FBI Wiretap From 1976
Reveals Darkest Side Of
Mob Lawyer Who Became
Mayor Of Las Vegas
 
 

 

Kimtran Rizzolo Defies
Federal Court Order -
Refuses To Reveal Where
She Stashed Over One Million
Dollars Ordered Paid To
Beating Victim Kirk Henry
 
 
 
 

 

United States Answers
Rick Rizzolo's Ninth
Circuit Court Appeal -
May Destroy His Chance
Of Release From Jail
And From Two Years
Of Extended Parole
 
 
 

INSIDE VEGAS by Steve Miller
AmericanMafia.com
January 30, 2012

LAS VEGAS - And they said the mob left Vegas years ago...

Veteran Las Vegas investigative reporter Glen Meek just dropped a bombshell in his latest CityLife column. Meek provides a 1976 FBI wiretap of then-mob lawyer Oscar Goodman having a confidential conversation with the late Nick Civella, boss of the Kansas City mob.

Like a scene from the movie Casino, Goodman and Civella discuss the actions of Frank Rosenthal and whether Rosenthal might become a "snitch."  Rosenthal would later survive a car bombing.

This coming from a man who at the time claimed that all of his clients were misunderstood innocent businessmen, or being persecuted because of their Italian surnames.

Even after being elected Mayor of Las Vegas in 1999, Goodman proclaimed the innocence of his now supposedly former clients, and professed his complete lack of knowledge about their links to organized crime.

During his early criminal defense attorney career, Goodman received the help of his first law partner-mentor-turned-Clark County District Court Judge-turned Federal Court Judge Harry Claiborne. With Claiborne assigned to so many Goodman cases, Oscar managed to get his infamous clients including Tony Spilotro off again and again to continue terrorizing the citizens of Las Vegas. It happened so regularly that some courthouse observers speculated that Claiborne was taking bribes, and Goodman was possibly the bag man.

Based on his success rate, Oscar Goodman was well known for requiring a one half million dollar retainer prior to taking on a new criminal defense client. However his performance in the courtroom left much to be desired compared to the talent of other local attorneys with less wealthy clients.

(After being sentenced to two years in prison for tax evasion, Judge Claiborne was impeached by the United States Congress on July 22, 1986, for bringing disrepute to the federal judiciary. He was convicted by the U.S. Senate on October 9, 1986, and removed from the Federal bench.)

Then Oscar Goodman was elected Mayor, and he was supposed to stop helping his now-ex-clients. But that was wishful thinking.

In February 2003, Mayor Goodman hosted Joey Cusumano at an engagement party held in the Mayor's back yard. Cusumano is listed in Nevada's Black Book of persons excluded from entering Nevada casinos.

In May 2003, Charles "The Moose" Panarella was hosted by Mayor Goodman at Las Vegas City Hall. Panarella is also listed in the Black Book and is reportedly a member of the Colombo crime family.

When they needed help from the LV City Council, Goodman's ex-clients simply hired his partners in the Goodman Law firm, i.e., when former clients Al Rapuano or Rick Rizzolo came before the council represented by one of Goodman's former law partners, Oscar was on their side! That's until July 10, 2006 when I filed an ethics complaint against Goodman that forced him to abstain on matters involving Rizzolo, and stopped his favors cold!  His childlike response? "Tell Steve Miller he can suck my big toe!"

(Editor's note: Steve Miller was the author and sponsor of the original City of Las Vegas Ethics in Government Law.)

I believe had I not filed the complaint that cleared the way in 2007 for the unconflicted members of the LV City Council to close down Rizzolo's Crazy Horse Too, the bar would still be open with club patrons beaten and robbed on a regular basis as was Rizzolo's business model that made him and his family multimillionaires.

Oscar Goodman stepped down based on term limits, and his wife Carolyn was elected in 2011 to succeed him as Mayor. Since then, Oscar stays busy acting as the ambassador of Las Vegas; running a steakhouse named Oscar's Beef, Booze, and Broads; and putting the finishing touches on a taxpayer funded Mob Museum in downtown Las Vegas - the latter being the basis for Glen Meek's column.
 

Mob boss, Line 1! With the Mob Museum about to open, this wiretapped conversation featuring Oscar Goodman is one exhibit we'd like to see in there (and just might) Las Vegas CityLife January 27, 2012  by GLEN MEEK And if Goodman and Civella are -- as the feds alleged -- discussing Rosenthal, then one might wonder whether Civella's concerns ultimately had something to do with the bomb that went off under Rosenthal's car after the mob bosses were indicted for skimming, but Rosenthal was not. FULL COLUMN INCLUDING WIRETAP AUDIO

Motion For Contempt Filed Against Kimtran Rizzolo and attorney Herb Sachs

United States Magistrate Judge George Foley on January 4, 2012, ordered Rick Rizzolo's stepmother Kimtran Rizzolo to "provide full and complete responses" in writing to all interrogatory questions about where she hid $1,052,006.03 dollars derived from the sale of the Philadelphia Crazy Horse Too. The money was part of a court ordered $10 million dollar restitution to be paid to Kirk Henry who suffered a broken neck and quadriplegia in 2001 after he disputed a padded bar tab at the Las Vegas Crazy Horse Too. Kimtran's late husband Bart Rizzolo was secretly paid the money in order to keep it out of the hands of beating victim Kirk Henry, and the IRS.

It has been disclosed that Kimtran is paying Rick Rizzolo's legal bills from these funds.

Kimtran and her attorney Herb Sachs (left) were given until January 20, 2012 to comply with the Court Order. They failed to do so.

Based on Kimtran's and her attorney Herb Sachs' refusal to produce Supplemental Discovery in compliance with a January 4, 2012 ORDER TO COMPEL from the U.S. Federal Court, attorneys for Henry on January 23, 2012, filed a 9 page "MOTION FOR CONTEMPT AGAINST DEFENDANT KIMTRAN RIZZOLO AND HER LEGAL COUNCIL AND FOR ENFORCEMENT OF MONETARY SANCTIONS UNDER FED.R.CIV.P.37."

ORDER TO COMPEL

MOTION FOR CONTEMPT  (A MUST READ!)

FOR MORE INFORMATION, READ: "From Me Account?" "What You Mean?" - Kimtran Rizzolo - October 12, 2011

United States Answers Rick Rizzolo's Ninth Circuit Court Appeal

On March 19, 2012, the UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT will hold a hearing to consider convicted racketeer Rick Rizzolo's October 11, 2011 appeal of his additional nine month prison sentence and two year extension of his parole for violating the conditions of his supervised release by failing to report income from the sale of the Philadelphia Crazy Horse Too.

Las Vegas attorney Dominic Gentile will present Rick Rizzolo's appeal. Gentile's legal fee is being paid by Kimtran Rizzolo who is illegally in possession of over a million dollars in proceeds from the sale of the Philadelphia property that was court ordered to be paid to Kirk Henry.

In his APPEAL, Rick Rizzolo claims that because Henry was not a statutorily-recognized “victim” under the Crime Victims’ Rights Act, his attorneys had no right to speak at his revocation proceeding, and United States Judge Philip Pro (who also presides over Henry's civil case) had no discretion to permit Henry's attorney to do so. Rizzolo also claims prejudice based on plaintiffs’ counsel’s characterization of him as a “gangster” who should go “back to jail.” Rizzolo is now asking the Ninth Circuit Court to vacate the parole revocation order and remand his case to “a different district court judge without input from Mr. and Mrs. Henry or their counsel.” Rizzolo also suggests that law enforcement’s original interest in him were derived from the fact that he “was Italian and . . . in the topless club business”.

RIZZOLO'S 121 PAGE APPEAL

UNITED STATES' 33 PAGE ANSWER TO RIZZOLO'S APPEAL  (A MUST READ!)

Because its been over ten years since his beating and Kirk Henry has yet to receive a dime from the Rizzolo's personal fortune hidden in the Cook Islands, Henry filed a Uniform Fraudulent Transfers Act (UFTA) lawsuit in Federal Court against Rick, Lisa, and Kimtran Rizzolo that's making its way through the court.

Meanwhile, Lisa Rizzolo could soon face Federal Income Tax Evasion charges for not reporting the off shore accounts on her tax forms for the years 2005, 2006, and 2007.

Please take the time to click on the links to the recent Federal Court Motions and Orders to get the big picture of this ad nauseam case.

It appears that the Rizzolos will go to almost any extreme including going to jail in order to not pay the IRS, and to keep Kirk Henry's money. It's also rumored that Kimtran may have cut ties to Rick and Lisa, and intends to keep the million dollars for herself even if it means spending a year or so in a federal low security facility for female offenders.

The Federal Court is expected to issue sanctions against Kimtran within the next week or two. And Kirk Henry's UFTA case is expected to be heard before the summer. Lisa and Kimtran's response to the court's sanctions and orders will reveal the Rizzolo's true intentions, while Rick supervises from his prison cell.

Will the ladies pay their court ordered debts? Or will Rick let the matriarchs of his family suffer the legal consequences.

Recommended reading: "Of Rats and Men," Oscar Goodman's Life from Mob Mouthpiece to Mayor of Las Vegas, by John L. Smith