Sunday, August 08, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

JOHN L. SMITH: Crazy Horse Too shift manager's luxurious spread likely to intrigue IRS

If you ever doubted whether the topless business was lucrative, look no further than the home of Crazy Horse Too shift manager and reputed mob figure Vinny Faraci.

I did and came away impressed. The 4,255-square-foot beauty at 1301 Kingdom St. in the Castle Gate subdivision was recently listed for $980,000 by real estate agent and Metro officer Dave Radcliffe.

According to promotional material, the place features, "Totally upgraded home with over $200,000 in the backyard alone. Home has ... $18,000 in staircase and hardwood floor, pool is pebble tech, beach entry with waterfall, fire pit and slide. Large $5,000 chandelier in entry, two covered patios with built-in barbecue."

Five bedrooms, five bathrooms, even a guest quarters. No starter home with a step-saver kitchen for this guy.

Now, you may ask why a cop and a man of Faraci's reputed pedigree are doing business, but I've never been the inquisitive type. Las Vegas is all about contacts, and the 49-year-old Faraci has made many. Cops, casino executives, even a politician or two.

The Brooklyn native is a registered felon with a 1985 mail fraud conviction. An incident in which he was named but not prosecuted in 1985 involved the alleged ball bat beating of a Crazy Horse Too customer.

For some reason, the batting practice generated little more than a police report. Who knows, maybe it was just an exhibition game.

In New York, Faraci's father is a feared Bonanno crime family loan shark known as "Johnny Green." With a reported $500,000 on the street and a reputation for a quick temper, until he ran into legal trouble Johnny Green was no one to mess with.

New York and Las Vegas law enforcement insiders call Vinny Faraci a Bonanno soldier. Others claim he holds a lieutenant's rank.

Frankly, I don't care whether he's a brigadier general in the Salvation Army. It's his relationship with the Crazy Horse Too that's newsworthy.

These days, Faraci finds himself in the middle of a criminal investigation focused on the Industrial Road topless club owned by Rick Rizzolo. With the FBI, Metro and the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigations Division looking at the bar's business practices, which are believed to include acts of violence, the action is heavy on many levels.

One alleged violent act was a September 2001 incident involving Kansas tourist Kirk Henry, whose neck was broken after a $66 bar dispute. Club attorney Tony Sgro asserts Henry was injured after a drunken fall. Henry's attorney Don Campbell counters that his client, now a quadriplegic, was nearly killed by a man identified as shift manager and Faraci associate Bobby D'Apice.

The case was featured recently on NBC's "Dateline" and was awful publicity for Las Vegas.

What's bound to intrigue IRS agents is Faraci's palace on Kingdom Street. Of course, it's no sin to live well as long as you pay your taxes.

Faraci's attorney David Chesnoff bristles at rumors of wrongdoing by his client.

"It's amazing to me that a guy can work at the same job, do it well, pay his taxes, and be tagged the way he is," Chesnoff says.

Who knows, maybe it's guilt by association from hanging around all those cops and politicians.

"We're confident that when this is all over with, he'll be fully exonerated of any allegations that anybody can think of, because he hasn't done anything but go to work and pay his taxes," Chesnoff says.

Could it be the business he's in?

"Las Vegas markets itself based on the business he's in," the attorney says. "So, if there's some guys from Washington or the federal government who don't understand what Las Vegas is about, that's their problem. ... Casinos regularly send their high rollers to these clubs, and many people who are in the casino business frequent these clubs."

With Bonanno boss Joseph Massino's recent racketeering conviction in New York, thanks in part to inside informants, it will be interesting to see if Faraci's name comes up in future conversations.

If he's somebody's mob soldier, it might. If he's a misunderstood taxpayer, it won't.

As long as he hasn't been pulling the G-strings behind the scenes at the Crazy Horse Too, Vinny Faraci might live happily ever after.

John L. Smith's column appears Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. E-mail him at Smith@reviewjournal.com or call 383-0295.