Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

FBI agent admits Galardi ties

Michael Galardi has said for years that FBI agents were among the law enforcement authorities and elected officials he provided with free drinks, lap dances and even sexual favors as the owner of a topless club in Las Vegas.

Internal Justice Department documents obtained last week by the Sun confirm for the first time that one agent, Robert Pellet, admitted to Justice investigators that he accepted favors and gifts from Galardi.

Pellet also said groups of agents he took to Galardi's former club, Cheetahs, were let in free and given occasional rounds of beer.

Pellet made the statements to a team of Justice investigators sent to Las Vegas after Galardi made his accusations about Pellet and others in 2003.

The Justice documents also show that Pellet's involvement with Galardi put the FBI in a bind as it sought to build a case against several Clark County commissioners the agency believed were taking bribes from Galardi. Although the FBI wanted to end Pellet's contact with Galardi, the agency instructed him to continue the relationship so that Galardi would not become suspicious.

Las Vegas FBI spokesman Dave Staretz declined to comment Friday about Pellet, although he said the internal investigation is continuing.

Last week, at the federal bribery trial of two former commissioners, Dario Herrera and Mary Kincaid-Chauncey, Galardi testified that he usually gave Pellet $500 in cash for drinks and lap dances during his frequent visits to Cheetahs and once paid a stripper $500 to have sex with the agent at a golf tournament.

"I considered him my friend," Galardi told defense lawyers under cross-examination, adding that he believed he had provided $100,000 worth of gifts and favors to Pellet and other local FBI agents Pellet brought to Cheetahs over a period of eight years.

During the internal review of Pellet's behavior, Justice investigators told him that the department's ethics guidelines ban FBI employees from accepting gifts and other things of value from a "prohibited source." The Justice documents show that Pellet acknowledged receiving free drinks and lap dances and other benefits from Galardi in the years leading up to the corruption probe, which began at the end of 2000. But Pellet, who was not on the FBI squad that investigated Galardi and the politicians, denied getting cash or having sex with any Cheetahs dancers. He also said he did not use his position to further Galardi's interests.

Galardi first leveled allegations against Pellet and some of his colleagues in July 2003, when he sought leniency and agreed to cooperate with the government against Herrera, Kincaid-Chauncey and his own bagman, former County Commissioner Lance Malone, who stands trial in August.

Galardi at the time also provided the government with a long list of other elected officials and law enforcement officers he claimed to have corrupted.

Defense lawyers have attacked Galardi's credibility by arguing that he was throwing around the names of many innocent people to try to get a better deal for himself. Pellet's statements to Justice investigators show that in his case, some of those accusations were true.

A couple of months after Galardi made the allegations, investigators from two Washington-based agencies within the Justice Department, the office of the inspector general and the Public Integrity Section, were brought in to look into the ties between Galardi and the Las Vegas FBI office.

Two months into that internal investigation, Herrera, Kincaid-Chauncey and Malone were indicted by a federal grand jury in the corruption scandal. A fourth former county commissioner, Erin Kenny, had already pleaded guilty to taking bribes from Galardi and agreed to become a government witness.

As the criminal case proceeded slowly to trial over the next 2 1/2 years, agents stationed with the inspector general's office in Los Angeles conducted extensive interviews with Galardi and several of his managers and dancers, along with the local FBI agents Galardi had implicated.

At the same time, yet another internal investigation took place into Galardi's claims that he had provided drinks and lap dances to Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Johnson, the prosecutor overseeing the corruption investigation. That review was conducted by Justice's Office of Professional Responsibility in Washington.

Investigators in that case said they could not substantiate the allegations against Johnson, but the veteran prosecutor was removed from the criminal case.

On Jan. 30, about six weeks before the start of the corruption trial, the inspector general's office was ready to interview Pellet, the Justice documents show. By that time, Pellet had transferred at his request to the U.S. embassy in Lagos, Nigeria. (He now works at the FBI office in Seattle.)

Pellet was advised that the criminal portion of the investigation was completed and that he would not be charged with any criminal wrongdoing, the Justice documents show.

In a heavily censored sworn affidavit Pellet signed on Jan. 31, he said he first met Galardi in 1996 and became good friends with him by the summer of 1998. The two men met after Pellet had come to Cheetahs on official FBI business looking for the boyfriend of a dancer.

Pellet said he was careful not to socialize with Galardi on a one-on-one basis over the years and that his supervisors were aware of his relationship.

"I met Galardi at a time when he was viewed as a pro-law enforcement 'good' guy," Pellet said in the 17-page affidavit.

From 1996 through 2000, Pellet said, he went to Cheetahs about four times a month. He said he never paid the $10 cover charge and either got free drinks or paid the half-price "law enforcement discount" for drinks. He also occasionally received free lap dances.

Pellet also said Galardi usually paid for his meals when they dined together, took him to a Mike Tyson boxing match, sponsored his club rugby team and bought a membership for him at the Las Vegas Sporting House. The agent, however, said he never used the membership, always paying his own way whenever he played racquetball with Galardi and his managers.

Pellet denied receiving other favors and items that Galardi claimed to have given him, including a handgun, tickets for other professional sporting events and transportation to auto shows outside the state.

Pellet did acknowledge bringing other agents to Cheetahs for bachelor parties and other "group functions."

The groups would get in free and usually received a couple rounds of beer, but they would pay for everything else, including lap dances, Pellet said.

His story was backed up by two fellow FBI agents who are also his friends, Michael Solari and William Wynn. In interviews with internal investigators, they acknowledged going to Cheetahs with Pellet.

But Pellet denied an initial claim by Galardi in July 2003 that Pellet would bring new FBI agents to his club as a way of introducing them to Las Vegas.

Sometimes, Galardi reported at the time, 10 to 15 agents would show up at the adult club for bachelor parties. Over the years, Galardi estimated, 40 new agents had come to Cheetahs with Pellet.

In his Jan. 31 affidavit, Pellet also denied a Galardi accusation that he received oral sex from a Cheetahs stripper at a 1998 golf tournament Galardi hosted at Mount Charleston.

Two days later, however, after Pellet had been given a polygraph test, he signed another five-page affidavit in which he acknowledged that Galardi had sent a topless dancer to him inside a tent at the golf outing.

"The girl started kissing and making out with me," Pellet said. "Then she gave me a lap dance inside the tent. I did not have sex with her or anyone else that day."

Galardi told Justice Department investigators in a Feb. 3, 2004, interview that he had paid $500 to one of his dancers, Breana Whitmore, to have sex with Pellet at the tournament. Whitmore, Galardi said, was invited to work the tournament as a caddy.

Some of Galardi's managers interviewed by investigators recalled that Galardi had once paid a stripper to have sex with Pellet at a golf tournament.

But Whitmore, in a Jan. 19, 2005, interview with investigators, denied ever having sex with Pellet.

She told the agents that Galardi had instructed her to make up a story about a sexual encounter with Pellet and convey it to investigators.

"Whitmore was never given money by Galardi or anyone else to have sex with ... Pellet," the investigators wrote. "In the past, she has accepted money for sex, but never for Pellet."

Agents with the inspector general's office also reported that Whitmore was unable to identify Pellet from a series of photos they showed her.

Pellet acknowledged, however, that several embarrassing incidents occurred during his relationship with Galardi.

One time, he said, Galardi left him in the VIP room at Cheetahs alone with two naked dancers.

"Sometime before I learned about Galardi's potential involvement with corrupting public officials, I was in Cheetahs when Galardi pushed everyone out of the VIP room so that two girls could give me lap dances," Pellet said in his Jan. 31 affidavit. "Galardi forced me in the room and closed the glass door so that no one else could come in.

"Upon closing the door, the two girls, whose names I cannot recall or never knew and have not seen since, told me that Galardi had paid them to have sex with me.

"I immediately told the girls this was not going to happen. These strippers then told me to relax and sit down, where they proceeded to give me a lap dance. I recall both girls were completely naked. I also recall they were quite weathered and looked cheap, hard, skinny and unattractive."

Pellet said the two girls danced and groped each other for two songs, and then one of the strippers rubbed his crotch and attempted to give him oral sex.

"I stopped her, zipped up my zipper, moved to the glass door and pounded on the door for someone to open it," he said. "Someone opened the door. I went to Galardi's office, and I said, 'that was (expletive). Never do this again.' Galardi replied, 'Come on, you didn't give me much to work with. I was going to videotape you.' "

Pellet also acknowledged that he had driven a Dodge Viper that belonged to Galardi's father, Jack Galardi, on several occasions.

"Galardi and I had discussed that the Viper was sitting still in the garage on Rancho Street and that sitting still was bad for the car," Pellet said. "I initially said no to Galardi. The subject came up again and Galardi asked me again, so I did take the vehicle for a weekend.

"I also drove the Viper on two other weekends in a 10-day period. During one of those subsequent weekends, I let Mike Solari drive the Viper. Solari and his wife went out to eat using the Viper sports car."

In a Sept. 30, 2005, sworn affidavit, Solari said he recalled riding in the Viper with Pellet, and he confirmed that he had driven it one Saturday evening.

"That Saturday night I drove my wife to dinner in that vehicle after cleaning and waxing the vehicle," Solari told agents from the inspector general's office.

Pellet, meanwhile, told investigators that he was unaware at the time that Jack Galardi owned the car and was a convicted felon.

"Had I been aware the Viper belonged to Jack Galardi and that Jack Galardi was a convicted felon, I would have definitely not driven it or allowed Solari to drive it, either," Pellet wrote.

He also said that he was not aware that Galardi's father was once a target of the corruption investigation.

Pellet recalled another embarrassing moment when he stopped by Galardi's home one day to show him his new government-issued car, a white Chevrolet Lumina.

"Galardi got in the vehicle to see the inside," Pellet wrote. "All of a sudden, Galardi closed the door, as I was shouting at Galardi not to drive the car. Galardi sped away. I had left the door open and the keys in the ignition. I tried to get Galardi to stop, but he laughed and said, '(expletive).' I saw Galardi drive out the gate."

In July 2003, when he was trying to make his deal with the government, Galardi told FBI agents that he sped off in the car, with sirens blasting, at about 100 mph and drove through a red light.

When he returned to his house, Galardi said, Pellet's face was white.

But Pellet suggested in his affidavit that Galardi was gone less than five minutes, "hardly having enough time to get to the next light from his residence and return."

Pellet did concede that he may have violated Justice guidelines prohibiting any misuse of government vehicles when Galardi drove the car.

On another occasion, Pellet recalled bringing an FBI surveillance van to Cheetahs. When opening the door, he said he broke some neon lights outside the club.

"I offered to fix the neon lights for Galardi, telling him I would pay for the damage," Pellet wrote in his affidavit. "Galardi refused, jokingly commenting, 'I'll send the bill to the FBI.' "

At one point during the internal investigation, Robert Lawson, a Metro Police detective who worked on a joint drug task force with Pellet, told Justice investigators that he was concerned about Pellet's ties to Galardi.

"Lawson warned Pellet on several occasions to stop frequenting Cheetahs and other nightclubs under potential investigation," the investigators wrote in a report of their interview of the detective.

Lawson told the investigators that Pellet had once brought complimentary passes to Cheetahs, along with some Cheetahs T-shirts and hats, to the drug task force office at a time when the task force was conducting a drug trafficking investigation at the club.

At the end of his Jan. 31 affidavit, Pellet said that he understood Galardi had used his friendship as a "bragging right" and had undermined his position as an FBI agent.

In their report of their February 2004 interview with Galardi, Justice investigators said the main reason Galardi spent time with Pellet "was to have bragging rights.

"He liked telling people, especially other club owners, that he hung out with the FBI," the investigators wrote. "Hanging out with the FBI made him feel important and untouchable."

Solari told investigators that he recalled Pellet was warned by his FBI supervisors to "be careful" with his friendship with Galardi and received a verbal reprimand in September 2001.

But Solari added: "If Pellet had been told not to frequent Cheetahs and stop his relationship with Galardi, he would have obeyed."

Solari also reported that FBI agents investigating Galardi in the corruption case told Pellet to continue his relationship with the strip-club boss on a "limited" basis.

"The case agents told him to maintain a sense of normalcy with Galardi," Solari said.

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