Strip club ‘criminal conspiracy’ alleged

Tuesday, July 29, 2003 | 11:01 a.m.

A longtime Las Vegas topless dance club owner has filed a response to a fraud lawsuit against him and has filed his own counterclaim against partners in the venture.

Pete Eliades, part-owner of the Olympic Garden on Las Vegas Boulevard, is embroiled in a battle for control of another Las Vegas topless club, Sapphire, in which he partners with Los Angeles businessman D. Michael Talla.

Eliades offered Talla an option to buy a portion of the Olympic Garden as part of a deal to acquire the Sporting House Athletic Club on Industrial Road and convert it into Sapphire, billed as the world's largest topless nightclub.

The Olympic Garden has additional value because Eliades holds a gaming license for slot machines at the club.

In a suit filed last month, Talla accused Eliades of fraud and interfering with his business interests and asked Clark County District Court Judge Jennifer Togliatti to modify a Nov. 9, 2001, purchase agreement to enable Talla's group to take sole possession of the 71,000-square-foot Sapphire and leave the Olympic Garden to Eliades.

But last week, Eliades filed a 14-point answer to the charges as well as a countersuit against Talla and several partners outlining 29 claims of breach of contract, interference with contractual relations, misrepresentation and violations of Nevada anti-racketeering statutes.

The filing said Eliades "is the victim of a criminal conspiracy to cheat him out of his income from his longstanding and rightful ownership" of his holdings at the Olympic Garden and his ownership interest in the Sapphire, which opened in December. The suit accuses the defendants of "a conspiracy to obtain money or property by false pretences" and to cheat Eliades and his company "out of their interests in the adult entertainment business and to defraud state and local government and law enforcement authorities by concealing the true names and backgrounds of all members of the conspiracy."

The identification of Talla's partners was an issue raised by Eliades last month when buyout negotiations between the partners collapsed.

After Eliades accused Talla of deliberately withholding the names of six partners from licensing authorities, Talla said he welcomed an investigation to determine the suitability of the undisclosed investors to operate an adult business.

The partners -- most of them Southern California attorneys and business people -- eventually were identified in a May 14 letter to the Clark County Department of Business Licenses and are named as defendants in Eliades' countersuit. They include Robert Shipp, John Moller, George Vasilakos, Lee Polster, Peter H. Albert and Sheldon P. Berger.

Also named as defendants in the suit are Talla and his holding company for his Sapphire interest, SHAC MT LLC, and his holding company for the Olympic Garden interest, O.G.-LA LLC.

Other defendants in the case are previously disclosed Talla partners Rex Licklider, Peter Feinstein, Darin Feinstein, Bevan Cooney, Mark Spino, Brian Roche and holding companies with which they are associated.

An attorney representing Talla could not be reached for comment.