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Newspaper links felon to Fla. nightclubs
PALM BEACH, Fla., -- A man with a criminal past has ties to several Florida bars, including a strip club linked to a sex slavery investigation, The Palm Beach (Fla.) Post reports.
The newspaper reported Sunday its own investigation revealed state regulators failed to detect the role of Anthony Genovese, 33, a convicted felon, played in the nightspots, which also are associated with three slayings in the past 20 months.
One of the Palm Beach County clubs, El Rancho Sports Bar and Restaurant, is where two sisters from Honduras, forced into the sex industry, were made to dance for men, the newspaper said.
Genovese's name wasn't on the clubs' liquor license applications and the state Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco and he denies owning the clubs.
However, the Post reported the interviews it conducted and its review of hundreds of public records turned up a pattern of omission and regulatory failure in at least four liquor license applications submitted by companies affiliated with Genovese.
"All of the applications submitted to ABT met state requirements for licensure. On all of the documentation submitted to ABT for licensure, Mr. Genovese was not listed as having an interest in the establishments, nor was he listed as an interested party in the Division of Corporations' files," agency spokeswoman Alexis Lambert said last week in a written statement. "All disclosed interested parties were fingerprinted for background checks and passed."
The Post said, however, it found Genovese's name listed on a promissory note attached for an application for a strip club, Senoritas Cabaret, suggesting he had an interest in the business. The newspaper said his initials were found 26 times on other documents, as well.
ABT officials said they would investigate the newspaper's findings, the Post said.
PALM BEACH, Fla., -- A man with a criminal past has ties to several Florida bars, including a strip club linked to a sex slavery investigation, The Palm Beach (Fla.) Post reports.
The newspaper reported Sunday its own investigation revealed state regulators failed to detect the role of Anthony Genovese, 33, a convicted felon, played in the nightspots, which also are associated with three slayings in the past 20 months.
One of the Palm Beach County clubs, El Rancho Sports Bar and Restaurant, is where two sisters from Honduras, forced into the sex industry, were made to dance for men, the newspaper said.
Genovese's name wasn't on the clubs' liquor license applications and the state Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco and he denies owning the clubs.
However, the Post reported the interviews it conducted and its review of hundreds of public records turned up a pattern of omission and regulatory failure in at least four liquor license applications submitted by companies affiliated with Genovese.
"All of the applications submitted to ABT met state requirements for licensure. On all of the documentation submitted to ABT for licensure, Mr. Genovese was not listed as having an interest in the establishments, nor was he listed as an interested party in the Division of Corporations' files," agency spokeswoman Alexis Lambert said last week in a written statement. "All disclosed interested parties were fingerprinted for background checks and passed."
The Post said, however, it found Genovese's name listed on a promissory note attached for an application for a strip club, Senoritas Cabaret, suggesting he had an interest in the business. The newspaper said his initials were found 26 times on other documents, as well.
ABT officials said they would investigate the newspaper's findings, the Post said.