.
Judge Pro scheduled a hearing on Christiansen's
petition for Monday, March 22, 2010, at 2:00 p.m. in Courtroom 7C of the
Lloyd D. George Federal District Courthouse located on the corner of Las
Vegas Boulevard and Bridger Avenue.
These trials and hearings may signal the
end of the road for Rick Rizzolo and anyone
else who is unethical enough to assist him in keeping the money pledged
for restitution, fines, and penalties that he agreed to pay "jointly and
severally"
during his 2005 plea negotiations to Henry, the IRS, and others in trade
for a light prison sentence.
The government postponed Rizzolo's year
and a day prison sentence for twelve months to give him time to sell his
night club, but there
were no qualified takers.
During that time, the feds made it very
clear that no one connected to organized crime would be approved to purchase
the bar.
The
United States Department of Justice, District of Nevada
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
PRESS RELEASE
Additionally, defendants’
plea agreements require The Power Company, Inc. to sell The Crazy Horse
Too by June 1, 2007. The Government has the right to disapprove the sale
if the buyer is a close relative or ongoing business partner of Rizzolo’s,
is a felon, or has business dealings with organized crime members or groups.
FULL PRESS RELEASE: http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/nv/press/January2007/Rizzolo012307.htm |
However, following his imprisonment in
April 2007, two United States Attorneys let down their guard and
began accepting offers from questionable persons, while giving Rizzolo
the unprecedented luxury of being able to approve a sale from his prison
cell.
The Acting and Assistant United States
Attorneys took flack for allegedly being on Rizzolo's payroll, and trying
to keep secrets from the public.
Thank God no judge in his right mind would
approve such a horrible Motion, and the document became public record with
the names of the three purported buyers published here on AmericanMafia.com
for all to scrutinize.
It was soon discovered that all three had
ties to Rizzolo, and were summarily disqualified by other government officials.
By no fault of the government, the value
of the Crazy Horse Too and its real estate plummeted because the lucrative
drug dealing, prostitution, and embezzlement was stopped by city and federal
officials. The dilapidated converted warehouse under the Sahara Overpass
became an old mare in a stable of new high tech strip clubs.
The only way the Crazy Horse could continue
raking in the extraordinary $5
million to $6 million a year profits Rizzolo often bragged about, was
to continue doing business in the same
illegal manner that brought the club's demise.
By
no fault of the "Government" that Rizzolo blames for his club's devaluation,
was Kirk Henry and others not paid. It was Rizzolo himself who was singularly
responsible for the Crazy Horse Too's down fall, and after he was imprisoned,
the broken down topless bar found no qualified suitors. Today it sits deteriorating
and unwanted in the desert sun thirty-three months after the last patron
staggered through the gold clad front doors.
But Rizzolo was highly exaggerating his
former club's worth and the validly of the buyers who he claimed made offers
for it.
Below is a highly CONFIDENTIAL letter that
was leaked to INSIDE VEGAS by a source employed at Patti,
Sgro & Lewis, one of the law firms representing Rizzolo's interests.
This is the same firm that claimed that Rizzolo's financial records were
destroyed in a flood in their second floor offices.
I'm amazed the following document survived
that purported "flood,"
and I bet Patti, Sgro & Lewis wish it hadn't because it destroys their
client's claim that legitimate buyers were making outrageous offers for
his club.
In this October 4, 2007 letter, Rizzolo's
lawyers unsuccessfully attempted to interest casino owner Steve Wynn in
purchasing the Crazy Horse Too. However, they also revealed that all the
buyers Rizzolo claimed were willing to pay up to $48 million for the bar
"failed to perform" their contracts. The letter boldly states; "Other
buyers were also approved, but to date, no buyer has performed its contract,"
proving Rizzolo was full of hot air, and making moot his main excuse for
not paying his debts -- the government devalued his property -- a
property no legitimate person would buy for enough to bail Rizzolo out.
(Click
HERE for a printable
copy of this document if needed in court to prove there were
never
any legitimate offers.)
Wynn gave the letter all the respect it
deserved. He trashed it!
The esteemed local law firm
"placed its credibility in issue" by authoring the secret Wynn letter,
and letting it be slipped to a reporter (me).
In addition to letting the Wynn letter
slip out of their hands, Patti, Sgo & Lewis mis-informed the court
when they claimed that all of Rick and Lisa Rizzolo's financial files were
"destroyed in
a flood." They simply have a problem when it comes to protecting
confidential information, but they don't seem to have a problem doing everything
legal (and not-so-legal) to keep a quadriplegic (Kirk Henry) from getting
paid for his injuries suffered at the hands of a Crazy Horse Too manager!
In the following page from their web site,
Patti, Sgro & and Lewis stupidly revealed their firm's true specialty
-- "MISSING INFORMATION" -- losing or destroying client's records. Take
a look at their "areas of practice" page (below) to see what I mean.
(Click HERE
to see the actual page before they correct their ironic error.)
According to U.S. Magistrate Judge George
Foley: "Patti, Sgro & Lewis has, in fact, placed its credibility in
issue by stating that it is unable to produce client records that it
had a legal duty to retain and which one would expect an attorney to retain
(emphasis
added). Patti, Sgro & Lewis’s assertion that client records may have
been destroyed in a flood was uninformative as to when the flood
occurred, where it occurred and extent of records destroyed. It is
reasonably incumbent on Patti, Sgro & Lewis to demonstrate the validity
of its explanation that records relating to Mr. and/or Mrs. Rizzolo were
or may have been destroyed in a flood. The discovery sought by Plaintiffs
is therefore a reasonable follow-up to its efforts to obtain relevant records
from the Rizzolos’ attorneys. Patti, Sgro & Lewis has not demonstrated
that it will incur a substantial burden and expense to locate and produce
records relating to a flood which apparently occurred within the past several
years." - Motion to Compel - #129 - ORDER
delivered by George Foley, Jr., United States Magistrate Judge, June 30,
2009
No subsequent records of a flood were ever
produced, and the Rizzolo documents still remain as "MISSING INFORMATION"
along with many other important documents that were intentionally
shredded on April 3, 2007.
Such idiocy displayed by licensed officers
of the court leads me to believe that James "Spud" Kimsey should be given
an award by Judge Pro instead of being prosecuted for Contempt of Court.
Spud's work product on behalf of Rizzolo
displayed a knowledge of the law and writing ability far beyond the scope
of all of Rick Rizzolo's attorneys combined. Spud Kimsey could teach the
finer points of law to attorneys Tony Sgro, Dean Patti, Mark Hafer, and
Kenneth
G. Frizzell, III alias "The
Ticket Fixer." In fact, I believe that Spud -- had he taken a
different path in life -- would have made a better jurist than United States
Federal Judge
Kent Dawson -- a true pillar of our federal judicial system, and the
judge who let 15 Crazy Horse Too employees off with slaps on the wrist
while his brother was busy hiding the Rizzolo's fortune off shore.
Instead, it looks like Spud is being used
as a fall guy for the man who employed him. Kimsey is scheduled to
stand trial for Contempt in March 2010.
In the meantime, while under Eric Christiansen's
supervision, Rizzolo -- according to Christiansen's records -- may have
loaned money to Vinny
Faraci who is a convicted felon and described as a member of the Bonanno
crime family.
According to SUBPART A—UNITED STATES CODE
PRISONERS AND PAROLEES § 2.204 CONDITIONS
OF SUPERVISED RELEASE.(Pg. 241) (5) Prohibited conduct: (v)
The
releasee shall not associate with a person who has a criminal record without
permission from the supervision officer (emphasis added).
Evidently, Christiansen did not give his
permission for Rizzolo to hang out with ex-cons like Faraci and Kimsey,
and that should also grab Judge Pro's attention!
And then there's this fascinating paragraph
from the same CONDITIONS OF SUPERVISED RELEASE:
(ii) The releasee shall make a diligent
effort to satisfy any fine, restitution order (emphasis added), court
costs or assessment, or court-ordered child support or alimony payment
to which the releasee is subject. The releasee shall provide financial
information relevant to the payment of such a financial obligation that
is requested by the supervision officer. If unable to pay such a financial
obligation in one sum, the releasee shall cooperate with the supervision
officer to establish an installment-payment schedule.
(b) Restitution Orders. Where a prisoner
applying for parole is under an order of restitution, and it appears that
the
prisoner has the ability to pay and has willfully failed to do so
(emphasis
added), the Commission shall require that approval of a parole release
plan be contingent upon the prisoner first satisfying such restitution
order. The prisoner shall be notified that failure
to satisfy this condition shall result in retardation of parole under
the provisions of §2.28(e).
(d) If the releasee refuses to accept
the terms of the plan in general, refuses to accept the installment payment
schedule, and/or refuses to sign the plan
(emphasis added), the U.S. Parole Commission will be notified. The U.S.
Parole Commission will then resolve any outstanding disputes as to
terms and installment payment schedules, complete the plan as necessary,
and make the terms and schedules contained therein themselves a special
condition of supervised release.
2.204-22 (Pg. 257). Revocation
for Failure to Make Court-Ordered Payment. In determining
whether revocation (emphasis added) is appropriate for failure to
make a court-ordered financial payment, the Commission shall consider
the releasee's employment status, earning ability, financial
resources, and any other special circumstances that may have
a bearing on the matter.
According to Chrisiansen's records, in
addition to refusing to sign the Payment Schedule, Rizzolo failed to inform
the United States Parole Commission of $990,000.00 he received from the
sale of the Philadelphia Crazy Horse Too.
However, Rizzolo did report several
personal loans and gifts he gave to ex-con Vinny Faraci, and his delinquent
son Dominic, at a time when he was claiming poverty.
After receiving the $990,000.00, and loaning
Faraci and others cash, Rizzolo filed this amazing statement with the court:
But the Rizzolos still have a fortune
stashed in off shore banks! Rick and Lisa Rizzolo perpetuated a "sham"
divorce three weeks prior to Rick beginning his plea negotiations. Immediately
following the divorce, they mortgaged their three homes, set
up phony trusts in Lisa's name, and hid their money in a Cook Islands
bank out of reach of Kirk Henry and the IRS.
Normal people don't stash their money in
secret off shore banks unless they did something wrong to obtain it, and
fear it will be taken away.
Late last year, a federal judge in Minnesota
established new and long-overdue Case Law that Judge Pro can now possibly
use to force the Rizzolos to return their cash to the United States.
The Honorable Michael J. Davis. Chief U.S.
District Judge, District of Minnesota on 12/08/09 ordered litigants in
his court to “repatriate”
their ill-gotten funds stashed in off shore banks. When the Defendant refused,
the judge put him in prison until he agrees to the Order.
Based on this Case Law, Judge Pro may do
the same in the Rizzolo case so that Kirk Henry, the IRS, and others will
finally be paid.
In contrast to the Minnesota case, federal
judges in Nevada have so far turned their backs when the
Rizzolos withdrew money from their off shore accounts to pay legal
fees, or fund their lavish
lifestyles.
Not only did Rick Rizzolo not comply with
the court's order to pay his debts, his wife Lisa
falsified her income tax returns by refusing to report the off shore
accounts.
And, according to sources, it's very
possible that Rick Rizzolo is stashing cash in casino cages up and down
the Strip. Subpoenas should be issued to casino hosts at the MGM, Palms,
Hilton, and Hard Rock immediately!
In all fairness, I should give the Rizzolos
the next-to-the-last word in this extra long column. Here in the words
of their attorneys is their entire argument as to why they should be allowed
to keep their
hidden bounty. In summary, "The Government is to blame!"
(Editor's note: Please refer to last
week's edition of INSIDE VEGAS to learn what happened to those documents.
They were secretly shredded!)
Rick and Lisa Rizzolo consistently contend
that the government screwed up all the sales including one for $48 million
dollars! They also argue that Lisa's hidden stash is hers legitimately,
and can't be touched. They also contend that their bills can only be paid
from the sale proceeds of the Crazy Horse Too, and they are not severally
responsible for the debts. They neglect to mention that every purported
sale was on paper only, or to straw
men who planned to continue Rizzolo's criminal enterprises with him
lingering in the shadows as a silent partner.
To show how consistent they've been in
blaming the government for the inability to sell the Crazy Horse, here's
their same argument from June 2008:
In order to avoid liability, the City of
Las Vegas had no other choice than to revoke the liquor license after the
business pleaded guilty to Racketeering; "constituted a public or private
nuisance;" "was conducted in an unlawful, illegal, or impermissible manner;"
and after learning that "35 to 40 beatings had occurred at the Crazy Horse
Too in three years," all according to City
Attorney Brad Jerbic.
Also, the United States of America has
no business operating a topless bar and considered Rizzolo's suggestion
ridiculous. And the "quick $1,000,000.00" came from Rizzolo's insurance
policy that had to be paid nonetheless.
There it is in a nut shell. Including
the links I provide, you now have the complete nine year long story of
Kirk Henry, Rick and Lisa Rizzolo, and the infamous Crazy Horse Too. I
hope it serves as a guide book to help you navigate through the upcoming
trials.
My personal opinions aside, everything
I presented in this column is documented and has been proven factually
accurate for the past ten years since I began writing about Rick Rizzolo,
the Vegas mob, and the Crazy Horse Too. During that time, all SLAPP
suits and Gag
Order Motions brought against me by Rizzolo have proven to be frivolous
and were dismissed without my having to defend myself.
I haven't yet skipped a beat!
Now it will soon be up to a jury to determine
whether Kirk Henry gets paid, and if Rick and Lisa get to remain in their
current big houses, or be transferred to bigger houses in California for
refusing to pay Rick's agreed upon debts to Henry, the IRS, City of Las
Vegas, and society. Remember, Nevada is a community property state and
Lisa was married to Rick and enjoying his loot
during his years of criminal activity.
Our nation's system of justice will be
tested by the outcome of this well studied case. Hopefully, after nine
long years, justice will prevail, and this sordid story will finally come
to a righteous end.
Abodes BEFORE this month's trials
Abodes AFTER this month's trials
.
Rick Rizzolo's abode, 1760 Amarone Way, Henderson, NV
Los Angeles Metropolitan Detention Center
.
Lisa
Rizzolo's abode, 8632 Canyon View Dr. Las Vegas
Federal Correctional Institution for women, Dublin, Calif.
This week's INSIDE VEGAS is dedicated to
the memory of Buffalo
Jim Barrier.
Steve Miller and
Buffalo Jim Barrier, July 1, 2007, the day the Crazy Horse Too was shuttered
Click
on Front Page to read "Larger than life" by Joshua Longobardy, Las Vegas
Weekly Cover Story, 05/07/08
LISTEN
TO "THE GHOST OF BUFFALO JIM"