Are You Man Enough to Face the QUEEN OF PAIN?? (Warning, Mature Content)
Posted on | December 10, 2008 | No Comments
Floyd Mayweather Speaks out on Oscar
Posted on | December 9, 2008 | No Comments
Floyd Mayweather Sr.: “WE WILL DISMANTLE PACQUAIO.”
LANDMARK BOXING WEBSITE MERGER TO TAKE PLACE, AS MAXBOXING.COM TEAMS UP WITH SECONDSOUT.COM
Posted on | December 9, 2008 | No Comments
LOS ANGELES and LONDON, December 9th – MaxBoxing.com, the leader in Internet boxing coverage in the United States, is pleased to announce a new partnership with the premier brand in worldwide new media boxing coverage, SecondsOut.com, for a new venture that will not only continue to bring the best of the fight game to its visitors, but that will add a number of new enhancements that will revolutionize the way the sport is covered.
“The boxing landscape is changing daily, and to have slugged it out for more than seven years and still be standing is a great feat, any way you slice it,” said Thomas Gerbasi, Editor and co-owner of Maxboxing.com. “Now it’s time for us to take things to the next level, not only here in the United States, but globally, and SecondsOut.com is the partner we needed to help us do that. The real winners here are our loyal readers though, and we will continue to bring them the top-notch writing and video coverage they’ve come to expect.”
“The merger with Maxboxing.com facilitates our ambitions to be the number one provider of boxing content around the world.” said Robert Waterman, Managing Director of Secondsout.com. “Our strength in Europe will be augmented by our new partner’s reach in the USA. The two brands will sit at the forefront of the industry and bring the fans on both sides of the pond the very best information and live and delayed video streaming available.”
Clive Bernath, the Editor in Chief of SecondsOut.com echoed the thoughts of Thomas Gerbasi, saying: “The way in which boxing is covered on the internet changes on a monthly basis and we have to change with it. I believe merging with Maxboxing is a perfect partnership for us. I have always believed SecondsOut was strong editorially with the likes of Paul Upham and Thomas Hauser but with Max on board I truly believe we are the undisputed number one in our field.”
Further details on this project will be released in the coming weeks. Both sites will continue to operate independently at their respective URL’s under the Knockout Entertainment Ltd umbrella.
Launched in 2001, MaxBoxing.com is currently the number one ranked independent boxing website by Google. Lauded by Sports Illustrated and Forbes.com as the premier site for boxing coverage, MaxBoxing.com features respected columnists such as industry insider Steve Kim, four-time Boxing Writers Association of America “Barney” award winner Thomas Gerbasi, boxing historians Martin Mulcahey and Lee Groves, as well as extensive video coverage of the fight game. The site began airing live events in 2003, beginning with the heavyweight bout between former world champions Hasim Rahman and Al Cole. In 2004, MaxBoxing.com, in association with Frank Warren’s Sports Network, was also the exclusive US and Canadian broadcast outlet for the WBU junior welterweight title fight between Ricky Hatton and Carlos Wilfredo Vilches.
Launched in 2000, SecondsOut.com currently is the number 1 ranked sports partner channel on Youtube.com in the UK, and features renowned columnist Thomas Hauser, a winner of the prestigious Nat Fleischer Award from the Boxing Writers Association of America for Excellence in Boxing Journalism. SecondsOut.com is particularly strong in the UK, Europe and Australasia, and is one of the leaders in the distribution of both free and PPV live and on demand streamed boxing content around the world.
For more information, please visit www.maxboxing.com or www.secondsout.com
Tags: Boxing > fight news > London > Los Angeles > Max Boxing > Maxboxing.com > merger > Seconds Out > secondsout.com > Web-sites
Tito Ortiz to Appear at Des Moines Area Store’s Grand Opening
Posted on | December 9, 2008 | 1 Comment
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
New Retail Superstore Welcomes UFC Superstar and Media Icon Tito Ortiz to Greet Public During Grand Opening and Store Wide Sale
Des Moines, IA- December 9, 2008- Max Muscle in Clive has pulled out all the stops to provide a celebrity appearance of one of the greatest names in the nations fastest growing sport. Tito Ortiz, former UFC World Lightweight Champion and known for his appearances on The Ultimate Fighter and Celebrity Apprentice TV series, will meet and greet the public as part of a grand opening celebration. Ortiz is also CEO of the Punishment Athletics clothing line, and Max Muscle is offering significant savings on those products during the Saturday, December 13 event.
Max Muscle has rapidly expanded to over 150 nutrition super stores nationwide, with the Clive store among their newest locations. The majority of products sold at the store are manufactured by Max Muscle and are particularly popular among people participating in sports at all levels. “We’re thrilled to bring this store concept to Iowa. We’ve gained attention from a wide array of people, spanning all age groups, and with people looking to attain different personal goals”, commented Joel Boyens, owner of the Clive franchise store. ” The trust we built quickly with area sports teams and individual competitors speaks volumes. If we can become part of the regimine of dedicated athletes, including professional MMA fighters, people simply interested in health and well being will follow”, Boyens concluded.
Ortiz will be on-hand at Max Muscle Saturday from noon til 4 PM. He will also make the rounds of several Des Moines media outlets to reach out to his fans and provide invitations to the Max Muscle event. The store is located at 1300 NW 100th Street, Clive 50325 (just north of Valley West Mall). The phone number for the store is 327-1MAX. Full details can be found at http://www.maxmuscledesmoines
Max Muscle is a sponsor of Midwest Cage Championship as well as some of its fighters.
Tags: Clive > Des Moines > health > Iowa > Joel Boyens > Max Muscle > nutrition > Tito Ortiz > UFC
Amir Khan Vs. Oisin Fagan Video
Posted on | December 7, 2008 | No Comments
Pacquiao vs. De La Hoya Video And Round by Round Fight Report
Posted on | December 6, 2008 | 4 Comments
By: Rich Bergeron
Ringwalk:
Could we get another national anthem up in this bitch before this thing goes down? I don’t think we had enough.
I’m not even gonna talk about the undercard. I never got to see much of it. I saw more action in one 7 minute midget kickboxing fight on YouTube this afternoon.
Finally, Manny’s coming to the ring! Looks a bit nervous, but he’ll be alright. Time to shock the world Pac-Man!!!
Larry “The Mad Hatter” Merchant is in rare form. In his expert analysis there could potentially be some fisticuffs erupting in the next few minutes. Oscar is a “phenomenon.”
Funny how both guys are really working their faces out on the way into the ring. They know there’s about to be some facial rearrangement tonight.
Manny is already in the zone, and Oscar looks like he just got picked up from the bus station.
Michael Buffer’s done way better “Let’s Get Ready to Rumble” intros.
ROUND ONE:
Oscar is biding his time, and Manny is getting some peppering in early. Pac-Man is dancing and moving well. De La Hoya’s stance is off, too wide open, too flat footed. Manny is spry, cool, and looks barely touched as he sits on the stool. Oscar is wondering where he is right now.
ROUND TWO:
Manny hit Oscar 17 times before he threw his first punch. Oscar looks old. Jim Lampley is telling us that Oscar’s nose is reddening. Larry says the left eye’s welted up real good, too. Oscar is falling apart. Manny is going to the body now.
Manny’s putting hard combos together now. “Why did I think I could pick on this little punk?” is the big question ringing in De La Hoya’s ears right now. Manny all the way.
ROUND THREE:
Oscar is throwing nothing but long awkward bombs. Manny is taking a round off like he’s in a sparring session and still kicking ass. Manny’s jab is popping. Oscar just took a good one on the chin. Manny got him good again with a right. Oscar’s getting hosed. Combo after combo, speed kills. Oscar is looking like he only did this for the money.
ROUND FOUR:
Lampley blames Oscar’s piss poor performance on his lack of recent experience with southpaws. I blame it on the Golden Boy’s one dimensional fight plan. The guy can’t even seem to get a basic boxing stance down. Manny is landing at will. The blows land so fast, Oscar can’t see them coming. Manny just went to the body then the head with hooks. He’s starting to shoe-shine.
“Embarassing” says the Mad Hatter. Now the announcers are asking why Oscar even took the fight. Lots of talk about how many people pegged this one wrong. Good thing I have my previous testimony on tape, LOL.
ROUND 5:
Pacquiao is looking like he has the reach, weight, power, and speed advantage while the only thing going for Oscar is that he’s maintaining a steady pace. Manny is absolutely demolishing Oscar from every angle. Can’t wait to see the punchstat numbers for this round.
Mad Hatter just said, “Oscar used to be the speed that killed.” Manny is making the pretty “old” boy’s face look like ground beef.
ROUND SIX:
If Oscar doesn’t start crying blood this round I’ll be surprised. He looks afraid to even venture into Pacquiao’s range. Manny’s getting a bit too nonchalant with those wide hooks. He’s landing but got caught with a couple good ones wading in.
A nice double jab and a left lands to the face of Oscar. Manny’s fighting his fight and not giving up any ground.
Manny dances and darts while executing a final flurry of little bombs before the bell.
ROUND 7:
Oscar can’t land more than one punch at a time. Manny’s never there to hit. He’s only in range for a few split seconds while he’s punching, but he’s always throwing so fast Oscar can’t answer in time or even block much.
Manny’s got him in the corner and it’s about to get ugly. He ain’t getting out. Wow, he shuffled away in shame. It’s almost like Manny feels bad for him. He doesn’t want to completely take him out.
NOPE, guess not. I spoke too soon. Now he’s pouring it on again. WOW! There’s a few spirited uppercuts from Oscar, but Manny laughs them off. He knows Oscar is owned.
ROUND 8:
I think this is the last round barring the second coming of Jesus. Oscar’s head looks like he was on the wrong side of a baseball bat.
The doctor’s already voiced his concern for De La Hoya’s health. He’s been beat senseless for about 21 straight minutes by a little spitfire warrior. Sort of like a tiny prime Mike Tyson but ten times faster.
If I could sum up the look in Oscar’s eyes in one word that word would be “REGRET.”
Lampley’s already calling for The Golden Boy to retire as Manny maintains his steady pace and one-sided demolition of De La Hoya.
Manny once again ends the round with an exclamation point. Oscar’s left eye and cheek are ruined. Oscar’s convinced to quit on the stool.
The final analysis of Oscar’s corner: “He’s too fast.”
How true. How sweet. Now I can gloat with Bert Sugar and not feel so bad I went against my favorite newspaper: The Boston Herald.
AND THE WINNER BY TKO:
THE FIGHTING PRIDE OF THE PHILIPINES: MANNY “PAC-MAN” PACQUIAO
“He deserves all the credit in the world,” says a humble Oscar…”I worked hard and I trained hard, but in the gym it’s a different story.”
Awww, they both said they’re each other’s idol.
Manny ain’t braggin, but he had the thing on lockdown since the first round. Enough said.
Did that guy even have a scratch on him? Looks like he had a bad run in with a pillow.
Tags: Boxing > De Lahoyva Vs. Pacquiao Video > Manny Pacquiao video > Manny Paquiao beats Oscar De La Hoya > Oscar De La Hoya videos > Oscar Delahoya > post-fight results
7 YEARS OF BAD LUCK
Posted on | December 6, 2008 | 2 Comments
7 YEARS OF BAD LUCK: Station Casinos gets bogged down in Missouri after Carl Thomas dies in a mysterious single car accident
Part Three in a Four-Part Fertitta Family History.
By: Rich Bergeron
Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta III, with father Frank Jr.’s help and counsel, built Station Casinos up from a single off the strip hotspot in Las Vegas into an economic empire other casino barons envied. The empire went public and back to private in the blink of an eye and now stands to face bankruptcy if something drastic doesn’t happen soon.
To help myself understand the current scene a little better, I had to look back to when the oldest brother first put his name on the dotted line. It was Frank III who did the deed, literally. He did it to help the family business get into the hotbed state at the center of Frank Junior’s Mafia connections: Missouri. Home of the Kansas City Civellas for some of Frank’s best early days at the Fremont in Vegas.
The transition to power for the eldest son would not come easy. Frank Junior’s old demons plagued the company yet again during early attempts to expand into Missouri in 1992-1993. Again, another star witness’s testimony before a gaming commission had the potential to cause Frank Junior bigger problems than he could afford. This time it was old friend and business partner Carl Thomas himself who was asked to offer on-the-record insight into the elder Fertitta’s past transgressions. He would never get the chance.
Carl Thomas’ agreement to attend an inquiry with the Missouri Gaming Commission may have been the worst—and last—decision he ever made in his life. The mystery begins with Thomas travelling to Vegas from his home in Oregon to meet with Station executives and discuss his pending testimony. If Frank Junior himself attended the November, 1993 meeting it was the last time he saw his old friend Carl.
Thomas left Vegas alone to return to Oregon before heading to Missouri. Strangely enough, Thomas never made it to Missouri. Instead he died in a still unexplained single car accident.
According to Reporter C.D. Stelzer, The Harney, Oregon Sheriff’s Department report shows Thomas died at approximately 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 4, 1993, after his car ran off a gravel road in the mountains of Oregon: “The report describes the crash as a “single-vehicle roll over.” The crash took place on a straight stretch of Plush Road. The vehicle appeared to have veered off the 18-foot-wide road to the left, came back on the road, spun around twice, rolled over, and came to rest partially on the graded, right shoulder, facing the opposite direction.”
Stelzer adds: “At the time of his death, Thomas was driving a 1992 Chevrolet Suburban. Because he wasn’t wearing a seat belt Thomas was ejected from the vehicle and apparently crushed when it rolled over. Approximately a half-ounce of cocaine was found in Thomas’ jacket pocket, according to the report.”
Due to the master skimmer’s untimely death, the Missouri Gaming Commission couldn’t complete their inquiry into Frank Junior and they granted licenses to Station Casinos. Even without Carl Thomas telling his story, the Missouri licenses in St. Charles and Kansas City came only with the understanding that Frank Fertitta Jr. would have absolutely no role in the company’s operations.
Whatever really happened to Thomas, it seemed as if his spirit haunted the Fertittas as long as they maintained a Missouri presence. According to Reporter Steve Wiegand, of The Sacramento Bee, in California, “Station was fined a total of $1.9 million between 1997 and 2000 for violations that included dumping fill materials in the Missouri River, allowing a 12-year-old girl to play slot machines and refusing to testify before a state regulatory agency looking into corruption charges.” The company surrendered its Missouri licenses and sold its properties there in 2000 amidst an even more intriguing scandal that was apparently overlooked and under reported when it actually happened.
It seemed that even the dawning of a new millenium didn’t prevent the father’s sins and bad Karma from catching up with his sons.
St. Louis Attorney Michael Lazaroff helped the Fertittas break into the Missouri market, but his crude, sloppy methods were later exposed and resulted in more heat than the Fertittas could withstand. According to another C.d Stelzer report Lazaroff later pled guilty in federal court to defrauding his law firm by going off the reservation and taking $500,000 in bonuses from Station. He also pled guilty to defrauding clients, including Station, by padding his expenses.
Stelzer’s reports also revealed the following:
Investigators found Lazaroff made 205 private phone calls to former Missouri Gaming Commission Chairman Robert Wolfson on behalf of Station Casinos, which was against state law.
Testifying before the commission in August of 2000, Lazaroff said he used his personal relationship with Wolfson to increase Station’s chances of getting their Kansas City gaming licenses. Lazaroff also testified that Station officials knew exactly what he was doing.
“They from time to time would ask me to run things by Chairman Wolfson and see what he knew about it,” Lazaroff testified.
Station officials vehemently denied they knew Lazaroff was doing anything improper. Still, they declined to testify at public hearings, despite subpoenas. A Station attorney objected to the hearing being public and voiced frustrations over not being able to cross-examine Lazaroff.
But, that’s only half the story. Ambitious, go-getting former Riverfront Times Reporter C.D. Stelzer levels even more outrageous accusations against his own colleagues in the media and Station executives surrounding Station’s Missouri days. Here are all of the “Media Mayhem” blog postings by C.D. Stelzer, which lay it all out in a number of in-depth stories.
David Helfrey, Station’s outside counsel in Missouri, had an interesting background. Perfectly suited for the occasion, Helfrey was a federal prosecutor in Kansas City before deciding to turn to a career as a criminal defense attorney. Exactly what led him to make such a drastic career move is unknown, but my instincts tell me it might have had something to do with the government paychecks not being big enough for busting open the Mob’s Vegas piggybank. Helfrey must have been pretty hard up to do such a complete 180, easily assuming a role as the unofficial Fertitta Family consigliere in Missouri after years of prosecuting so many of Frank Junior’s old associates.
Helfrey definitely knew all about the Fertitta family’s background. While working as a prosecutor, he would have had to review and be familiar with FBI transcripts that recorded Frank Junior in conversations related to casino skimming operations orchestrated by Carl Thomas. FBI tapes of Thomas himself mention Fertitta repeatedly as being a part of his crew, a crew that bilked the Argent casinos out of millions and funneled much of their Vegas proceeds to Mafia families in Kansas City, Milwaukee, Cleveland and Chicago. Helfrey worked on those cases and knew all the usual suspects well. Looking back, Helfrey’s interaction to help Frank Junior’s family business in Missouri is not only ironic but also extremely telling of something bigger going on behind the scenes.
Even before I found this information about Helfrey on Stelzer’s blog I had long suspected that Frank Fertitta, Jr. and Carl Thomas both cooperated with the government to save their skins. If that is true, of course it would be essential to keep the whole matter an untold secret forever. The Mafia’s “Oath of Omerta” places made men in the organization in a position that forbids them from revealing any family secrets. The “rat” is the most unforgivable scum on the face of the earth in Mafia tradition, and all rats are punishable by death.
Yet, if it wasn’t for the rat’s existence, the worldwide power of La Cosa Nostra would be inconceivably and exponentially stronger than it is today. With the help of the Federal Witness Protection Program, even a “made” turncoat like Sammy “The Bull” Gravano bucked the rat rubout trend and moved on relatively unscathed after corroborating with the government against his high level Mafia associates. More than ever in this day and age the organized families have had to burrow their operations further and further underground, cut out the swaggering old-school bravado, and crack down on risky behavior that leads to government investigations. Those investigations typically start small, with a “little fish” being hooked as a primary low-level informant to take out all the bigger fish, exactly like a rat infected with Bubonic Plague biting everyone it can before it goes down itself.
As I know all too well now from my own family’s law enforcement history, the government has also experimented with recruiting big fish informants in the hope that they will be able to devour all the little fish criminals beneath them and around them. The theory must be: if the process works one way it could work the opposite way, too. This means that our own government sometimes works directly in coordination with known mass murderers, drug kingpins, master extortionists and leg breakers. A few casino skimmers cooperating with the government doesn’t seem too far fetched in that context. I’m not sure if any “big fish” operations were hugely successful, but 20/20 hindsight in some of the government’s most high-profile interaction with “big fish” reveal that the technique was often a miserable failure (see Osama Bin Laden and James Whitey Bulger).
Next time you go fishing, I wouldn’t recommend throwing a giant fish on a rope into the depths hoping it will eventually swallow a smaller one. Even if that angling technique were to miraculously work for you, it’s certainly not practical. Eventually the fish either escapes or stops working for you. As an avid fisherman myself, I recommend sticking to the bait bucket full of shiners. You’ll catch much more prey in the long run by putting small guys out there for the big guys to eat up with your hook.
Under another 20/20 hindsight analysis, perhaps, Frank Fertitta, Jr. decided to become a Whitey Bulger-esque “top-echelon informant” for the FBI. After all, it was just recently reported in the Las Vegas Review Journal that none other than Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal served as just such an informant for the FBI. Rosenthal’s secret only surfaced after his recent death of a heart attack.
If Frank Junior did inform on his associates secretly, David Helfrey’s coming to the aid of Station Casinos is likely not a mere coincidence.
Helfrey’s transition to a criminal defense lawyer from a federal prosecutor obviously rises to the level of curiosity, but it’s not unheard of by any means. I’m sure it’s not at all that uncommon for state and federal prosecutors to get burnt out and grow tired of government service. The private sector can be lucrative as an attorney, and some hardened prosecutors maybe even develop a soft spot eventually for the innocent guys they sometimes have to go after, the folks who get convicted before the right evidence is revealed to show they didn’t do it.
So, the fact that Helfrey changed careers is not the real surprise. What is really amazing is how Helfrey so zealously went from going after the old Vegas skimming operations to trying to cover them up as far as Frank Junior’s involvement. It doesn’t compute when you try to reconcile the fact that Helfrey heard all the evidence incriminating Fertitta for his role in the Argent skimming but then went to bat for the same guy to help get him another casino license he could potentially utilize to skim again for the same Kansas City organization. It all makes a heck of a lot more sense to surmise that Helfrey didn’t help Frank Fertitta, Jr. in Missouri for nothing. Maybe Helfrey instead acted out of a sense of loyalty to Fertitta for Frank’s help in bringing down his former KC Mob associates, which paved the way for Helfrey to start his own successful law practice. Helfrey had been the lead prosecutor in the mob trial in which Frank Junior was revealed to be an associate of organized crime, and the lead investigator in the case was then-FBI agent Gary Hart, who was also Helfrey’s law partner in 2000 and still works at Helfrey’s firm today. Both just might have worked in concert under the auspices of their firm to return the favor Fertitta may have done for them in the 80s by turning State’s evidence on the sly.
Fertitta and Thomas were friendly enough to buy their own casino together, but did they sing together as well? It would certainly explain the balls to the wall approach Helfrey took in support of the Fertitta family. Though, corruption, greed, and a complete lack of a moral backbone could also explain Helfrey’s huge change of heart. Nobody really knows the real answer at the moment, but it certainly begs further examination in light of Lefty’s post-mortem revelation.
At one of the Missouri hearings regarding Station Casinos, as described by Stelzer, retired FBI agent and former Gaming Commissioner William Quinn testified. Quinn detailed three meetings he had with Helfrey when the former federal prosecutor was acting as Station’s lawyer. The two already knew each other because they both worked together on the Strawman cases. The overall FBI operation the two men helped build resulted in the conviction of 19 Mafia members in the Midwest, including the Civellas brothers of Kansas City. The investigations and prosecutions shattered skimming operations at the Hacienda, Fremont, Stardust and Tropicana casinos in Vegas.
Quinn testified that, on one occasion, Helfrey asked him to meet with him and a Station’s representative. Quinn also revealed that Helfrey came to Station’s rescue in Missouri only after the Lazaroff scandal broke. However, Quinn discovered that Helfrey was already representing Station in a legal capacity in other matters before Lazaroff went completely off the reservation in Missouri.
To make matters worse for Helfrey, if the attorney did obtain a meeting with Quinn including a Station’s representative, such a meeting would have been in violation of the Commission’s “ex parte” rule. The “ex parte” rule was set up in 1994 to make sure that state gaming commissioners did not fall under the influence of the casinos that they were supposed to be regulating. Quinn said he was concerned about his former colleague’s suggestion and he refused to meet with Helfrey and the Station’s representative.
On behalf of Station Casinos, Helfrey went after Lazaroff with particular intensity, and the crooked, influence-peddling lawyer was an easily intimidated target. He reportedly attempted to take his own life after being caught up in the Station scandal in Missouri, and he told anyone who would listen that he feared the possibility of being rubbed out. Lazaroff retained state police protection during and after the Missouri Gaming Commission hearings that were held in Jefferson City in the summer of 2000 as a result. The embattled lawyer even claimed that Helfrey personally delivered a veiled death threat. Helfrey could be a very imposing person, and Lazaroff himself testified as much:
QUESTION:
“Okay. Did you have any further meetings with — with Mr. Nielson while he was in the area?”
LAZAROFF’S ANSWER:
“Yeah. Monday, December the 6th we met at the law office of Arthur Margulis, and it was Mr. Margulis and myself, Rich Haskins, Scott Nielson and David Helfrey. And during that meeting Mr. Helfrey said words to the effect of, we don’t think that the Commission has anything. We have your sworn testimony that you did not have ex parte conversations. And there will — there will undoubtedly come a time where you’ll be tempted to lie in order to save yourself because of all of these other problems that you have, but we know that you’ll do the right thing. Okay? And that was repeated. And I remember walking out of that meeting and turning to Scott and said, I don’t want to meet with that guy ever again. He scares the Hell out of me. And Scott said — said to me, he scares the Hell out of me too.”
Lazaroff was eventually prosecuted for his multiple crimes, and he even pleaded guilty, but not before he rolled over on many of those he had bilked money from in the first place, including Station Casinos executives. In return, U.S. District Court Judge Charles Shaw gave him the country-club treatment. Lazaroff was sentenced to 30 days in jail, 90 days’ house arrest in his Town & Country manse, 120 days’ community service and restitution.
Station Casinos was finally forced to pull up stakes and leave Missouri like a dog with its tail between its legs in the closing days of 2000. A November 29, 2000 Las Vegas Review Journal article reported: “Station Casinos’ Missouri license renewals were rendered unlikely by a disciplinary cloud hanging over the company. Six company officials refused to obey subpoenas to appear at an August meeting of the commission.”
Carl Thomas died in early November of 1993, and exactly 7 years later Station Casinos found itself embroiled in hearings and investigations that would lead to their ouster from Missouri on bad terms. The state gaming commission eventually voted unanimously to strip Station and its top executives of their Missouri licenses. Station also agreed to pay a $1 million fine in November of 2000. A voluntarily surrender of its licenses precluded Station’s departure from the state for good late that year.
During his hiatus from holding the full official, financial and managerial reigns of Station Casinos Frank Fertitta Junior has maintained his land buying and trading ways, given a great deal of cash to charities and civic interests, and laid relatively low other than his various publicly reported Republican Campaign contributions.
12 years ago Mother Jones Magazine ranked Frank Junior in a tie for the 10th spot for America’s political contributors who work in the shadows. He and the rest of the family and business interests have loyally given hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars to political figures from local judges and sheriffs in Vegas to presidential campaigns Like Rudy Giuliani’s recent failed bid for Mayor of America. It is an old Texas family tradition to pay it forward to politicians, grease the wheels, and prosper. I counted one year’s political contribution records that showed Fertitta family and business interests gave a combined $65,000 to Las Vegas Sherriff Doug Gillespie’s unopposed campaign for the seat.
Frank Junior himself gave Gillespie $5,000, each of his sons gave $10,000, Wife Victoria Fertitta gave $5,000, and Fertitta Enterprises gave yet another $5,000:
As for the guy Gillespie replaced, the retiring Sheriff Bill Young found fast work. A 2007 Las Vegas Review Journal report explained:
Station Casinos even put out campaign flyers for currently-sitting Clark County District Court Judge Timothy Williams’ successful campaign for the bench. The company publicly endorsed him for his judge’s seat. Williams was the first judge to oversee my existing case against Xyience. When I raised the issue that the judge’s own Web-site showed the Station Casinos endorsement letter, Williams did not recuse himself, although he did rule in my favor in the first hearing I was actually able to appear at.
I have even heard that Frank Junior still does butt into some Fertitta Enterprises company business, and some inside sources have told me Frank Junior put some of his very own money behind the $12 million Xyience bailout. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Frank Junior’s life that I’ve discovered in my investigations is that I’m told he goes to church services every single day. I’m sure the question’s been asked a billion times or more, but yet again it reveals itself here: can one be loyal to God and Mob at the same time?
Looking back it’s easy to see how Frank Junior’s blacklisted enterprise could only expand itself for so long in the same place. It’s easy to imagine the pressure he must have felt to get out of the town that wouldn’t let him take an inch of new gaming territory without a fight. Yet, he could not escape his reputation by crossing state lines. His organized crime history still impacted the Missouri situation heavily. The state only opened up for the Fertitta family because of the tragic and suspicious death of someone who could have stopped the whole operation cold just by telling the truth about what he knew about Frank Junior’s past. Whatever happened on that stretch of farm road in Oregon in November of ‘93 is only known by one entity who’s willing to protest, and it seems that entity is the curse of Carl Thomas.
In our next installment we’ll explore the current Fertitta Empire, including the Zuffa purchase. We’ll focus on the folks I call “The Brothers Fertitta” and their billionaire boom days. We’ll also lay out exactly why Station Casinos now faces a flat out financial bust due to overbuying land and gambling on better days for the Vegas suburbs hit hardest by the housing crisis.
Tags: Aarnold Schwartzenegger > bank fraud > bankruptcy > Barack Obama > Bevanda Magica > Bill Clinton > blink of an eye > bloggers > Britney Spears > carl thomas > Cialis > Cocaine > conspiracy > Dana White > doesn > drugs > economy > embezzlement > Enron > evidence > federal government > Fedor Emelianenko > Fertitta Enterprises > Fertitta Family > first amendment > fish > Frank Fertitta III > fraud > free porn > freedom of speech > friend carl > George Bush > George W. Bush > Global Cash Access Holdings > health care > Hillary Clinton > investigative reporting > investors > IRS > JFK > John McCain > Judge Jeff Thaler > Karim Maskatiya > Kathryn Lever > Kirk Sanford > lawsuit > Levitra > loan fraud > loan sharking > lorenzo and frank fertitta > Lorenzo Fertitta > Lucille Iacovelli > mafia connections > Medicare > Methampethamine > missouri gaming commission > Mitt Romney > MMA > money laundering > nudity > Omer Sattar > Oxycontin > police > politics > prosecutor > Rambo > Randy Couture > rat > republican primary > republican primary results > Rich Bergeron > RICO Act > Ritalin > Ron Paul > scandal > Securities and Exchange Commission > securities fraud > sex > Sherdog > Social Security > star witness > state > Station > Station Casinos > Super Bowl > Super Tuesday > supplements > tax evasion > taxes > technique > Ted Kennedy > The Enron of MMA > today > UFC > Ultimate Fighting Championship > Viagra > way > Xenergy > Xyience > xyience apparel > Xyience Incorporated > Xyience supplements > Xyience Xtreme Sex > Zach Arnold > Zuffa > Zyen LLC
FROM BELLBOY TO GAMBLING TYCOON: HOW FRANK JUNIOR BUILT THE FERTITTA EMPIRE IN LAS VEGAS
Posted on | December 6, 2008 | 4 Comments
CHAPTER TWO IN A FOUR-PART FERTITTA FAMILY HISTORY
By: Rich Bergeron
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When Frank Fertitta, Jr. came to Las Vegas from Galveston, Texas in 1960, he quickly found work as a bellboy at the Tropicana. Fertitta’s Texas-bred “family” history included decades of successful casino operations in Las Vegas ( see part one of this report) that some experts say was the original model for Vegas. Fertitta—just a 20-something visionary at the time with both smart business sense and shady, underworld connections—fit right into the landscape. Frank’s rise to owning his own casino would only take him 16 years.
Fertitta graduated through the ranks quickly and gained respect from the Kansas City Civella crime family. Fertitta ascended to a position as a blackjack dealer and worked up to management while making friendships with very influential Vegas movers and shakers.
In 1969, Nick Civella was identified by a Senate committee as being a principal member of the Kansas City Crime Family. During a 10-day period in mid-January 1970, the FBI picked up information through listening devices to indict Civella and several others on gambling conspiracy charges involving the recent Super Bowl between Kansas City and Minnesota. The Civellas were caught up in a criminal probe in 1970 after Civella was taped discussing that year’s impending Super Bowl between the Kansas City Chiefs and Minnesota Vikings.
Eventually the Super Bowl tapes would convict Civella of gambling charges, which resulted in a 20-month imprisonment that he began serving in 1977. Though Civella would only do short time and get out early for cancer surgery, the informant who testified to send him to the Big House ended up suffering a far worse fate. Sol Landie was viciously murdered by four black men who first took turns sexually abusing his wife while he was forced to watch. Though he was never convicted for ordering the hit, the Karma for that killing caught up with Civella a few years later when he wound up spending most of the last days of his life behind bars.
In February 1983, Civella, who had been at the federal medical facility in Springfield, was transferred back to Leavenworth so he could be closer to his attorneys. Four days after the transfer he was returned to Springfield for treatment. Federal authorities released him to his family on March 1 and Civella was quickly admitted to the Menorah Medical Center in Kansas City where he died on March 12, 1983.
These were the kinds of associates Frank Fertitta, Jr. would find himself haunted by over the next few decades as he built his “family” interest in Vegas. Still, he and his sons transformed his original stake in “The Casino” in Vegas from virtually nothing into one of the largest gaming empires on the planet. Though he eventually had to cede the control of the business to his sons, his fatherly guidance behind-the-scenes has no doubt helped shape the business through its most tumultuous times.
The following video clips explain a bit about general Vegas history and the evolution of the early “skim.” Though I doubt anyone in Vegas truly believes organized crime no longer exists there, the acceptance and open reign of known Mobsters in Vegas was once accepted and understood as the way things were. People always seemed willing to look the other way when it was convenient and everyone was getting a bonus for it. Over the last few decades as Vegas became a boom town people flocked to in droves, the Mafia influence has been pushed further and further underground. As reporter George Knapp explains in one of these clips, the concern in more recent years is that organized crime’s tendrils have become more sophisticated, much less obvious, and more focused on so-called “clean money.” Ruthless business deals in Vegas now may be metaphorically cut-throat, but they don’t usually involve so much actual murder and mayhem anymore. A look back at the city’s rocky history and corrupt underbelly reveals a great deal about why it seems to stand so hopelessly idle today. Greed kills:
Watch Mafia and Las Vegas at EncycloMedia.com
The Las Vegas I recently visited is in a seemingly perpetual state of construction, and ravaged real estate markets there from the boom gone bust have left the area wanting and needing more and more tourist dollars every year just to keep afloat. Call it Karma, call it divine providence, but it certainly appears as if the appeal and allure of “Glitter Gulch” may have run its course with an American population that is finding it harder and harder to generate enough expendable income to make the pilgrimage to Sin City. It is a far cry from the Las Vegas Frank Fertitta, Jr. once knew.
Frank Junior got his big break in 1976 when he bought a place aptly named “The Casino” (quickly re-named Bingo Palace) with a partner, Carl Thomas. The Bingo Palace later became known as Palace Station. Thomas was at that time already the chief executive officer of four casinos owned by the Argent Corporation. The movie “Casino” starring Joe Pesci (playing Tony “The Ant” Spilotro) and Robert Deniro (playing Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal) is one of the best illustrations of the skimming operation Thomas masterminded for the Mafia:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjrf6agy1do
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0pnJ75Qrmw
Carl Thomas’ criminal coming out party took place in Chicago in 1963 while Thomas was celebrating at friend Allen Dorfman’s 40th birthday bash. Thomas had already learned the ropes of skimming in his early days at the still-standing Circus Circus Casino in Las Vegas:
Thomas, also a former blackjack dealer like Frank Junior, was the general manager of the Circus Circus when he came to the Dorfman birthday party, and he’d impressed the guest of honor enough to warrant an introduction to another party guest: Kansas City Crime Boss Nick Civella. That connection would pave the way for Thomas to become the ultimate Las Vegas skimming mastermind. He would help reap millions upon millions of illegitimate income for organized crime interests, choking it all out of the desert with expert ease and relying on a “connected” network of loyal associates to get the job done and keep quiet about it.
Carl Thomas brought Frank Fertitta, Jr. in to be general manager of the Argent-owned Fremont. Frank Junior’s gaming career would forever have a dark cloud hanging over it after federal agents finally sniffed out the massive skimming enterprise. However, even before the FBI fully infiltrated Vegas’ best kept secret in the mid-80s, the Allen Glick-run Argent had some sketchy dealings related to a slot machine scam.
Allen R. Glick was what is most often referred to in real estate as a “straw man.” Famous and/or privacy minded folks, and especially criminal folks like Mafioso often resort to having lesser known and more inconspicuous individuals buy their businesses and other property to avoid investigation of their assets or to avoid the prying eyes of the press and/or Papa Razzi. Glick was just one of many in a long line of Mafia straw men who populated Vegas in the pioneering days when the Mafia’s Teamster connections gave the country’s organized crime families a virtual monopoly in town.
According to Glick, he was told by Civella after getting the Teamster loan that gave him his Vegas start, “Cling to every word I say … if it would be my choice, you wouldn’t leave this room alive. You owe us $1.2 million. I want that paid. In addition, we own part of your corporation, and you are to do nothing to interfere with it … We will let Mr. Rosenthal continue with the casinos, and you are not to interfere.”
Thomas had much more sinister partners than Frank Fertitta, Jr. during the Argent days, and they’d already managed to get themselves black booked in town as charter members of the infamous list of Vegas outcasts. Thomas, Rosenthal and Glick were subordinate to Giuseppe Nicoli “Mr. Nick” Civella and Carl “the Cork” Civella, brothers and bosses of the La Cosa Nostra chapter in Kansas City at the time. After the Texas boom busted for the Fertitta family, Kansas City quickly became Grand Central for Vegas Mafia interests. The key was the Teamster loans Mafioso so easily influenced. Moe Dalitz got one to build Vegas’ first ever Casino: The Desert Inn, but that was back in the heady Maceo era, and Sam Maceo himself reportedly pulled all the right Strings to get Dalitz his first Vegas loans.
The Fertitta and Thomas partnership was later detailed by Nicholas Pileggi, who authored the book “Casino.” The movie of the same name is based on Pileggi’s book. Here is an excerpt from the book regarding a Nov. 28, 1978 FBI recording in which Frank Junior’s name surfaced in relation to his role in the skim:
“Carl Thomas: … Me and Frank (Fertitta) and (Don) Shepard and my bookkeeper, my comptroller, who is one thousand percent, they’re with me for fifteen years, have sat around in my kitchen thinking. For six hours, thinking of ways to beat these joints `cause (I or I’d) like to take money out of them. …”
Federal agents launched operations called Strawman I and Strawman II to attack organized crime interests in Vegas in the late 70s and early 80s and figured out that Thomas, the Civellas and others conspired to conduct the skim at all the Argent casinos for the benefit of several Mafia families. A dozen associates were eventually convicted in Kansas City in a 1985 trial that resulted from the federal probes. Thomas—already stewing in jail on a 15-year sentence for a skimming conviction—gave up the ghost. He testified against his former partners in return for immunity from prosecution and somehow miraculously avoided the same agonizing fate of Sol Landie.
Thomas never did implicate Frank Fertitta. Instead, Frank bought out Carl’s interest in the Bingo Palace when the skimming charges first surfaced. The asking price was more fitting for a bid on The Price is Right game show than it was for an established Vegas Casino. Legend has it that Frank Junior acquired full ownership and control over the Bingo Palace for just one dollar.
Fertitta has consistently denied any involvement, and he never was indicted or charged in the Argent skimming. He would not fully shake the charges against him in his adopted home state until 1989 when he was cleared in a Nevada Gaming Control Board probe. The investigation centered on whether or not Frank Junior lied about his role in the Argent skimming when he received his Nevada gaming license. To nab him, the board would have to rely on damning testimony from one of Carl Thomas’ former skimming security agents: Harry McBride.
Cold feet fueled by fears that his account of the skimming days would never trump Fertitta’s political connections in Nevada led McBride to tank his own testimony before the Gaming Control Board. McBride previously testified in court that he ran counter-surveillance against law enforcement for Thomas at the Argent properties. McBride had already detailed under oath how “Frank” ran the skimming operation in the Fremont Casino’s count room, yet it was apparently not enough for Nevada gaming officials to act on without McBride actually appearing before the commission and telling his full story. The four-year probe by the commission ended with a 2-1 decision to take no action taken against Frank Junior.
FBI Wiretap of the Bingo Palace Casino, Las Vegas, Nev. Feb 7, 1979.
9.00pm outgoing call:
Frank Fertitta Jr, Carl Thomas voices heard, inaudible conversation takes place between them as the number 9739-2222 is dialed from The Bingo Palace.
FEMALE OPERATOR: Tropicana
FERTITTA: Don Shepard, please (casino manager)
FERTITTA: Hello Shep.
SHEPARD: Yeah.
FERTITTA: Frank.
SHEPARD: What are you doing?
FERTITTA: I’m sitting here having a glass of wine with Mr. Thomas.
SHEPARD: Oh, good.
FERTITTA: He’s telling me how smart he is and, I’m sitting here listening to him like an idiot.
SHEPARD: Yeah.
FERTITTA: Yeah.
SHEPARD: If you need anybody to tell you how dumb you are come on over, I’m pretty good at that.
FERTITTA: (Laugh)
SHEPARD: Ah, this, listen this conversation isn’t being recorded is it?
FERTITTA: I, I really couldn’t tell ya.
SHEPARD: Yeah. Ask, ask, a ask Carl if anybody’s going to go boogie-ing tonight. I’m ready to boogie, do a little YMCA number.
FERTITTA: You’re ready?
SHEPARD: Oh, yeah, shit, yeah.
FERTITTA: Jesus Christ, I don’t believe this.
SHEPARD: I’m just sitting here, my legs are twitching. I can hardly wait to dance.
FERTITTA: We, were just talking about going out of town or something.
SHEPARD: Oh, yeah, well actually I should go out of town to dance.
INTERUPTION OF RECORDING
SHEPARD: Did you see me?
FERTITTA: I didn’t see you.
SHEPARD: Oh?
FERTITTA: No.
SHEPARD: A quarter of it whatever.
FERTITTA: Right, so if these coins cost us say $20,000, we got $150,000 on, you know, we’re going to have like $130,000 in excess cash.
SHEPARD: Yeah.
FERTITTA: You know.
SHEPARD: Yeah. We don’t have that problem over here.
FERTITTA: Well, yea, you…well I don’t mean excess cash, but I mean more cash than they have so, I don’t think its funny here.
SHEPARD: We’ve got. I’ve got about like $80,000 stock piled.
FERTITTA: Yeah.
SHEPARD: You know or something, we, we haven’t felt any crunch or anything I was just curious if you’re, you know.
FERTITTA: Well we had $50,000 see, but I didn’t want to make the change over here until we got them all cause $50,000 wouldn’t, you know, we couldn’t make the change with 50, so, ah, we need like 150.
SHEPARD: When are you going to switch your tokens?
FERTITTA: As soon as I get them all.
SHEPARD: Yeah.
FERTITTA: I’ll switch in fact I think we’re supposed to have them all. Oh, Jimmy gave me a date today, but I’ve forgot what it was. Ah, now maybe next week or something, then I’ll probably just go ahead and switch over.
SHEPARD: Okay, well listen I’ll talk to you.
FERTITTA: OK
Fertitta’s good fortune would not last, and the skimming suspicions would resurface later on. Yet, with the statute of limitations up on potential criminal charges and the 4-year gaming control board probe dead in the water Frank Junior was free to begin setting the stage for the Fertitta Family empire in Vegas. By then, the old Bingo Palace had made its transformation into Palace Station and Frank Junior hired son Frank Fertitta III to be the General Manager in 1985.
Frank Fertitta III and Lorenzo Fertitta would not completely take over the reigns of the family casino business until 1993 when Frank Junior officially retired, relegating himself to more of an observer and advisor role and elevating Frank III to the official owner title. Looking back, it seems to have been more of a symbolic move on the elder Fertitta’s part designed to appease the Nevada Gaming Control Board. A 90s boom period under the official supervision of the sons saw 8 different casino interests added to the Vegas family empire between 1994 and 2001. That same kind of acquisition rate might have been impossible as long as Frank Jr.’s past could be brought up to shed a bad light on future gaming license applications.
It appears that a 1992 foray for the family into Missouri may have been what finally forced the father’s hand to sign Station Casinos over to his son Frank III. State gaming regulators swooped in and demanded answers to the skimming allegations against the father, and the Fertitta family would find almost nothing but misery in Missouri until an old associate’s untimely death in late 1993 cleared the way for their casinos to come to town.
Frank Junior’s influence and his intricate history of Mob ties have remained hidden and unexplored of late. Maybe because of the new “clean money” mantra the sons maintain in the public eye today. Maybe because not enough people care to look deep enough or far enough back to understand it all. Whatever the reason, by shedding the weight of their father’s tainted reputation and scratching his name from the company’s deeds, the sons blazed a new era that eventually landed the brothers on the Forbes 500 list.
PART THREE OF THIS SERIES: “7 Years of Bad Luck” chronicles the Fertitta Family’s unsuccessful attempts to branch out and solidify casino interests in Missouri.
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