Malone, developer get FBI letters

Jace Radke

Thursday, Sept. 2, 2004 | 9:31 a.m.

Developer Don Davidson and former Clark County Commissioner Lance Malone have received form letters from the FBI notifying them that they appear on wiretap intercepts in an ongoing political corruption investigation, their lawyer, Dominic Gentile, said Wednesday.

Earlier this month the FBI sent out more than 300 letters to those who are heard on more than 70,000 intercepts in Las Vegas as part of a federal investigation into the alleged bribing of Clark County commissioners by a former strip club owner and developers, an FBI supervisor told the Sun.

The FBI is required by law to send a notice to those on the intercepts, but being on any of the recordings does not necessarily mean those recorded are guilty of anything, FBI officials said.

"Many people have got them (the letters) who aren't subjects in any kind of investigation," Gentile said.

FBI Supervisory Special Agent Kevin Caudle, who is in charge of the local FBI's white collar crime unit, said his office has received very few phone calls from those to whom letters were sent.

More than 50 developers and politicians contacted by the Sun have said they have not received a letter. Along with Malone and Davidson, vice president of Triple Five Development, court documents state that Commissioner Mary Kincaid-Chauncey and former Commissioners Darrio Herrera, Erin Kenny and Malone, and former strip club owner Michael Galardi are recorded on the intercepts.

The strip-club portion of the investigation has led to the federal indictments of Malone, Kincaid-Chauncey and Herrera, and the plea agreements of Kenny and Galardi who are now cooperating with the FBI and federal prosecutors.

The tapes allegedly contain evidence that Kincaid-Chauncey, Herrera and Malone took thousands of dollars from Galardi in exchange for their votes and influence over matters involving three Las Vegas strip clubs Galardi owned at the time: Cheetahs, Jaguars and Leopard Lounge.

Including a parallel investigation in San Diego, where Malone and two city councilmen are facing charges similar to the Las Vegas case, there are about 120,000 wiretap intercepts.

While the cases involving Galardi move toward trials expected sometime next year, the FBI has shifted the focus of the investigation to developers.

A source close to the investigation has said Davidson helped pass $200,000 to Kenny to secure her help in changing zoning requirements in 2001 to allow for a CVS drugstore to be built in northwest Las Vegas.

Gentile denied the allegation on behalf of his client, Davidson.

"Don Davidson didn't come up with any money for Erin Kenny," Gentile said. "He wasn't involved in giving her any money. He wasn't involved period."

Gentile said that from phone conversations he has had heard it sounds as if Kenny may have received $200,000, but Davidson was not involved.

The location of the store and the amount of landscaping that should be required as a buffer to neighboring homes were among the issues debated by the commission about the proposed store.

The approval for the change to the master plan and to the zoning needed for the pharmacy and convenience store came the same day, Nov. 7, 2001.

The approval came despite the opposition of Commissioner Chip Maxfield, who represents the area, and Commissioner Bruce Woodbury.

In May of the same year, the county approved the master-plan change that would have made it easier to grant the zoning, but Clark County counsel Rob Warhola advised the board to bring the change back through the county's process because the neighbors were not properly notified that the issue was coming before the County Commission.