Friday, April 18, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
The defendants are accused of deceiving the National Indian Gaming Commission, which regulates Indian gaming and would have declined to approve ownership by people whom its officials knew were linked to organized crime.
The five people funneled money from illegal gaming in western Pennsylvania into the short-lived River Oak Casino on the Rincon reservation in Valley Center, Calif., FBI Agent John P. O'Connor said. Authorities would not say how much was invested but did reveal that $2.1 million was laundered.
The suspects set up a front company, Columbia Group Inc., and bribed Ruth Calac, a tribal official, with the use of cars, a grand jury alleged. The shell company was named for Columbia University, the alma mater of a consultant to the deal.
Charged were:
-John "Duffy" Conley, 32, of suburban Pittsburgh. Conley, who is serving a 10-year federal sentence for a video poker conviction, is accused of fraud, money laundering, conspiracy and unlawful transportation of slot machines. His attorney, Anthony Mariani, did not immediately return a telephone call Friday evening.
-Henry Albert Zottola, 61, of suburban Pittsburgh. He is accused of fraud, money laundering, bribing a tribal official and obstructing justice. There was no listing for Zottola in Plum, where he lives.
-Pittsburgh attorney Dennis J. Miller, who is accused of conspiracy, money laundering and trying to persuade a witness to lie to a grand jury. Miller did not return a message left at his office.
-Dominic Strollo of Youngstown, Ohio, and Pasquale "Pat" Ferrucio of Canton, Ohio, who are accused of conspiracy.
U.S. Attorney Fred Thieman said all five defendants have ties to the organized crime operation known informally as "La Cosa Nostra." It is Pittsburgh's only mob family.
Investigators said Conley invested the most of any defendant in the casino, which operated only one day before it was shut down by authorities in California because slot machines are illegal there. Conley is also accused of forging a U.S. Justice Department document so he and the others could purchase 250 of the casino's 400 slot machines.
Papers indicated the machines were headed for a bogus address that turned out to be the engineering building on the University of South Carolina campus in Columbia, S.C., said Edward Reiser Jr., an IRS investigator. The machines instead were routed to the Rincon reservation through Kingman, Ariz.
The Nevada Gaming Control Board this week sought to revoke the licenses of Rudolph James Lewis and his wife, Sharon, who sold slots to the investors.
Six other people helped broker the casino deal and soon will plead guilty to conspiracy charges, Thieman said.
They include Paul F. Helton Jr., the Columbia graduate and a consultant to the partners, and Anthony Clark, a former Allegheny County magistrate. Helton introduced some of the principals in the deal, and Clark fabricated an affidavit regarding the casino, a grand jury alleged.
The Rincon Tribal Council's last brush with organized crime occurred 10 years ago during two previous attempts to establish a casino. One tribal member and nine Chicago mafia figures were convicted in 1993 of racketeering, extortion and other charges.
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