Friday, November 07, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

THE PLAYERS: Michael Galardi

Like his father before him, Michael Galardi built a strip club empire that earned him millions of dollars.

After pleading guilty to charges stemming from federal political corruption probes in San Diego and Las Vegas, Michael Galardi is dismantling that empire and turning it over to his father, Jack Galardi.

An attorney for Jack Galardi said this week that Michael Galardi has transferred his interest in Cheetah's topless club, which father and son co-owned, to Jack Galardi and is negotiating the sale of his two other valley clubs to his father.

In exchange for handing over his Cheetah's stock to Jack Galardi, Michael Galardi will receive forgiveness of $4.43 million in debts.

Jack Galardi, a longtime resident of Las Vegas, now lives in Atlanta and owns 17 strip clubs in the South and on the East Coast.

With the clubs will go the source of wealth Michael Galardi used to purchase a fleet of luxury vehicles and several mansions. One of his homes, which overlooks Badlands Golf Club, has five bedrooms and eight baths and a garage covering 2,525 square feet.

Michael Galardi built his business surrounded by longtime friends, many of whom attended Western High School with him. These men were on his payroll as bartenders, managers and bodyguards.

The crowning achievement of his business career was to be Jaguars, located near Desert Inn Road and Interstate 15.

In April 2002, Michael Galardi told the Review-Journal that this new $15 million, 20,000-square-foot strip club would be "the largest, most luxurious, brand-new, free-standing building ever built in this business anywhere on earth."

Jaguars is one of the two clubs located in unincorporated Clark County that he is arranging to sell to his father.