Business Partner Files Suit Against Moriarty
A director on the board of W. Patrick Moriarty’s Anaheim fireworks company sued his embattled business associate on Wednesday, claiming that Moriarty failed to repay $500,000 lent for the start-up of a poker club in Commerce.
Edgar E. Pankey and his wife, Elizabeth, charge in their Orange County Superior Court action that Moriarty was supposed to repay the loan, plus interest at 2% over the prime rate, 32 days after the loan was made on July 21, 1983.
According to the suit, the money was to be used for “opening expenses” of the California Commerce Club, which was named as a defendant along with Moriarty and a limited partnership called Telegraph Properties Ltd.
Pankey had an interest in Telegraph, which owns the land and the building the club occupies.
No portion of the loan has been repaid, the suit claims.
Corruption Charges
The California Commerce Club provides the backdrop for federal charges of public corruption against Moriarty and Las Vegas gambling figure Frank J. Sansone.
Moriarty and Sansone are scheduled to stand trial Feb. 26 on charges that they conspired to obtain a gambling license for the California Commerce Club by giving hidden ownership shares in the club to four former Commerce city officials.
Moriarty also has been the subject of a widening investigation by the U.S. attorney’s office and the Orange County district attorney’s office into allegations of money-laundering in contributions to dozens of California political figures.
Former Moriarty associates have said that 32 California officeholders and candidates allegedly received laundered political contributions from Moriarty during a period in 1981 and 1982 when the fireworks maker was lobbying for state legislation to legalize so-called safe and sane fireworks, which some communities had banned.
The same associates also allege that Moriarty provided prostitutes to at least five state and local officeholders in an effort to gain political clout.
According to legal documents filed last summer, Moriarty owns about 30% of Pyrotronics Corp., the producer of Red Devil brand fireworks.
The same documents list Edgar Pankey as a Pyrotronics director. Pankey, who has been a business associate of Moriarty, also was a director with Moriarty of the now-defunct Bank of Irvine.
