Former Myrtle Beach strip club, night club, restaurant owners found guilty of racketeering

Three Myrtle Beach businessmen were convicted of racketeering, money laundering and drug trafficking conspiracy in two plea hearings and one bench trial that ended with guilty verdicts this month in a federal court in San Francisco.

Michael Rose, owner of the former The Gold Club gentlemen’s club; Vladimir Handl, owner of Heat Ultra Lounge; and Peter Scalise, owner of Zest Restaurant, are set to be sentenced in May.

An indictment last year accused Rose, Handl, Scalise and David Gaither, a former Myrtle Beach police officer, with conspiring to conduct an enterprise through a pattern of racketeering, involving money laundering, bank fraud and drug trafficking.

The indictment accused them of accepting more than $2.3 million hailed as proceeds from drug trafficking, then laundering the money through their businesses or personal bank accounts.

The indictment also accused the conspirators of creating fraudulent invoices, contracts and other business records to make the laundered funds appear as legitimate business transactions. The defendants were also accused of seeking to acquire cocaine to sell.

Rose pleaded guilty to 109 counts, including one count of racketeering, one count of racketeering conspiracy, 104 counts of money laundering and one count of conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance on Monday.

The charges bear a maximum sentence of life in prison. He is set to be sentenced at 2 p.m. on May 31.

Through a plea agreement, Rose confessed, “I, in agreement with others, engaged in financial transactions involving proceeds I believed to be derived from drug trafficking with the intent to conceal and disguise the nature, location and source of the proceeds.”

From May 2012 through December 2014, he told the court he and/or his accomplices “accepted cash” that he “believed was derived from drug trafficking, deposited it into business bank accounts” he and/or his accomplices controlled “and then returned the cash to the owner via check or wire transfers, keeping approximately 10 percent of the cash as the money laundering fee.”

Rose admitted he and/or his accomplices also “created false business records to justify the checks and wire transfers sent to the owner of the cash,” according to court records.

Rose declined to comment on the case on Wednesday, but said, “I will surely do a complete interview on the facts after my sentencing.”

Rose remains free on bail. His business, PML Clubs, Inc., which operated a network of strip clubs in South Carolina, Delaware and New Hampshire under the name “The Gold Club,” also faces 121 charges ranging from racketeering to money laundering, according to court records. The trial for PML Clubs, Inc. is set for Feb. 9.

Handl was found guilty of 122 counts including charges of racketeering, 117 counts of money laundering and a count of conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance at a bench trial before U.S. District Judge William Alsup on Friday.

Handl remains released on bail. His sentencing has been set for 2 p.m. on May 31. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.

“Mr. Handl does plan to appeal the conviction,” said Tim Crudo, Handl’s attorney from Coblentz Patch Duffy & Bass LLP – a law firm in San Francisco.

Handl declined to comment on the case.

Scalise pleaded guilty to 17 counts, including charges of racketeering, money laundering, racketeering conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy on Jan. 5. He also faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.

The trial for Gaither and other defendants in the case is currently set for May 9.

This story was originally published January 27, 2016 at 8:16 PM with the headline "Former Myrtle Beach strip club, night club, restaurant owners found guilty of racketeering."