Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Corruption scandals in Nevada history

Corruption scandals in Nevada history:

- 1869: State Treasurer Eben Rhoades dies and state officials discover he plundered state funds to buy worthless mining stocks and feed his cocaine habit.

- 1898: U.S. Senate candidates William Stewart and Francis Newlands offer bribes to state legislators, who elect Stewart.

- 1925: State Prohibition Agency Director John Donnelley is accused of collecting protection money from bootleggers and convicted of overlooking drinking violations.

- 1927: State Treasurer Ed Malley and Controller George A. Cole go to prison for four years each for stealing $516,000, or about half of the state's annual budget.

- 1940: U.S. Sen. Key Pittman, gravely ill in Reno on election day, remains on the ballot and is elected to a sixth term. He dies five days later, letting Gov. E.P. Carville, a fellow Democrat, name his replacement.

- 1957: State legislators abolish the elected office of surveyor general after allegations that Louis Ferrari sold state land to friends and legislators for $1.25 per acre. Ferrari is also accused of pocketing $35,000 buying and selling land on which the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, is built.

- 1972: Clark County Commissioner James "Sailor" Ryan is found guilty of accepting $5,000 to support zoning changes.

- 1979: Clark County Business License Director Eathel "Tex" Gates is sentenced to eight years in prison for extortion, obstruction of justice and perjury after accepting $132,000 in bribes from a Las Vegas businessman.

- 1979: Jack Gordon of Las Vegas and Joe Daly of San Bernardino, Calif., get six months in prison for attempting to bribe state gaming commissioners Harry Reid and George Swarts, who report the attempts.

- 1980: Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Alfred Becker is fined $1,000 and removed for accepting cash payoffs for judicial favors.

- 1982: Operation Yobo, an FBI undercover political corruption sting, results in bribery convictions against state Sens. Floyd Lamb and Gene Echols, Clark County commissioners Woodrow Wilson and Jack Petitti, and Reno City Councilman Joe McClelland. McClelland's conviction is later reversed.

- 1984: Assemblyman Gene Collins, D-North Las Vegas, is found guilty of two misdemeanor counts of failing to file tax returns, but is voted back into office.

- 1986: U.S. District Judge Harry Claiborne is impeached by the U.S. Senate after serving a prison sentence for tax fraud. He is later reinstated to the Nevada bar and practices law in Las Vegas.

- 1996: A federal grand jury in Las Vegas indicts Clark County District Judge Gerard Bongiovanni, his friend Paul Dottore and show producer Jeff Kutash on racketeering, wire fraud and conspiracy charges. Dottore pleads guilty to racketeering in May 1997. Bongiovanni and Kutash are acquitted in separate trials.

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Sources: Las Vegas Review-Journal; Nevada State Library and Archive.

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