Columnist Jeff German: Reports how one official isn’t buying into Brugnara’s plan for the Crazy Horse Too

Friday, Jan. 27, 2006 | 7:37 a.m.

Jeff German's column appears Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday in the Sun. Reach him at german@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4067.

It's getting a little crazy on the Crazy Horse Too front.

Somebody's not being truthful.

On Thursday I quoted wealthy San Francisco real estate man Luke Brugnara as saying he has a deal to buy the topless club for $40 million from Crazy Horse Too owner Rick Rizzolo, who's facing a potential federal racketeering indictment.

But Rizzolo's longtime lawyer, Tony Sgro, called to say that Brugnara is all wet.

"There is no deal with Mr. Brugnara," Sgro said. "He hasn't been in our life for quite some time. There's nothing going on."

Brugnara responded,"Mr. Sgro's a liar. I do have a deal. We have an agreement. We have a price. We have a closing date. We have terms. And it's all set."

Then he added: "I haven't gotten any phone call from Rick telling me he's reneging on our deal. As of today, I have a deal to buy the club."

The deal, however, now is under a cloud of mystery.

Brugnara -- who five years ago failed to persuade state gaming regulators to give him a license to operate the old Silver City casino -- wouldn't provide me with paperwork on any sale agreement he might have struck with Rizzolo.

But Brugnara did show me some e-mail correspondence he contended he had with a top Crazy Horse Too manager purporting to show Rizzolo's interest in the deal. One of the e-mails was dated Dec. 21, and another one, which was partially blacked out, was dated this past Monday.

The 40-year-old Brugnara also insisted that he had a meeting scheduled for Tuesday with Rizzolo to discuss the sale.

Sgro, however, described Rizzolo's dealings with Brugnara as "loose talk" that never went anywhere.

"He purported to have incalculable wealth. But when we asked him for negligible earnest money as a forfeitable deposit to look at the club's books, he hemmed and hawed for weeks," Sgro explained. "Finally, he said he needed three months to raise the money.

"We concluded that he wasn't serious about purchasing the Crazy Horse. I think he was more interested in the fringe benefits of owning a topless club."

Brugnara -- who reportedly made a lot of money buying and selling office buildings in downtown San Francisco in the 1990s (he estimated he was worth a half-billion dollars) -- said he was astonished by Sgro's denials of a sale agreement.

"They came to me in October of last year," Brugnara said. "I didn't come to them. "He was selling me the club because he had to. That's what his close advisers told me.

"For them to try to besmirch me through their attorney just shows that they obviously have some ulterior motive for wasting my time."

On Thursday I reported that Las Vegas officials had questions about an application Brugnara filed in December for a temporary license to operate the Crazy Horse.

Jim DiFiore, the city's top licensing official, told me the application wasn't accepted by the city.

He said it was incomplete, and officials were returning it to Brugnara so that he could provide them with more information. One of the things officials wanted clarified was what percentage of the club Brugnara expected to own.

Brugnara, who explained he was looking to become the sole proprietor, said Thursday that he has since given DiFiore's office the information it wanted and that he expected to receive his temporary license next week.

DiFiore didn't return phone calls Thursday to confirm whether that's the case.

It remains to be seen whether Brugnara's play for the Crazy Horse is legitimate or just hot air.

But somebody's full of it.