Source: AP
(NEW YORK, NY) — An Atlanta strip club linked to organized crime provided thousands of dollars’ worth of strippers and alcohol to professional athletes including, Dennis Rodman and Charles Oakley, the Daily News of New York reported today.
The Gold Club allegedly gave the athletes phony money called “Gold Bucks” that it normally sells to patrons so they can give them to strippers or rent a private VIP room, the Daily News said. It added that athletes also got free drinks.
The newspaper quoted unidentified federal sources and investigative records as saying that during five nights in April 1998, “Patrick Ewing and friends” ran up a bill of $2,233, including a $991 tab in a single night at the club.
Oakley, who left the New York Knicks in June 1998 and now plays for Toronto, was comped for $1,313 and $665 on two nights in June 1997, while Rodman paid $411, $516, $786, $895, $926, and $946 in Gold Bucks during visits from 1995 to 1998, the newspaper said.
Steven Kaplan, owner of the Gold Club, and 14 other defendants were indicted Nov. 4 on charges including prostitution, racketeering, money-laundering, loan-sharking and credit-card fraud. They have pleaded innocent.
No athletes were named in the indictment and none faces allegations of wrongdoing. NBA spokesman Brian McIntyre said the league was monitoring developments.
“We have not started any investigation,” McIntyre said.
Lori Hamamoto, a spokeswoman for the Knicks, said the club would have no comment. Calls today to agents for Ewing, Rodman and Oakley were not immediately returned.
NBA players are not prohibited from accepting free food and drink at bars, restaurants or strip clubs, although the standard player contract does forbid behavior that is “materially prejudicial or detrimental” to the league.
The government contends the Gold Club was a virtual brothel that corrupted police, provided dancers as prostitutes for regular clients and skimmed millions from the cash flow to buy protection from the New York-based Gambino organized crime family.
The indictment says that in April or May 1997, Kaplan and the other defendants transported female dancers from the Gold Club to the Francis Marion Hotel in Charleston, S.C. so dancers could “perform a lesbian sex show and have sex with members of a professional basketball team.”
The indictment did not identify the team, but the Knicks were in Charleston in April 1997 for a playoff training camp at College of Charleston. The team has held training camps in Charleston since 1991.
The Daily News reported that several unidentified Knicks players were at the sex show.
The indictment said Kaplan, who bought the Gold Club in 1994, has had a long-term relationship with the Gambino operation, once reputedly run by John Gotti. Kaplan is accused of obstructing investigations into the family by hiding and paying witnesses – with cash, sexual favors or free club services.
Club employees arranged for dancers to have sex with celebrity clients – including unidentified professional basketball players – in the club’s private rooms, at local hotels or on trips outside Atlanta, the indictment said. Two Delta Air Lines employees were charged with helping arrange those trips for reduced rates in exchange for club services and other considerations.
The Gold Club is one of Atlanta’s largest nude dancing establishments. In the early 1990s, its liquor sales made it one of the most profitable adult clubs in the country.
