Indictment puts mining business promoter into an abyss of legal trouble

Henderson resident Alberto DoCouto finds himself in a deep hole this week after a federal grand jury charged him with defrauding more than $20 million from mining project investors.

DoCouto, 64, promoted suspicious mining developments supposedly located from Nevada to Peru. He did all that without an ounce of expertise in the mining business, according to the government. Investors were attracted from as far away as Japan.

Meanwhile, more dissatisfied customers continue to speak up about the suspicious stock activity of CMKX, a Las Vegas-based company founded by controversial promoter Urban Casavant. The company purports to develop diamond-mining sites in Canada.

CMKX has been savaged on some penny stock Web sites for reported pump and dump-style securities violations. But relatively little action has been taken against the company at either the state or federal level.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has been scrutinizing CMKX so long that some investors are beginning to believe the regulators have fallen asleep. Other investors hold out hope their investments one day will be rewarded.

SEX MACHINE: That's Las Vegas in a nutshell, according to columnist Bob Herbert of The New York Times. Although Herbert broke little new ground in his recent column, in which he called Las Vegas America's most degrading city to women, he once again raised the issue of Sin City's long-known but little-publicized expertise at using sex as a marketing tool.

How far is too far in a resort destination that implores visitors to take it all off?

PACKED HOUSE PARTY: Monty Lapica's movie "Self-Medicated" played to a sold-out audience recently at the Village Square theaters, and that's more good news for the independent production. Lapica, 28, used his tumultuous Las Vegas upbringing as material for the film, which continues to beat long odds and generate remarkable reviews.

Lapica's success is one of the best local stories of the year.

GONE TO MARROW: Come on, this won't hurt a bit.

At least that's what Nancy Gregory tells me. She's helping to promote the Nevada Childhood Cancer Foundation and Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's second annual Bone Marrow Drive, which begins at 10 a.m. Saturday at four valley locations.

Entering the National Bone Marrow Registry is as easy as swabbing your mouth with a Q-tip. You'll be notified later if you're a life-saving marrow match.

The drive is at the Las Vegas Athletic Club at I-215 and Eastern Avenue, the Wal-Mart at Eastern and Serene, the lobby area of Sunrise Children's Hospital at 3186 S. Maryland Parkway, and the Shadow Hills Baptist Church at 7811 Vegas Drive.

PIANO MAN: Michael Corda admits he has almost as many years on the planet as there are keys on his favorite piano, the one he plays starting at 6 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays at Charlie Palmer's Steakhouse inside the Four Seasons. Corda plays everything, but one of his favorites happens to be a song he penned a while back called, "America, I Love You So."

"It always gets a great reaction," Corda says.

As for his age, the piano man cracks, "I'm 86 or 68. I get the digits mixed up."

ON THE BOULEVARD: Rick Rizzolo attorney Tony Sgro, named in published reports as the lawyer who hired former City Councilman Michael McDonald as an investigative consultant at a time McDonald was suspected of receiving questionable cash from the Crazy Horse Too king, recently won a $5 million jury award in a case involving incompetent care during the February 1995 birth at Valley Hospital Medical Center of Taineira Rivera-Garcia. The girl, now 12, has severe brain damage. Stranger things have happened, but it's hard to believe veteran defense attorney Sgro would fail to legally protect himself by allowing himself to be used as a pawn/middleman in a relationship involving a topless bar mogul and a politician. ... Meanwhile, FBI agents continue to drop by Rizzolo's shuttered Crazy Horse Too after reports the incarcerated owner's family members were re-entering the building after its recent seizure by federal authorities.

BOULEVARD II: American Airlines has announced it will serve steak on its new New York to Las Vegas flight. Given the endless airport security concerns, does this mean the steak will be tender enough to cut with a plastic knife?

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