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2 Seattle-area strip-club managers back in trouble

Sex for pay is rampant at two Seattle-area strip clubs despite federal indictments hanging over the heads of owner Frank Colacurcio Sr. and several associates, prosecutors allege in documents filed in U.S. District Court in Seattle.
Sex for pay remains rampant at two Seattle-area strip clubs despite federal racketeering indictments hanging over the heads of longtime crime figure Frank Colacurcio Sr. and several associates, prosecutors allege.

A recent undercover sting operation has revealed that dancers at Rick's, in Lake City, and Honey's, in the Everett area, routinely engage in sex acts with customers in exchange for money, according to a motion filed by Assistant U.S. attorneys Todd Greenberg and Tessa Gorman in U.S. District Court in Seattle.

Prosecutors are seeking to have strip-club managers David Ebert and Steven Fueston prohibited from having further involvement with the clubs. Ebert and Fueston were allowed by a judge in August to continue managing the strip-clubs while the criminal case against them and several other men progressed through court.

Ebert and Fueston were indicted on charges of conspiracy to commit racketeering, conspiracy to use interstate facilities in aid of racketeering, conspiracy to engage in money laundering and mail fraud.

In addition to the 92-year-old Colacurcio, his son, Frank Jr., and Leroy Christiansen were indicted last year after a lengthy undercover operation at the strip clubs.

A fourth associate, Colacurcio's longtime friend and caregiver, John Gilbert "Gil" Conte, 76, pleaded guilty to prostitution-related conspiracy charges in November.

On Wednesday, federal prosecutors filed the motion to modify conditions of release to keep Ebert and Fueston from running Talents West and the related strip clubs because of the recent undercover investigation.

Undercover officers went into the two clubs several times in December and January and posed as customers. They were repeatedly offered sex in exchange for cash, cited dollar amounts for sex acts and watched other customers having sex with dancers, according to the motion.

When the undercover officers asked one dancer if things had changed inside the clubs after the indictments, the woman said "things changed, but it didn't last very long and things are [now] better than ever," according to court paperwork.

Many of the dancers said that management turns a blind eye toward sex acts occurring inside the clubs, federal-court documents allege. Two of the officers, who also worked undercover inside the clubs during the initial federal investigation that spanned between 2006 and 2008, said in the court papers that "the availability of sex acts" now is similar to how things were before raids in June 2008 that preceded the indictments.

Prosecutors say the Colacurcios and their partners organized their clubs — in Seattle, Shoreline, Everett and Parkland, Pierce County — to profit from rampant prostitution and failed to disclose their true income for tax purposes. Frank Colacurcio Sr. has previous convictions for racketeering and tax fraud.

Robert Chadwell, who is representing Fueston, calls the government's motion and affidavit "perplexing in light of the failure to mention Mr. Fueston's name or the club he operates even once." Chadwell said that Fueston no longer works for the strip-club business.

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