Memphis- Federal and state law enforcement officers raided two Memphis strip clubs Friday night, Platinum Plus and Tunica Cabaret & Resort, arresting roughly 75 people on charges involving drugs, gun trafficking and prostitution.
Officials also raided the East Memphis house of Ralph Lunati, said a source close to the investigation. Lunati owns Platinum Plus, the city’s largest strip club, and has a one-third interest in Tunica Cabaret.
The multi-agency investigation, which started April 22, 2005, resulted in 11 federal and 63 state indictments, according to an investigative report obtained by The Commercial Appeal. Of those arrested, eight are known gang members affiliated with the Gangster Disciples, Crips and Vice Lords.
Last night’s raids started at 1:45 a.m.
“When we got to Platinum Plus, the place was going full-bore,” said Sgt. Vince Higgins, a spokesman for the Memphis Police Department. “About 400 patrons were inside and about 100 employees or contract dancers.”
The man at the center of the federal and state indictments is 61-year-old Lunati.
An entrepreneur involved in the local adult entertainment industry for more than three decades, Lunati served 60 days on prostitution and obscenity charges in 1982 involving his former swinger’s club, Free Wheeling Socials. He then went on to start a 900-number adult chat line and, with fellow Memphian Steve Cooper, formed an empire of strip clubs that stretched to Cleveland, San Antonio, Jackson, Miss., and San Francisco.
In the mid-’90s, Lunati and Cooper split ways, and Lunati took ownership of Platinum Plus, which, in 2002, generated $5.9 million in revenue and paid out $3.65 million to one of Lunati’s other companies through “management fees,” according to a tax filing.
Lunati has grown wealthy from Memphis’ appetite for flesh. According to a 1997 personal income tax return, Lunati earned $1.67 million that year.
Recently, Lunati expanded his interest in the local adult-entertainment industry. After Connie Brent Perritt died from cancer on June 22, 2005, Lunati purchased a one-third interest in the club, according to sources close to Perritt’s estate, which is represented by Shelby County Mayor A C Wharton’s wife, Ruby.
Lunati’s finances are a major part of the state and federal investigation, sources say. Among the agencies that participated in last night’s raids was the Internal Revenue Service. Federal agents carried away boxes of documents from Platinum Plus, Tunica Cabaret and Lunati’s home.
One of Lunati’s attorneys, Dale Tuttle, couldn’t elaborate on the charges.
“We’re still trying to figure out what’s going on,” he said