But hell, hes Frank fuckin Colacurcio, the comeback kid. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Todd Greenberg and Tessa Gorman. "I call it comfortable.". ", Im a little concerned [about retaliation], Orwall told me. He told me, through interruptions when he would yell at his GPS to quit "yapping" at him, that he thought "it should be up to every business on how they run their business. Later, while out on parole, Colacurcio was convicted of fondling a woman applying for a job at one of his clubs. In a deposition in the divorce case, his mother, Jackie, wondered if Frankie was up to the job. Strippergate 101: Everything You Need to Know About a City Council Colacurcio says he doesn't spend much time wondering how things might have been. In the early 1990s, Colacurcio pleaded guilty to tax fraud at strip clubs he ran in Alaska and was sentenced to two and a half years in prison. 86 - died November 30, 2011 at her home. Kpmg scandal - ayafpo.saligia-kunst.de 2005: Found guilty of a misdemeanor, groping a strip-club waitress. The woman was running before her feet hit the ground. Other Colacurcio brothers had run-ins with the law. The training will incorporate a crash course in financial independence, being an independent contractor, dealing with workplace harassment, and more. He violated his terms in one fell swoop in May 1995-grabbing, kissing, and propositioning a teenager he was interviewing for a topless job. Bill wound up testifying before a grand jury, reluctantly, caving in when then U.S. The few female reporters who encountered him then had a less kindly view: Frank was lecherous, even dangerous-drawbacks that male writers tended to overlook during happy hour. But, one thing at a time. "[7] The investigation focused on Frank Sr, Frank Jr., and former Washington Governor Albert Rosellini for bribing members of the Seattle City Council. Frank Colacurcio. The government seized the properties, including Sugar's, in 2010. The indictment further details how credit card machines and ATMs were used to facilitate the prostitution and how the proceeds of prostitution were laundered through various bank accounts. Bill was convicted in 1980 of racketeering and gambling in New Orleans. Says the associate today: I told Frank to let me buy this round. Rick's, Rosellini, Racketeering, and "Carnal Knowledge". When Jane spoke out about workplace issues last year the club retaliated in sneaky ways. As Frankie put it a while back to a Seattle Times reporter, discussing his six-month tour of duty in the federal system, It didnt bug me that much except you dont have women, which is horrible. Frank Colacurcio Sr. and his son Frank Jr. and four close associates were indicted in 2009 for conspiring to use their four Western Washington clubs as fronts for prostitution and money laundering. Exactly how much the family and its associates reaped in profits over the years remains a mystery. That's been my one drawback. In 1981, U.S. prosecutors charged him with skimming profits from the Brass Tiger in Federal Way and the Bavarian Gardens in Factoria. "Dancers tolerate a lot of bad behavior," Jane said. Colacurcio: No Regrets -- `I'll Never Be Retired Retired. Not Until I'm A year later, a grand jury indicted Colacurcio; his son, Frank Colacurcio Jr.; and four associates involved in operating four Western Washington strip clubs. "The donations were a way to get their attention. To avoid trouble obtaining liquor licenses, Colacurcio had relatives and associates front as the business owners. Under the terms of the plea agreement, FRANK COLACURCIO, JR., and the . Colacurcio Family, Seattle - GangsterBB.NET Colacurcio strongly denied it. Sentenced to Prison in Strip Club Case Colacurcio Jr. Forfeits Millions in Cash and Property", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Seattle_crime_family&oldid=1144903083, Organized crime groups in the United States, Articles with dead external links from May 2019, Articles with permanently dead external links, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 16 March 2023, at 06:01. By Posted sevier county septic records This was a big disappointment to the head of the party, who was Franks old friend. Jane said that the clubs are worried theyll get sued by customers. The Seattle crime family, also known as the Colacurcio crime family[1][2][3] or Seattle Mafia, is a crime family based in Seattle, Washington. She had hosted a campaign fundraising event after the Land Use Committee vote and "Al Rosellini came and added a stack of checks to what was already a stack of checks. The attention began in 1943. The elder Colacurcio pleaded guilty to two counts of aiding and assisting in the preparation of false income-tax returns in 1984. So that would be mitigated and it seemed like a no-brainer to me.". The indictment follows the restraining order filed . I feel [that] Frankie-if he had to run it and his father wasnt around-I dont think hes capable of doing it. Frank Colacurcio, the eldest of nine children, was born to Italian immigrant farmers on June 18, 1917. His brothers and sisters, raised in the big family home in north Bellevue, looked up to Frank, the oldest of seven kids. She also didn't know that she had to disclose that she had met with Rosellini before the council vote, or what Rosellini's history was with the Colacurcios. Strippergate (Seattle) and Related Topics - hyperleap.com In 2003, a criminal investigation began in Seattle known as "Strippergate" focusing on strip clubs owned by Frank Colacurcio, Sr. and his son, Frank Colacurcio Jr. In front of us, a big man began drunkenly banging on the door, tired of waiting. [5], On September 24, 2010, Frank Colacurcio Jr. was sentenced to one year in prison, fined $1.3 million and ordered to forfeit all interest in the strip clubs and related property worth more than $6 million.[10][11]. [9] In April 2010, Colacurcio Sr.'s nephew Leroy Richard Christiansen along with club manager Steven Michael Fueston, Colacurcio Sr.'s close associate David Carl Ebert, and Colacurcio Sr.'s driver John Gilbert Conte all pleaded guilty to prostitution and racketeering. Still, he spends nearly every day at Talents West, the cramped, cluttered Lake City hiring headquarters for the clubs. He started our conversation talking about how he didn't even remember Heidi Wills and has only been paying attention to Council Member Kshama Sawant's race. Im not the Mafia, he liked to say, although state investigators reported he did take a meeting in Yakima with Bill Bonanno, son of the retired New York crime boss Joseph (Joe Bananas) Bonanno. In the following years Colacurcio continued to expand his strip-club business. His son, Frank Colacurcio Jr., also pleaded guilty to these charges. I would ask better questions next time. Seattle Times staff reporter Louis T. Corsaletti contributed to this report. Scandal-ridden Seattle strip club to shut down | king5.com In the end, crime never pays, and the results of this investigation prove that.. Colacurcio Jr. said it's about "the question of what are the customer's rights" and there "has got to be some sort of fairness in everything. He was self-employed for many years. "I have a conscience like everybody else," says Colacurcio, who shows his age not in his lively step or his solid handshake but in the deep creases that line his face. Boom, coins all over, and youre down the street. In 2005, both Frank Sr. and Frank Jr. were indicted, but in February 2006 the judge . frank colacurcio construction. "It takes a lot for them to say, 'This guy is out of line,' because were trying to make money. A report issued by the State Patrol Organized Crime Unit to law-enforcement agencies in 1979 alleged that Colacurcio controlled a crime group operating topless taverns and other businesses in the state. "I never pay attention," he says every time he's asked. Nonetheless, those who know him are sure he sits in prison planning his exit and his next business move. Frank will be 82 if and when he gets out by 1999. But Frank wasnt beyond the dramatic, Hollywoodesque gangster gesture to get his point across. Colacurcios trial was the centerpiece of local corruption scandals back then. The investigation focused on Frank Sr, Frank Jr., and former Washington Governor Albert Rosellini for bribing members of the Seattle City Council. Strip club mogul's son pleads guilty | The Spokesman-Review Frank colacurcio jr - agg.saligia-kunst.de In consideration of Franks perceived dotage, a judge gave him just 30 months and a $10,000 fine; Frankie got three years, with all but six months suspended, and was fined $10,000. After her conversation with Rossellini, Wills showed up at the Land Use Committee, which she was not a member of, and cast a key vote in favor of the re-zone. FBI Frank Colacurcio Jr. Sentenced to Prison in Strip Club Case Last year, strippers (also called dancers) organized with Working Washington to get their concerns about the industrya highly regulated mess that has created a virtual monopoly in the stateheard by legislators. I waited in line with two friends-both female-outside the popular Nitelite, often crowded beyond capacity. Frankie lives with his wife and 14-year-old daughter in Arlington, Snohomish County, drives a 1991 Corvette and collects muscle . The Shoreline building was sold at auction in 2011 and has remained vacant. Ameduri said that L&I is working to improve this. Kinney believes the Colacurcios have no connection to East Coast crime families but are "their own variant of organized crime" - a notion Colacurcio has long scoffed at. Levy contributed $600 to Jim Compton on April 18, 2002; the moratorium was passed on April 22, 2002. Wills even told The Stranger, almost laughing, that, "The Dej Vu guy [Forbes] maxes out to every council member every year, right around the moratorium. He was even mentioned in the McClellan Committee by James "Big Jim" Elkins, a major crime figure in Portland, Oregon. Cant remember if he got the operation or is gonna get it. In 2003, a criminal investigation began in Seattle known as " Strippergate " focusing on strip clubs owned by Frank Colacurcio, Sr. and his son, Frank Colacurcio Jr. His parole officer said a plea agreement designed by his lawyer ensured that Frankie, now 33, would be allowed to run the clubs once he was released. Sam found his way to the federal pen in 1988 for skimming profits from topless bars in Arizona. Seattle newspapers were never quite sure what to call Frank. The charges were dismissed against Colacurcio Sr. after his death. It is unaltered from its original form. Not all clubs use back rent, according to Frank Colacurcio Jr. (Yes, that Frank Colacurcio Jr. ), whothough banned from running strip clubs in Washingtonis a consultant for Kittens Cabaret. Business was too good and they couldn't fit all their patrons in their lot. This is where the women are. They led him down the street, bloodied and looking like someone happy to be arrested. The final defendant in the case, Frank Colacurcio, Jr., 48, of Seattle, Washington, and MM MR RM Corporation will be sentenced September 24, 2010. They sized up their odds, took a deep breath, and pleaded guilty. These were scams Frank had been performing for four decades, but he still couldnt get it right. In various recorded conversations, the Colacurcios and their associates dissuaded dancers and managers from reporting acts of prostitution and repeatedly returned dancers who were arrested for and caught in acts of prostitution back to the clubs. He had a family to support and there wasnt much call for a 65-year-old topless-bar manager. Now banished to the sidelines by the terms of his probation for a tax-fraud conviction, Seattle's former topless-dance king, now nearing 80, is not allowed to work for or even frequent the adult-entertainment clubs he once ruled. The indictments alleged Colacurcio Sr . plate heat exchanger sizing software. And even the road to that progress is difficult for dancers who see these improvements, while necessary, as merely scratching the surface in an industry that many are desperate to change in bigger, more sweeping ways. "No ones going to pay attention to it and go down and see it for themselves unless you become politically involved.". His appeal on the first tax conviction failed, however, and Frank went off to the federal lockup. He looked like the president of the United States or something, says a former employee. She also didn't "explain why at least $8,455 from Colacurcio-connected campaign donors did not raise concerns in her mind until after weeks of media scrutiny," the Weekly wrote. ", He says the several months he spent in prison were "more or less a vacation.". I'm not going to accuse every doofus who slaps my ass because Im trying to make a profit. Their old pal, an ex-con named Gilbert Kapuha Pauole Jr., to whom they had loaned $200,000 to start up the clubs, had skimmed the profits at the direction of Frank and Frankie. She told the officers Frank had sexually attacked her during a visit to his family home in Bellevue. Whack, whack! The bill was enacted last summer. Frank Jr. and the old mans associates operate a half-dozen strip joints in King and Pierce counties and most recently have opened, or tried to open, clubs in Kent and the Eastside-Papagayos Cantina in Overlake and Babes in Factoria. Frank Colacurcio Obituary - Monroe, CT - Dignity Memorial "He gives me advice on what shoes to wear.". Members of the conspiracy were indicted in June 2009. "How do you define criminal?" The civil charges against Frank Colacurcio Sr., 89, Frank Colacurcio Jr., 45, and Marsha Furfaro, 67, who is the manager of the Colacurcios' Talents West booking agency for club dancers, will be . The divorce settlement left her with several properties in addition to the Poulsbo house and $3,000 a month, but she says she is hardly living in luxury. Prosecutor and now-retired U.S. Sen. Brock Adams threatened him with prison for contempt. SEATTLE - The son of longtime Seattle strip club mogul Frank Colacurcio Sr. agreed to spend a year in prison and turn over $1.3 million Friday in a plea deal with federal prosecutors - likely . Each year, they voted to extend it. "That was 16 years ago," Wills said. But that's the extent of his "mob connections." During a 197O trial, in which Colacurcio was found guilty of assaulting a former bartender who was a police agent, a detective testified that the nightclub operator also was being investigated for vice, narcotics, dangerous drugs, assaults and prostitution. Despite city prohibitions, the corrupt practices were tolerated by cops who profited through kickbacks and payoffs (a First Avenue bar operator today says he still has this tendency, when spying a beat cop walking through his door, to put a paper sack full of cash on the bar as he did in the 1960s, and tell the officer, Lunch.) ), A lot of the dancers who are on the advisory committee are afraid to go in person to the meetings, Jane, a dancer in downtown Seattle told me. Frank quit school in the eighth grade and became a truck farmer. He's been banned from working in the adult entertainment industry for life and said he is currently a "consultant" for a strip club called Kittens Cabaret in Georgetown. Where he resides today. Frank, meanwhile, was working on another regular appearance behind bars. She said that's why she's concerned about the next city councilit will likely be made up of many first-time council members. Hadn't they made the inroads to prevent this? I feel like Frankie, if he had to run it and his father wasn't around, I don't think he's capable of doing it.". ", "He said that the neighbors didnt want to see additional parking because they didnt like the strip club that had been there for ages," Wills said, "and that he would erectsorry for the play on wordsa large barrier to prevent noise and other altercations from being visible to the surrounding neighbors, and that they would hire a parking lot attendant. In 2003, a criminal investigation began in Seattle known as "Strippergate" focusing on strip clubs owned by Frank Colacurcio, Sr. and his son, Frank Colacurcio Jr.[5] In 2008, local police and federal agents raided Colacurcio's home and business. In exchange, federal prosecutors agreed to dismiss fourteen other charges. However, as Barnett and Feit wrote, Strippergate could not be talked about without talking about the moratorium, which many outlets were ignoring: In the wake of Strippergateand in the context of a questionable moratoriumit's clear the public and press have a hypocritical view of strip clubs. The moratorium gave Seattle's existing strip clubs "a lock on the market" and "a competitive lock on the dancers," according to Stranger reporting from the time. Rather than marry, hed do the time, and did: two years for carnal knowledge. A bill partially unwinding a 2021 policing reform clears the Legislature. Millions of dollars, several prison terms and dozens of headlines later, what's most striking about Frank Colacurcio Sr. is what he's not: ominous, regretful or totally retired. More than half a century later, having achieved geriatric gangster status, amassing several million dollars from his nude- and topless-dancing operations, and with his wife of 36 years bailing out on him, Frank grabbed this other girl, 18, fondling and then offering her $500 to go to bed with him. Every night, a dancer has to pay the club house rent. [10] He was sentenced in September to a year in jail and fined $1.3 million.[10][11]. In 2008, local police and federal agents raided Colacurcio's home and business. Still, after all the money Colacurcio earned - his 1993 divorce records listed more than $2 million in assets - he hardly lives in luxury. With money earned from these businesses, Colacurcio started investing in bars, restaurants, and clubs. "To tell you the truth, my memory's really hazy. He dropped out of school before completing the eighth grade and started a produce-hauling business. [3] Colacurcio later worked as a butcher, farm hand, truck driver, and pulp mill worker. No problem, said the judge. "We've always been very close; he's always given me advice on everything," he says.
