Restaurant bosses arrested in insurance fraud probe

Federal and county law enforcement officials arrested the owner and the manager of Anthony's restaurant, 1550 E. Tropicana Ave., this morning in connection with what was described as insurance fraud stemming from a Feb. 25 fire.

Clark County Fire Department investigator Mike Patterson said the two men were to be charged this afternoon in federal court with mail fraud.

He anticipates they will be charged next week with insurance fraud, and he added.

Owner Anthony Schwabb, 51, and manager John D'Amico were arrested at the restaurant, which is undergoing renovation.

Fire Department spokesman Bob Leinbach said the Feb. 25 fire was set in the office of Merritt Realty, which is in the same building as the restaurant.

"We're not saying at this point they started that fire," Leinbach said.

The real estate office, on the north side of the restaurant, suffered an estimated $250,000 in damages, while damage to the restaurant was estimated between $9,000 and $10,000, Patterson said.

Schwabb and D'Amico filed an insurance claim for more than $45,000, he said, making insurance investigators suspicious.

Fire investigators are also still looking into two fires at Anthony's restaurant in 1993 when the restaurant was at a different location.

On May 21, 1993, a fire at the restaurant, then at 3620 E. Flamingo Road, caused an estimated $1,000 damage.

Ten days later, on June 1, a second fire at the restaurant led to an estimated $45,000 in damages.

If convicted of mail fraud, the two men face a possible five years in federal prison.

Agencies involved in the investigation included the Clark County Fire Department, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, Metro Police and the National Insurance Crime Bureau.

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