More racketeering charges for alleged mobsters

Bill Gang

Thursday, July 15, 1999 | 11:24 a.m.

A new federal racketeering indictment has been returned against five reputed New York mobsters who already were facing charges of attempting to muscle a takeover of the lucrative outcall entertainment industry in Las Vegas.

While the charges against the five are basically the same as in an October indictment, Wednesday's indictment alleges that efforts by the five to take over the outcall businesses of Richard Soranno, Frank Bartello and Harry Jacobs have continued until now.

The defendants are alleged to have threatened or used "actual force, violence and fear" to reach their goals, since they were jailed in October.

At the head of the list of defendants is Christiano DeCarlo, 27, who owns the DeCarlo Group, a Las Vegas outcall company that competes with Soranno, Bartello and Jacobs.

Also indicted were Mario Stefano of New York, Anton Nelsen of Florida, Kenneth Byrnes, 38, of New Jersey and Joshua Snellings, 20, of Las Vegas. The charges include interference with commerce by threat of violence, interstate travel in aid of racketeering, conspiracy and possessing a firearm during a violent crime.

A name noticeably absent is former sixth defendant Vincent Congiusti, nicknamed "Vinnie Aspirins" for allegedly being the aspirin that eases the mob's headaches.

He ended his case with federal prosecutors early this month by pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit interference with commerce by threats or violence and aiding and abetting. The purported torture expert from Tampa, Fla., faces 4 to 5 years in prison and is expected to testify against the others.

Had Congiusti, 49, been convicted at a trial, he could have faced 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Federal investigators say Stefano, also known as Mario Pugliese, has ties to the Gambino crime family in New York.

The six men are believed to have been conspiring since June 1998 to take over the outcall operations owned and operated by Bartello, Soranno and Jacobs.

An outcall service provides dancers to perform for customers in their hotel rooms or private residences. Law enforcement officials have long considered the industry a front for prostitution, money laundering, credit-card fraud and drug dealing.

There are 165 outcall businesses licensed by Clark County, but about five operators own all of them, according to authorities. The largest percentage of them are owned by SOC Inc., headed by Soranno.

According to court documents, Congiusti was one of two men brought in to help other defendants "bang heads" in their effort for an industry takeover.

The plot apparently was compromised by an undercover FBI agent who was brought in to help the defendants find addresses for the outcall owners, according to the indictment that was obtained by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kurt Schulke and Eric Johnson of the Organized Crime Strike Force Unit.