Friday, Oct. 23, 1998 | 11:56 a.m.
Charges have been dropped against two lawyers in the federal government's ill-fated criminal case involving allegations of skimming from the proceeds of the $34 million sale of the Tropicana hotel-casino a decade ago.
On a motion by prosecutors, charges were dismissed against Jack Urich and John Jagiela earlier this month, ending a case that harkened back to the 1970s, when mob interests still influenced much of the gaming industry.
A jury trial earlier this year ended in the acquittal of former Tropicana hotel-casino landlords Ed and Fred Doumani and Jagila, their tax attorney, on bankruptcy fraud charges of withholding information from creditors.
The case hinged to a great extent on the stories of another Tropicana landlord, Deil Gustafson, a convicted felon and admitted liar who was trading his testimony about his association with the Doumanis for leniency in his own legal problems.
Urich and Jagiela were accused of assisting in the alleged post-dating of the document so the money would not be considered part of the Hotel Conquistador Inc.'s bankruptcy estate. The corporation, which had sold the Tropicana to Ramada Inn in 1979, filed for bankruptcy in 1984.
Just before this year's trial began, another defendant, Nicholas Tanno, who authorities alleged had ties to organized crime, was dismissed from the case by the judge because of a lack of evidence.
Tanno was accused of collecting more than $1 million in behalf of mob families in Kansas City, Mo., and Cleveland, Ohio.
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