Deattle- from www.seattlepi.com – A month after a federal indictment was issued against them, Northwest strip club mogul Frank Colacurcio, Sr., and five others involved in his businesses appeared in court Friday to answer charges of racketeering, money laundering and facilitation of prostitution.
Facing U.S. District Court Judge Mary Alice Theiler, Colacurcio, his son, Frank Colacurcio, Jr., and longtime associate John Gilbert Conte Conte pleaded not guilty to the charges against them.
In an grand jury indictment unsealed June 30, federal authorities accuse the Colacurcios and their associates of racketeering, using interstate commerce to facilitate prostitution, money laundering and mail fraud. At issue are allegations that the strip clubs — Rick’s in Seattle, Sugar’s in Shoreline, Honey’s in Everett and Fox’s in Tacoma — were used as fronts for prostitution that allegedly garnered the men $25 million in the past four years.
The indictment follows a years-long investigation that culminated in June 2008 with raids by Seattle police and federal agents on the clubs and Talents West, a Colacurcio-owned agency that hires dancers for the clubs. Speaking following the indictment, U.S. Attorney for Western Washington Jeffrey Sullivan said federal prosecutors have interviewed more than 200 witnesses, and reviewed hours of recorded phone calls, surveillance video and intercepts from listening devices placed in several Colacurcio businesses.
Key to the prosecutors’ case, according to court documents, is the payment scheme in which strippers paid $75 to $130 in daily “rent” to the Colacurcio businesses. Such an arrangement is common in Washington strip clubs, which are not allowed to sell liquor to generate profit.
“These men made millions of dollars exploiting young women,” Sullivan said at the time. “These girls were not paid to dance, they paid to dance.”
When the illegal activity became apparently, Sullivan contended, little was done to discipline dancers.
In court documents, the Colacurcios are also accused of avoided City of Seattle taxes by undercounting the number of patrons at Rick’s. Each defendant faces nine counts of mail fraud on the allegation that they knowingly mailed false tax documents to the city.
Authorities have said the investigation was not directly related to the Strippergate corruption scandal, in which the Colacurcios were accused of making illegal campaign contributions to Seattle City Council members in order to secure a change in zoning laws. Father and son Colacurcio ultimately pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges in the case, which ended the political careers of two City Council candidates in 2003.
Also indicted in U.S. District Court in Seattle were Frank Colacurcio Sr.’s nephew Leroy Richard Christiansen, longtime associates Conte and David Carl Ebert, and Fox’s manager Steven Michael Fueston. Several associated businesses are also named in the criminal indictment, which could allow federal authorities to seize related assets. The men who didn’t enter a plea Friday are expected to do so at a later date.
The accused face up to 20 years in federal prison if convicted on the 15 counts against each of them. They are scheduled to be arraigned July 24 and remain free pending trial.