Strip club files suit in alleged credit card scheme

Club Paradise filed suit in District Court Monday against three former managers and three strippers alleging they stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from the club and its customers in a credit card scheme.

In June, Las Vegas police and IRS agents raided the topless club, operating for two decades in the shadow of the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino on Paradise Road, looking for evidence of overcharging through credit card fraud.

The club has been closed since the raid.

Named as defendants in the suit are the three former managers, Ryan Carlson, John Carcilli and Ricardo Tabares and the three dancers, Giovanna Chico, Bibi Rambharan and Cyndi Sellers.

The suit alleges the defendants defrauded the club and its patrons through racketeering between May 2013 and June. Six customers were identified in the suit as victims of the scheme.

Lawyers Dominic Gentile and Vincent Savarese, who filed the suit, said earlier this year that club employees were given letters indicating they were targets of a county grand jury.

Club lawyers learned from employees interviewed by police that the investigation was focusing on two to three dancers, who were independent contractors, and three male managers who resigned a week before police showed up at the club. The managers stepped down rather than take polygraph tests over a $50,000 theft from a club safe, the lawyers said.

Police served a broad search warrant at Club Paradise on June 6 that sought records of dealings with customers who may have been affected. Most of these customers were from out of town and several were very wealthy.

Those close to the investigation said customers angry about credit card overcharges reported the irregularities to authorities.

The search warrant sought business records, bank statements, credit card accounts, drugs and drug paraphernalia, computers and cell phones and other property belonging to 21 dancers and employees.

Police also obtained a second search warrant during the raid to seize $100,000 they found in a safe.

Contact Jeff German at jgerman@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-8135. Find him on Twitter: @JGermanRJ.