A former Crazy Horse Too manager and reputed member of the Bonanno crime family successfully requested a more lenient prison sentence Wednesday, telling a federal judge that a lengthy prison term could result in him losing custody of his children.
Vincent Faraci received a 10-month sentence, five months of which he will spend at a prison camp and the remaining time under home arrest. U.S. District Judge Kent Dawson allowed Faraci until July 1 to turn himself in, a date that coincides with the school calendar.
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Faraci was one of 15 Crazy Horse Too employees charged with conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government by failing to pay taxes on tips and income received from the topless club. He signed a plea deal with the government in May that called for a sentence range between 10 months and 16 months.
Faraci's attorney, David Chesnoff, fought for house arrest, saying Faraci is engaged in a bitter custody battle with his ex-wife. If Faraci is incarcerated for a lengthy period of time, his wife might be granted full custody and take the children out of state.
Faraci echoed his concerns when asked whether he had any comment before sentencing.
"Anything the court can do to help me ... the court will never see me before him again," Faraci vowed.
The charges stem from failing to report to the IRS cash he collected from dancer pay-outs. Strippers at Crazy Horse Too are required to pay the club 15 percent of the tips they collect during shifts. The money is split between managers and other employees.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Johnson said the club's records showed that it received $3.1 million in 2000 from the dancer payouts and Faraci reported $145,000 in income from tips. In 2001, strippers tipped the club about $3 million and Faraci reported receiving $160,000 in tips.
But in 2002, tourism dropped because of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Records showed dancers paid $2.6 million to the club. Faraci didn't file taxes from that year until 2005, two years after federal agents raided the Crazy Horse and seized boxes of records. Faraci reported he received $270,000 in tips during the lowest pay-out year of the three examined, Johnson said.
The complaint against the strip club associates not only claim they failed to pay their taxes, but says shift managers, bouncers and other employees beat customers or threatened them with physical abuse if they did not pay their tabs. The club was accused of over-charging patrons using their own credit cards.
Chesnoff said Faraci was never involved in the beatings that took place at the Industrial Road club.
But Johnson noted Faraci was a shift manager who allowed his employees to assault customers. He cited one instance when an employee "cold-cocked a customer, basically knocking him flat."
Chesnoff challenged the government's contention that Faraci and his father, a reputed captain of New York's Bonanno crime family, are involved with organized crime.
Johnson said the New York State Commission on Crime verified Faraci's ties to the Bonanno group. Still, Dawson said the ties to the crime family did not play into Faraci's sentence.
Faraci worked at the Crazy Horse for 20 years, and he might soon be reunited with his old boss, Rick Rizzolo. Both men have requested to serve their time in a Taft, Calif., federal prison camp.
