Operation G-Sting’ sends Nevada politician to jail

Las Vegas–An outraged federal judge sentenced a former Clark County (Nevada) commissioner to six years in federal prison Wednesday for doling out hundreds of thousands of dollars of a strip club owner’s cash to bribe politicians in Las Vegas and San Diego.

“If there ever needs to be a message with regards to political corruption, it is this case,” U.S. District Judge Larry Hicks said of the case dubbed “Operation G-Sting.”

In a scathing rebuke, Hicks branded Lance Malone the recruiter, organizer, manager and leader of what he called “probably as gross a case of political corruption in the state of Nevada, certainly, that has ever occurred and been successfully prosecuted.”

The judge blamed Malone, 45, for serving as “bag man” lobbyist in the distribution of at least $550,000 worth of bribes to former county commission colleagues and San Diego City Council members from 2000 to 2003.

“This has undoubtedly caused a loss of public confidence in local government that probably cannot be measured,” Hicks said.

The judge increased a recommended 41-month sentence to 72 months in the Las Vegas case, after saying he was convinced by testimony that Malone accepted money for a new car from strip club owner Michael Galardi while Malone still served on the Clark County commission. Malone, a former police officer, went to work for Galardi as a lobbyist after losing a re-election bid.

A San Diego jury previously convicted Malone on charges that he delivered Galardi’s bribes to councilmen Ralph Inzunza and Michael Zucchet.

The federal judge who heard that case later overturned Zucchet’s conviction. He ruled the evidence of fraud and extortion was insufficient. Inzunza was sentenced to 21 months in prison.

Hicks made the Las Vegas sentence concurrent with the three years in federal prison that Malone received in San Diego, and added a fine of $100,000.

Hicks acknowledged that all money came from Galardi, who has pleaded guilty and awaits sentencing.

“Pocket change” to Galardi, the judge said, “but big dollars, with regard to political corruption in Clark County.”

The judge called Malone’s relationships with his former commission colleagues essential to Galardi’s attempts to buy votes and expand his empire of three strip clubs in the Las Vegas area and one club near San Diego.

However, Hicks rejected prosecutor Daniel Schiess’ attempts to enter new evidence tying Malone to allegations of bribery involving a Las Vegas city councilman and to claims that a Canadian developer offered $250,000 to Malone and an indicted Las Vegas businessman to curry support for a casino project just outside Las Vegas.

Malone’s lawyer, Dominic Gentile, said he would study Hicks’ decision for grounds for appeal.

But he noted that Malone waived his right to appeal when he pleaded guilty in September to one count of conspiracy under the federal Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations, or RICO Act. That plea avoided trial in Las Vegas, and made Malone the fifth person convicted in the sensational southern Nevada case that included blue velvet Crown Royal bags stuffed with cash and Galardi’s strip club employees trading sex for votes.

On Wednesday, Malone told Hicks that he had been greedy, and pleaded for leniency.

“I did start with good intentions, and those intentions went horribly, horribly wrong,” said Malone, who Schiess said started accepting $300 a day from Galardi in October 1999.

His voice choking, the divorced father of two said the hardest thing he’d ever done was tell his young sons that he was going to prison.

“I did things that I regret and I wish I could take back, but I cannot,” he said.

Malone was ordered to report to prison by April 9. The judge said will decide how much personal property Malone will be ordered to forfeit. But he put the figure at about $410,000, including assets the judge accused Malone of trying to “insulate from the system” by turning them over to his wife when they divorced shortly before his San Diego trial.

Malone declined to comment as he left court with his arm around his mother.

He becomes the third person sentenced in the corruption case that grew from years of FBI wiretaps.

Former Clark County commissioner Dario Herrera, 33, is serving four years and two months in prison. Mary Kincaid-Chauncey, 68, is serving 30 months. Erin Kenny, 46, pleaded guilty and testified against them last year. She awaits sentencing.

Galardi, 45, faces no more than five years in prison for his guilty plea and cooperation in the case.

The powerful seven-member commission wields control over a wide area of southern Nevada, including the Las Vegas Strip.