Opinion ID: 770518
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Sale of the hotels - Frontier

Text: 62 The government asserted that the profits made from the sale of the hotel interests were a basis for forfeiture against Jack Tocco and Vito Giacalone. With respect to the sale of the Frontier Hotel specifically, evidence was submitted solely through the testimony of Anthony Polizzi, who testified that the hotel was sold to Howard Hughes for a $1,000,000 profit. Polizzi testified that his father stated that he and his partners each received unspecified shares of the proceeds from the sale. Michael Corrado and Anthony Zerilli were convicted and imprisoned for conspiracy to acquire and maintain hidden interests in the Frontier Hotel gambling and casino operation. Further, Polizzi testified that he heard Jack Tocco thanking his father for his efforts in obtaining the interest on behalf of the partnership. 63 While we believe this is a close issue, we cannot ignore that there is relatively little corroborative evidence on this account. The sale of a hotel is a complicated transaction, yet there was no evidence that any of the defendants were personally involved, nor is there any evidence to corroborate the alleged statements made by Michael and related to his son regarding the involvement of the enterprise. The evidence of the thank you comment of Jack Tocco is not sufficient to show that the entire group was involved in this substantial transaction. Based on this scant evidence of a connection between the enterprise and the sale of this hotel, we decline the invitation to reverse the district court with respect to this $1,000,000 forfeiture request. 64