Former Gold Club owner files motion to dismiss federal racketeering charges

Lawyers for Myrtle Beach businessman Mike Rose filed a motion to dismiss federal charges of racketeering, money laundering and drug trafficking-related crimes.

Lawyers for Rose and Vladimir Handl filed motions to dismiss the charges based on “outrageous government conduct.” The lawyers also requested that the motions for Rose and Handl be heard together.

Rose and Handl are among those charged in a seven-person indictment that involves millions of dollars fraudulently diverted from bankruptcy proceeding or “constituted proceeds from drug trafficking,” according to a press release from the U.S. District Attorneys Office in Northern California. The charges also carry maximum sentences that could add up to thousands of years for some of those charged.

Rose, owner of the former gentleman’s club The Gold Club and former owner of Broadway at the Beach’s Rodeo Bar and Grill; Handl, owner of Heat Ultra Lounge; Peter Scalise, owner of Zest restaurant, which burned in the Front Street fire in Georgetown in 2013; and David Gaither, a former Myrtle Beach police officer who was fired in 2009 following a report that he exposed himself on the Intracoastal Waterway, are among the seven people charged in the case.

According to the motion filed last week with U.S. District Court in San Francisco, Rose’s attorney, Solomon L. Wisenberg, argues that “government agents deliberately created an alleged money laundering scheme and improperly enticed Mr. Rose to join it, in order to steal his valuable properties.” Wisenberg could not be reached Wednesday.

Wisenberg also argues that none of the money allegedly laundered belonged to Rose.

“Based upon my information and belief, including review of materials produced by the United States, it appears that the Government was the sole source of all money allegedly laundered by Defendant Michael Rose during the course of this matter,” according to the motion.

The motion on behalf of Handl made a similar argument.

“When the government with its extraordinary powers oversteps its limited function of prevention and apprehension and becomes the moving force in the creation of a crime, it acts so outrageously that the law demands that the resulting charges be dismissed,” according to court documents. “The government has done just that here.”

They have asked a hearing on the motion be scheduled for Oct. 13 at the U.S. District Court in San Francisco.

This story was originally published September 16, 2015 at 5:56 PM with the headline "Former Gold Club owner files motion to dismiss federal racketeering charges."