KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) _ Nine people accused of skimming nearly $2 million from Las Vegas casino profits are to go on trial Monday, two years after they were indicted, in a case the government says reflects ties between organized crime and Teamsters officials in the late 1970s.
Scheduled prosecution witnesses include a Cleveland mob underboss described by an FBI agent as the ″highest ranking″ Mafia figure to testify for the government.
Federal indictments unsealed in October 1983 alleged that 15 men from five states muscled into Argent Corp. casinos in Las Vegas and filtered an estimated $2 million in gambling receipts to organized crime interests. Four defendants pleaded guilty and have been sentenced, and two are to be tried later.
Casino Skimming Trial to Begin Monday DEB RIECHMANN September 22, 1985 KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) Nine people accused of skimming nearly $2 million from Las Vegas casino profits are to go on trial Monday, two years after they were indicted, in a case the government says reflects ties between organized crime and Teamsters officials in the late 1970s. When this scam was exposed by the FBI, this skimming operation was the largest skim ever exposed. A number of organized crime figures were convicted as a result of the skimming. The story of the casino operations and the cash skimming was featured in the Martin Scorsese movie and best selling book Casino by Nicholas Pileggi.
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The trial is expected to take four months, said David B.B. Helfrey, the head of the federal strike force in Kansas City.
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The prosecution intends to use 30 hours of tapes from thousands of hours of recordings collected through electronic surveillance, Helfrey said. The prosecution also has thousands of documents.
The indictments followed a five-year investigation by the Internal Revenue Service, FBI and U.S. attorneys offices in Kansas City, Chicago, Las Vegas, Milwaukee and Cleveland.
At the time, U.S. Attorney General William French Smith said the indictment was among ″the most far-reaching ever returned″ linking crime families in several states.
The indictments allege that the defendants conspired to maintain a hidden interest in Argent-owned casinos, including the Stardust and Fremont, without the knowledge of the Nevada Gaming Commission. Money allegedly was removed from casino profits before being counted or reported to gaming or tax authorities.
The government alleges that mob bosses arranged for Allen Glick, the former owner of Argent, to buy casinos using multimillion-dollar loans from the Teamsters Central States Pension Fund.
The list of scheduled government witnesses includes Roy L. Williams, former Teamsters union president who is serving a 10-year prison sentence.
Another key figure scheduled to testify as a government witness is Angelo Anthony Lonardo, a reputed Cleveland Mafia underboss.
FBI agent Joseph E. Griffin, in charge of the agency’s Cleveland office, said Lonardo was the ″highest ranking La Cosa Nostra figure″ to become a government witness.
″He is a tremendously significant witness,″ Griffin said. ″A boss has never been turned in the history of the La Cosa Nostra. This should have tremendous impact nationally because of who this individual is.″
Steven R. Olah, head of the Cleveland Strike Force office, said Lonardo can talk about any involvement of organized crime in casinos. FBI documents identify him as a Mafia member since his youth.
Lonardo was sentenced to life on drug-related convictions in January 1983 in Cleveland. He was ordered to testify before the grand jury in 1983 but Helfrey has declined to say whether he testified after he was granted immunity.
Another key prosecution witnesses is Aladena ″Jimmy the Weasel″ Fratianno, who has admitted involvement in slayings and has testified before in organized crime trials in Los Angeles, New York and Chicago.
Fratianno is expected to describe an alleged link during the 1970s among crime bosses and some Teamsters union officials.
Those going on trial Monday include Carl Angelo DeLuna, 58, a reputed organized crime figure in Kansas City; Joseph John Aiuppa, 77, John Phillip Cerone, 71, Joseph Lombardo, 56, and Angelo LaPietra, 64, all of Chicago; Frank P. Balistrieri, 67, and his lawyer sons John Joseph, 37, and Joseph Phillip, 44, all from Milwaukee; and Milton Rockman, 73, of Cleveland.
Those who have pleaded guilty are Carl James Civella, 75, and Peter Joseph Tamburello, 53, of Kansas City, both of whom have been identified in federal court affidavits as underworld figures, and Anthony Chiavola Sr., 66, and Anthony Chiavola Jr., 36, both former Chicago police officers. All are serving prison terms.
Fratianno testified in a 1983 hearing in Chicago that he became aware of alleged connections between former Teamsters boss Williams, Aiuppa and Civella’s brother Nick during a trip to Chicago about 1975. Nick Civella, a reputed Kansas City crime kingpin for 25 years, died in 1983.
Civella, Anthony Chiavola Sr. and two other Argent defendants - DeLuna and Carl W. Thomas, 52, a former Las Vegas casino owner - were convicted two years ago in a similar case involving $280,000 in gambling profits milked from the Tropicana Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.
Thomas and Anthony John Spilotro, 47, of Las Vegas, are scheduled to be tried later.