Poker Club Defendant Denies Role in Bribery

Las Vegas gambling figure Frank J. Sansone took the witness stand in his Los Angeles federal court trial Wednesday to deny that he ever took part in a scheme to bribe four City of Commerce officials by giving them secret shares in a poker casino.

Under questioning by his attorney, the 47-year-old former manager of the MGM Grand card room also testified that he was never present “when anyone else made such a proposition” to the city officials.

Sansone is the sole remaining defendant among the six people indicted on racketeering, bribery and mail fraud charges in connection with rigging the granting of a license to operate the California Commerce Club.

Moriarty Pleads Guilty

His testimony came the day after his co-defendant in the trial, Orange County businessman W. Patrick Moriarty, pleaded guilty to three mail fraud counts related to the card club scheme, plus four new charges involving alleged illegal payments to state and local politicians and kickbacks to a banking official.

Commerce City Councilmen Robert Eula, Arthur Loya and Ricardo Vasquez, along with Phil C. Jacks, former director of economic development for the city, had entered guilty pleas before the trial began and agreed to testify against Sansone and Moriarty.

Sansone testified that, beginning in August, 1981, he attended a series of meetings in which City of Commerce officials offered to grant the card club license to a Las Vegas group in which he was member. But he insisted that he did not know that Broadway department store executive Horace Kelly Towner was acting as their “front man,” holding the city officials’ hidden interests in the casino.

He said he was told by Moriarty that 10% of the casino ownership was given to Towner as a “finder’s fee” for bringing Moriarty into the project to provide financing to the Las Vegas group. Towner had testified earlier that the 10% he held included 2% each for himself and the four city officials involved in the scheme.

‘In Money Trouble’

Sansone, who moved from Las Vegas to become president and manager of the card club, testified that despite Moriarty’s assurances that he would “have no problem” financing operation of the casino, “we were in money trouble from the day the place opened.”

He said that five or six of his paychecks from Moriarty bounced and that by Sept. 19, 1983, less than two months after the club opened, “I was ready to padlock the doors because we had no money to meet the next payroll.”

Sansone testified that Moriarty at that point told him that he had been able to line up an investor who would save the club from insolvency but only on the condition that Sansone step out of the operation.

Offered $1 Million

According to Sansone, Moriarty offered to pay him $1 million for his interest in the club if he would agree to resign. Sansone said he expected to be paid that amount on Sept. 21, 1983, but instead received a check for $200,000 and a promissory note for $800,000.

The jurors were not told that Moriarty had pleaded guilty on Tuesday. U.S. District Judge William J. Rea informed them that the case against Moriarty had “been disposed of.”

Both the prosecution and defense rested their cases Wednesday and Rea, who has presided over the two-week trial, scheduled final arguments in the case for next Tuesday.