Hide Article Text (OCR)
.KANSAS CITY (AP) — A former cashier at the ==Tropicana Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas has s testified he helped his boss steal $342,000 from the casino in 1978 and 1979. Jay Gould testified Thursday under a grant of ammunity from prosecution. Gould, now the vault cashier at the Riviera Casino, told a US District ourt jury that he was hired May 9, 1978 by Donald Shepard, then the casino Manager, and voioed Speeats Sake the wresey Skee aee oe are months.” Gould was the last of 488 nam in the four week old trial of six men charged with conspiring to skim $280,000 in foling from the Tropicana between June 7, 1978, and Feb. 14, 1979. The government, contends the Skimmed money was distributed amon organized crime members in Kansas City Chicago. Defendants in the case are Carl DeLuna, Carl Civella, Peter Tamburello and Charles D. ‘Moretina of Kansas City; Carl W. Thomas of Las ‘Vegas, and Anthony Chiavola Sr., a retired ee police officer. Gould said that on the first night he went to work at the Tropicana he had an agreement with to help skim money. He said Shepard ‘give him “fill slips” on which Shepard had forged the signatures of other casino employees, that he would process them. Fill slips chips that have been moved from the “cage,” or cashier’s area, to gaming tables. Through the use of the forged slips, the chips then could be converted to cash and the cash taken from the casino. Gould said he was paid several thousand dollars for Paton in the scheme. He identified 31 fill slips that he testified were used to skim the $342,000. Earlier Thursday, Fred C. Griffin, a security guard at the Tropicana for 12 years, examined several fill slips that bore his name. “It’s a facsimile of my signature, but it’s not as Griffin said after examining one of the TKs my name but not my handwriting,” he said after examining another one. Ravina, a floor man at the Tropicana since 1974, also testified that he had not signed fill displayed by the government which carried name Gould testified that to his knowledge, Carl Thomas was not involved in skimming at the Tropicana, but that he had participated with Thomas in a skimming operation in 1970 at a Las Vegas casino called, Circus Circus. Joseph V. Agosto, a former defendant who has been the government’s star witness, has testified that Shepard and Billy C. Caldwell, assistant casino manager, falsified fill — and other records to cover the thefts of gambling receipts from the casino. Shepard and Caldwell have pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing. FBI Agent Zack Shelton also testified Thursday that he observed the late Nick Civella, the reputed head of organized crime in Kansas City, and three reputed underworld figures from Chicago at the home of Chiavola, the former policeman, in 1978. Before Nick Civella arrived, Shelton testified, Chiavola went outside, walked around and made hand gestures to other individuals in the area. “He looked like a third base coach giving signals,” Shelton testified. helton said he later observed Chiavola go to the car in which Nic Civella had arrived, take a white envelope from a briefcase in the car and take it inside the house.
Newspaper Details
Sedalia Democrat
Sedalia, Missouri, US
Fri, Jun 24, 1983
Page 3
Full Page
Clipped by
Albert M.
