Money-Skimming Probe Targets Casino : Inquiry: Investigators seek to find out whether gambling house in Huntington Park under-reported its profits and assigned an employee to work for another firm.

Sheriff’s investigators are looking into whether the management of the Huntington Park Casino committed grand theft by under-reporting gambling profits and by assigning a casino employee to work for another business, according to an affidavit filed in court Thursday.

Those actions could constitute grand theft because the limited partners of the casino would not have received their fair share of revenue from the card club, a sheriff’s investigator said in an interview. The city of Huntington Park also would have been shortchanged; the city owns the land under the casino and receives lease payments based on a percentage of card club revenues. The use of a casino employee to work at another firm is considered a diversion of resources that also belong to the limited partners but does not benefit them.

The amount of the alleged under-reporting was not spelled out in the affidavit, which was used to secure warrants to search the club and three other locations on Oct 10. The affidavit, which quotes Detective Zoe Grillas, an investigator in the case, was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court.

Sheriff’s detectives last week searched the casino, the Manhattan Beach residence of Curtis J. Fresch, casino general manager and president, and the offices of a nearby garbage disposal company that is owned by Fresch’s father. They also searched the office of Fresch’s lawyer, Brendan P. Brady, according to the affidavit.

Records were seized from the casino, the lawyer’s office and from H.P. Disposal Co., which is owned by Eugene C. Fresch, Grillas said. The records include videotapes from cameras in the casino, he said. There have been no arrests.

Neither the Fresches nor Brady returned calls for comment.

The Sheriff’s Department began its investigation about 10 months ago after receiving a tip from a disgruntled former employee of the trash firm.

The detectives based their affidavit on information from the former employee and other unidentified informants.

One informant told investigators that the casino usually had revenues of $19,000 to $22,000 on any given Friday night, according to the affidavit. But Friday revenues reported to the city averaged between $12,000 and $15,000, the affidavit said.

Records show the city has received more than $500,000 in annual lease payments based on 8% of casino revenue.

Councilman William P. Cunningham said he had no comment because he and other city officials had not been informed of the specifics of the investigation.

The investigation is also examining whether Curtis Fresch assigned a casino guard to patrol his father’s trash business without the consent of the casino’s limited partners, Grillas said. On several occasions, sheriff’s deputies interviewed a casino guard who was on duty at H.P. Disposal, the affidavit said.

State employment and alcoholic beverage control officials also were present during last week’s searches. Representatives from the Internal Revenue Service and the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office were there as well.

An IRS official declined comment beyond saying that in cases such as this investigators generally check to see if revenue has been reported accurately.