Houseboat owner interviewed by FBI

Thursday, July 24, 1997 | 4:03 a.m.

Torsten Reineck, 49, the owner of a gay bathhouse here, is being sought by German authorities on fraud charges.

At an FBI news conference in Washington, Deputy FBI Director Bill Esposito said the FBI located the owner of the Miami houseboat in Las Vegas. Esposito said Reineck was being interviewed to determine, among other things, whether he had any relationship with Cunanan.

The manager of Reineck's Apollo Spa and Health Club had said Wednesday night and again Thursday that Reineck was in Germany. But members of the gay community said they had seen him recently, and believed he was still in the city.

Reineck opened the Apollo 10 months ago in the aging Commercial Center nine blocks east of the Las Vegas Strip. He used an alias, Dr. Torsten M. Ruehl, mingling with the city's gay community and working with organizations battling AIDS.

And he steered clear of the law here, while apparently dodging authorities in his homeland of Germany.

"He had no criminal history here and his business had no problems with the law," Las Vegas Metropolitan Police spokesman Phil Roland said Thursday. He said there have been no complaints filed on Apollo, a small sex club that is open to men only, by membership.

But in Leipzig, Germany, a prosecutor said Reineck, 49, faced a Europe-wide arrest warrant on fraud charges involving up to $111,000.

The German newspaper Bild has reported that Reineck was under investigation for evasion of nearly $280,000 in taxes. But Leipzig state prosecutor Norbert Roeger declined to confirm the tax evasion allegations, citing a continuing investigation.

Efforts to reach Reineck through the Apollo failed. A man who identified himself as the manager but refused to give his name said the owner was in Germany. The manager said he had never heard of the name Reineck, and knew the owner as Torsten Matthew "Doc" Ruehl. He said he has contact with the owner by fax and telephone, both directly and through intermediaries.

The owner "travels around the country and spends most of his time in Europe," the manager said.

Business neighbors and members of the gay community said, however, that Reineck had been spotted in Las Vegas in the past couple of days, and suggested he was hiding because of the German charges and the notoriety of the Cunanan case.

"Why would he be in Germany when he's wanted over there," said one source in the gay community who requested anonymity.

Roland said police have no warrant for Reineck's arrest in the German case.

The Nevada Secretary of State's office lists Reineck as president of the club and Friedrich Ewald as secretary/treasurer. Both use the same Miami Beach address.

Rob Schlegel, publisher of The Bugle, a gay and lesbian magazine, said Reineck approached him about buying advertising.

"He claimed he had several partners, several doctors in the Miami area," Schlegel said.

The publisher said Reineck was "obnoxious and not very well liked by the gay community."

Asked if he thought Reineck knew Cunanan, Schlegel said "it wouldn't surprise me."

Reineck is not listed in Las Vegas phone directories and did not respond to requests through his Apollo manager for an interview.

Miami Beach Police were unsure how long Cunanan had been staying at the houseboat in the wake of the July 15 killing of Italian fashion designer Gianni Versace, one of five people Cunanan is suspected of killing in the last three months.

The houseboat appeared to have been vacant for several months. FBI sources in Miami told The Associated Press that agents searched several houseboats in the area over the weekend, including the one where Cunanan was found, but turned up nothing suspicious.

A woman who identified herself as a friend of Reineck's in Miami Beach said there was no chance he knew Cunanan.

"Torsten Reineck is not gay. The opening of the bathhouse was just a business opportunity for him," Brigitte Andrade said Thursday on ABC's "Good Morning America." She said she presumed Cunanan just saw an empty houseboat and broke in.

Jay Vaswani, owner of India Sweets and Spices next to the Apollo, said he saw Reineck on Tuesday, driving a luxury car with West Palm Beach, Fla., license plates.

The club is in a declining center filled with restaurants of many nationalities. The family of pop music icon Michael Jackson once planned an entertainment complex there, but the plans never materialized.

Inside the club, posters and photos of bare-chested men adorn the walls and only members are allowed past the entry way.

A stack of magazines near the entrance features an ad for the club showing two men and the headline "Lost Your Heart in San Francisco? Find it here at the Apollo Spa & Health Club."