Documents say Galardi has history of paying politicians

Jace Radke and Sito Negron

Monday, Nov. 10, 2003 | 9:09 a.m.

While the allegations of Clark County commissioners trading votes for money and gifts date only to 1999 according to an indictment released last Thursday, other court documents show Michael Galardi has been paying politicians as far back as 1994.

Jaguars and the Leopard Lounge, topless clubs in which Galardi has an interest, were not open in 1994, but Cheetahs, which is within the Las Vegas city limits, was.

That detail, combined with the fact that Galardi's plea agreement also notes a $200,000 "restitution" payment due to the city upon his sentencing, leaves some unanswered questions as to the possible connections with the city of Las Vegas.

But neither federal officials nor city officials are willing to even try to answer those questions.

Officials with the U.S. attorney's office said they had no comment on the possibility of Galardi first devising a scheme to influence politicians with bribes in 1994, saying that the investigation is ongoing and the court documents speak for themselves.

As for the $200,000, U.S. Attorney Dan Bogden said: "If there was harm caused to the city and the county then there should be restitution paid."

He would not elaborate on what harm was caused to the city, how it might have been caused or whether it was harm inflicted only by Galardi.

City of Las Vegas officials wouldn't answer similar questions.

They also said the court documents speak for themselves regarding the pending $200,000 payment.

William Henry, senior litigation counsel for the city, said: "The city didn't write the plea agreement, the city isn't party to the plea agreement, no officer of the city signed the plea agreement, the plea agreement speaks for itself."

When asked if anyone from the U.S. Attorney's office contacted the city to explain the $200,000 payment, he said no.

While nobody from the city has been directly involved in this indictment, the FBI has acknowledged that investigators have spoken with former Las Vegas City Councilman Michael McDonald about the probe. His name was also mentioned in a search warrant served at Jaguars in May, during the FBI raids that first brought the public corruption investigation to the attention of the media.

McDonald has said all along that he was not a target of the investigation, however, and he was not mentioned in Thursday's wave of indictments.

McDonald's name resurfaced, along with current Las Vegas City Councilman Michael Mack, on a list of people whose financial records were pulled by federal authorities under a provision of the Patriot Act related to money laundering investigations. The people indicted in connection with the public corruption probe made up the rest of the list.

Stan Hunterton, a local attorney and former federal prosecutor, said that stretching the investigation back to 1994 gives prosecutors a larger window to develop evidence.

"The reason prosecutors stake out a long period of time is so that they can provide a pattern of prior similar acts," said Hunterton, who is not representing anyone in the case. "They may have evidence of payments to public officials long since dead gone."

If such evidence exists there would be nothing stopping the U.S. Attorney's office from bringing more indictments in the future, Hunterton said.

"Indictments aren't like a test where you only have an hour to tell a teacher everything you know about U.S. history," Hunterton said. "After the test you can't call back later with something important you forgot, but you can come back and file more indictments."

Currently Clark County Commission Chairwoman Mary Kincaid-Chauncey and former commissioners Dario Herrera and Lance Malone are charged in the political corruption case, and former commissioner Erin Kenny and Galardi have taken plea agreements in the case.

The indictment charges Kincaid-Chauncey, Herrera and Malone, with one count each of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and 14 counts apiece of wire fraud. In addition Malone was charged with racketeering, Herrera faces eight counts of extortion, and Kincaid-Chauncey faces four extortion counts.

Kenny pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and two counts of wire fraud, and Galardi pleaded guilty to a racketeering charge.