Rick Porrello's - AmericanMafia.com - Steve Miller

Sin City Update
Justice prevails - for now

INSIDE VEGAS by Steve Miller
AmericanMafia.com
March 17, 2008

U.S. Marshals decide to leave Buffalo Jim
alone after Rizzolo returned from prison

Last week I wrote that the Crazy Horse Too's next door neighbor garage owner Buffalo Jim Barrier had received a threatening letter from the United States Marshal's Service saying he had until Monday March 10 to remove the majority of his customer's vehicles from alongside his business.

Barrier responded with a letter from his attorney saying the government had no right to make such a demand, and asking who inspired them to do so? Barrier then refused to comply with a demand that would have effectively shut him down.

One week later, the Marshals have not been seen or heard on this subject. In the meantime, former Crazy Horse owner Rick Rizzolo has taken up residency in a half way house six blocks south of his shuttered bar on Industrial Road, and Barrier's business is better than ever thanks to local citizens who go out of their way to support him morally and financially by bringing him their cars to service.

Evidently, Rizzolo has lost his juice with the feds, or Barrier would today be restricted to parking only seven vehicles along side his shop and would be forced to shuttle customer's vehicles to and from a satellite parking lot in order to stay in business -- something Rizzolo's lawyers sought several years ago in order to harass Barrier who was providing the FBI photos and first hand information about beatings, druggings, prostitution, dope sales, and extortion at the Crazy Horse.

After a week of silence, no one who is familiar with the government's role in this story expects the Marshals to follow through on their threat, especially with Barrier's attorneys standing by to take legal action if their client suffers any further retaliation for his involvement in this case.

Judge Pro denies bank's petition to displace Kirk Henry

Full docket text for document 168:
ORDER denying as moot [75] Petition of Security Bank for Ancillary Hearing as to Power Company, Inc. (1), Frederick John Rizzolo (2). Signed by Judge Philip M. Pro on 3/10/2008.

US Federal Judge Philip Pro last week denied Assistant U.S. Attorney for Nevada Daniel Hollingsworth's JOINDER to help a California bank that failed to do its due diligence and granted a $5 million dollar loan to a known racketeer.

Hollingsworth tried to help this bank get first priority to receive their $5 million from the purported sale of the Crazy Horse Too over the court ordered right of beating victim Kirk Henry to be in first position to collect his past due $9 million before any other debts are paid.

Rick Rizzolo is indebted over $28 million dollars, and so far his Crazy Horse bar is the only asset seized to cover his obligations. One year prior to his conviction, he transferred three homes, the bank's $5 million, and over $7.2 million in annuities to his ex-wife to avoid forfeiture.

Thank goodness Judge Pro disagreed with Hollingsworth and Security Pacific Bank of California, and denied their horrible Petitions! It's not yet known whether Judge Pro will go after the assets Rizzolo transferred to his ex-wife if the Crazy Horse sells for less than the couple's total financial obligations.

It's also not clear why Hollingsworth got involved in a financial dispute between a private corporation and a quadriplegic? The government has no place meddling in such disputes and should be looking out for crime victims, not helping a bank further injure one.

But all this means little because as of Friday March 14, no legitimate offers to buy the Crazy Horse were pending.

Keep in mind that both Hollingsworth and Security Pacific Bank attorneys claimed the bank was innocent and had no reason to deny the loan because the bank was given false information provided by Steve Miller about the Crazy Horse Too and Rick Rizzolo.

The bank said they received information from Rizzolo's attorneys at Patti & Sgro

that caused them to throw out ALL the information I provided.

Here's a link to just a small a portion of the information I provided and the bank ignored, including articles about Rizzolo and the Crazy Horse from the LV Review-Journal, LV Sun, San Diego Tribune, Orange County Weekly, Las Vegas Weekly, Nevada Observer, Canada Free Press, Las Vegas City Life, NBC News, KLAS TV News, KVBC TV News, KTNV TV News, New York Daily News, Orange County Register, and other reputable news sources.

Their excuse for granting a highly questionable loan? "Rizzolo's involvement in unspecified criminal activity was not verifiable, and that some of the rumors were affirmatively inaccurate."

And Hollingsworth agreed with the bank's claims that I provided inaccurate information when he stated, "the bank cannot be held to see into the future nearly two years."

Now the bank is getting exactly what it deserves for siding with mob lawyers. Nothing! And Hollingsworth has lost his credibility for trying to harm Kirk Henry.

Rizzolo & Signorelli appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals

Two cases in the jurisdiction of Federal Judge Philip Pro involving the Crazy Horse Too are on appeal to the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. A third case may be waiting in the wings.

The first APPEAL was filed on Wednesday March 12 by current Golden Steer Steak House owner Mike Signorelli. He claims he was defrauded by Rick Rizzolo who allowed the restaurateur to operate the topless bar while he was in prison. According to Signorelli, Rizzolo had promised him that $100,000 - $200,000 per month could be made in profits from the club if it was operated in a certain way.

During the first weeks of Signorelli's operation, several club employees said he was spending most of his time sleeping in the back room while Bart, Annette, Dominic, and Ralph Rizzolo ran the day to day operations in total violation of City of Las Vegas orders.

I disclosed this to the City Council and they scheduled a special hearing. At the hearing the Council (Mayor Goodman abstained) asked Signorelli about the violation. Signorelli tried to explain that he employees over 3000 persons, and does not have time to become familiar with the last names of all his employees even though the last names of his book keeper, general manager, assistant manager, and shift boss were "Rizzolo." (It's not known where his 3,000 employees work.)

Thank goodness the Council didn't believe him or the pleas from his attorney Jay Brown (Mayor Goodman's law partner and Sen. Harry Reid's business partner), and proceeded to throw the Rizzolo family members out of the operation of the Crazy Horse. Shortly thereafter, the business failed dismally, and on June 30, 2007, the city permanently revoked Signorelli's liquor license. The club permanently closed several days later. Since then the property has since been overtaken by transients, graffitti, and litter, while the building's interior is infested with rats and scorpians. The US Marshalls are keeping the lights on at taxpayer's expense and paying for a security guard that sleeps in his car.

In his APPEAL, Signorelli claims he was defrauded by Rizzolo and should receive $7.2 million from the proceeds of the purported sale of the saloon and its property. He claims that Rizzolo misrepresented how much the place (under the secret management of the Rizzolo family) would have made. However, it was obvious that when the city threw the Rizzolos out, Signorelli lacked the criminal skills to run the place at a profit -- skills proven by 17 indictments and guilty pleas by Crazy Horse employees.

Judge Pro soundly DENIED all of Signorelli's claims, hence his APPEAL to the Ninth Circuit.

Several days after Signorelli's APPEAL was filed, attorneys for Rizzolo filed their own APPEAL for his "The Power Company, Inc." with the Ninth Circuit Court presumably requesting a reversal of the court's Racketeering conviction and the corporation's requirement to sell the bar and real estate.

The Power Company's APPEAL along with the APPEAL filed by Signorelli may cloud the title and further hinder a sale until the Ninth Circuit rules.

It's antiipated that Security Pacific Bank will also appeal Judge Pro's ORDER. If so, with three cases pending review before the Ninth Circuit -- all involving the title to the real property -- it looks like it could be years before the Crazy Horse Too building and property can be sold with a clear title.

In the meantime, Kirk Henry and his family cannot pay their medical bills, and the Rizzolos have hidden their personal assets so well that the defunct bar and its property appraised at only $5.4 million may be all that can be recovered to pay for decades of criminal activity.