Friday, May 16, 2003 | 6:14 a.m.
Jeff German's column appears Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays in the Sun. Reach him at [email protected] or (702) 259-4067.
WEEKEND EDITION: May 18, 2003
AS THE FEDERAL assault on the cash-rich strip club industry widened last week, Olympic Garden owner Pete Eliadis emerged as the last of the Big Four operators still standing.
For now, at least.
About five years ago Club Paradise owner Sam Ceccola was forced to turn over his South Paradise Road joint to his wife following his federal tax evasion conviction in Chicago.
In February FBI agents raided Rick Rizzolo's Crazy Horse Too nightclub on South Industrial Road looking for evidence of hidden mob interests.
And last week agents executed search warrants at Cheetahs and Jaguars, owned by Jack Galardi and his son, Michael, with the goal of finding records of secret payments to local politicians.
The raid left the 70-year-old Eliades, a Greek immigrant who got started as a cab driver, as the only major topless club operator who doesn't have to call his lawyer in the morning before breakfast.
It could be that the feds just haven't gotten around to Eliades, because he's been known to spread just as much money around town to political campaigns as Rizzolo and the Galardis. And he has demonstrated over the years that he knows how to use his political clout.
Eliades said last week that there's a good reason why he hasn't taken a dive with his rivals.
"When I give campaign contributions, I tell them I don't want any extra favors," he said. "I tell them to treat me the same as everybody else."
In theory that sounds good. But Eliades doesn't really want to be treated like everybody else. He gives money -- like Rizzolo and the Galardis -- so that when he picks up the phone and asks an elected official for help, he gets help.
What sets Eliades apart from his rivals is his seemingly modest lifestyle.
He doesn't go around town flaunting the fact that he's a rich man. He doesn't drink or smoke. He doesn't drive a flashy car or spend a lot of money on clothes. And he'd rather have a fish sandwich at McDonald's than Ossobucco at Piero's.
You also won't see him gambling away hundreds of thousands of dollars on the Strip on any given night like one of his competitors, and you won't see him building a 30,000-square-foot home in a fancy neighborhood like another rival.
But maybe the most important thing that distinguishes Eliades from the other strip club operators is that he doesn't hire ex-elected officials to hand out money for him. He has accountants do that, or he does it himself. He also doesn't give politicians phony consulting contracts to keep them in his back pocket.
Several years ago, Eliades recalled, the late former City Councilman Bob Nolen asked him for a loan to pay off his house. But instead of giving him the money, Eliades gave him a job as a manager at Olympic Garden. Nolen, he said, died a destitute man.
Maybe Eliades is just cheap. For a long time, while all of the other strip clubs were doing it, he refused to pay kickbacks to cabbies to bring business to Olympic Garden. He's paying them these days because the cabbies have lowered their price from $20 to $10 a passenger.
Though Eliades may have a pass from the feds for now, it's probably reasonable to conclude that they'll get around to scrutinizing him, too. He is, after all, also a major investor in the biggest topless club in the country, the just-opened Sapphire on South Industrial Road.
There's too much money being made, too much political influence bandied about and too many topless clubs springing up for the FBI not to look at all of the industry's major players.
Eliades contends the scrutiny is good.
"If there are crooked things going on, the FBI should eliminate them," he said. "That's their job."
As for targeting him, Eliades said bring it on: "They can investigate me if they want to. I've got nothing to hide."
From experience, his competitors would tell him to be careful about making that claim.
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