Binion prosecutors OK with ex-banker’s source of bail funds

Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2000 | 11:05 a.m.

Prosecutors are satisfied that bail posted by a former California banker charged with crimes related to Ted Binion's death came from genuine funds.

That likely will put off a Friday hearing on the source of the funds for the ex-banker, John B. Joseph, in the courtroom of District Judge Joseph Bonaventure, who is presiding over the Binion murder trial.

Joseph, 60, is not charged in Binion's September 1998 slaying. But he is one of several -- including Binion's accused killers, Sandy Murphy and Rick Tabish -- charged in a scheme to torture a Las Vegas businessman into turning over his interests in a Jean sand pit two months before the gambling figure's death.

"The documentation provided to me by Mr. Joseph's attorney supports their claim that the funds for bail came from a legitimate source," Chief Deputy District Attorney David Roger said Monday.

Roger, the lead prosecutor in the case, had asked Bonaventure to hold a hearing to determine the source of $50,000 posted by Joseph after he learned that the IRS had targeted him and his former business partner, Ronald R. White, in a money laundering investigation.

The probe is focusing on a series of suspicious deposits White made at a Southern California bank beginning on June 25, the day Joseph was arrested in the July 1998 torture plot against Leo Casey.

White had made several deposits of "musty and mildewy" $100 bills at the bank he once co-owned with Joseph.

In November, IRS agents in Southern California seized $108,000 worth of the dirty bills from White's bank accounts. Agents are trying to determine whether the bills once were buried by Binion in Nevada.

The 55-year-old Binion, whose estate is valued at more than $50 million, was known to have stashed cash underground in Las Vegas and at his 125-acre ranch in Pahrump.

At a hearing last month, Roger said it was "curious" that the old bills turned up in California in transactions involving Joseph's business partner of of 20 years.

But Roger said Monday he no longer needs the bail hearing to verify the source of the $50,000 Joseph had put up.

Joseph's Las Vegas attorney, Stan Hunterton, provided Roger with documentation that showed the money came from his client's retirement account.

Roger, however, said he still wants Bonaventure to force Joseph to post an additional $50,000 in bail.

Hunterton is holding that money, which he said came from Joseph's sale of a building in California, until Bonaventure issues a ruling.

Joseph and another man, Steven Wadkins, are set to stand trial at the close of the three-month murder trial of Murphy and Tabish, which gets under way March 13.

Murphy and Tabish also are charged with stealing Binion's valuables in Las Vegas, including a $300,000 collection of rare coins and currency, and his silver fortune stored in an underground vault in Pahrump. Two other defendants, David Mattsen and Michael Milot, are facing charges in the Pahrump theft.

Bonaventure has given all six defendants until Monday to file writs challenging the charges.