Club Owner Aided Mob, Cousin Says

Gold Club owner Steve Kaplan bought protection from the Gambino crime family during the 1980s and met with boss John Gotti and Gotti’s son at least once to talk about it, Kaplan’s cousin testified Wednesday.

Kaplan, on trial on charges of racketeering related to the Atlanta strip club, bought cars for a Gambino associate in exchange for the mob’s protection of nightclubs he owned, said the cousin, David Alwais, who also identified himself as a former Gambino associate.

Alwais, whose prison sentence on an unrelated federal racketeering conviction was reduced in exchange for his testimony, said Kaplan would have done “pretty much anything” for protection from the Gambinos.

A defense attorney attacked Alwais’ credibility in withering cross-examination, highlighting his past racketeering, counterfeiting and credit-card fraud convictions.

“They label themselves as mobsters, and I think they do so conveniently because that’s what the government wants them to say,” Steve Sadow, Kaplan’s lawyer, told reporters. “I think they’re just scoundrels and two-bit thugs.”

Sadow suggested Alwais had lied to authorities to cooperate with them and get out of jail.

Kaplan and six associates are on trial on charges of racketeering, money laundering and obstruction of justice. The government contends Kaplan sold his dancers as prostitutes to professional athletes, bilked customers through credit-card fraud and funneled money to the Gambino syndicate in New York.

When Kaplan complained he was spending too much money buying cars for Gambino associate Frank Morano, a meeting was called with John Gotti and his son, who then told Morano to lay off Kaplan, Alwais testified.

On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Willis Hunt chastised defense attorneys for theatrics--including a table dance by one lawyer--and the prosecutor apologized for an FBI agent throwing a videotape at Kaplan’s attorney.

“That conduct could be characterized as disrespectful, as disruptive,” Hunt said of Bruce Harvey’s table dance.