Charges against PML Clubs, Inc. dropped in federal racketeering case

A federal judge in California Tuesday approved a motion to dismiss racketeering and money laundering charges filed against PML Clubs, Inc., one week after its operator pleaded guilty to 109 counts of the same.

Prosecutors said in a press release last March that Michael Rose, owner of the former The Gold Club gentleman’s club in Myrtle Beach, “operated and controlled PML Clubs,” conspiring through the business and with associates “to conduct the affairs of an enterprise through a pattern of racketeering involving money laundering, bank fraud and drug trafficking.”

A 132-count indictment filed last year accused Rose; Vladimir Handl, owner of Heat Ultra Lounge; Peter Scalise, owner of Zest Restaurant; and David Gaither, a former Myrtle Beach police officer, of working in conjunction with others from outside the area to keep the conspiracy alive.

Rose pleaded guilty Jan. 25 to 109 counts involving charges of racketeering, money laundering and conspiracy to distribute narcotics. 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.”

Rose 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” from May 2012 through December 2014.

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 has declined to comment on the case and remains free on bail. Rose recently moved from Myrtle Beach to Florida.

PML Clubs, which prosecutors say operated a network of strip clubs in South Carolina, Delaware and New Hampshire under the name “The Gold Club,” faced more than 100 charges ranging from racketeering to money laundering, according to court records.

If convicted, PML Clubs, Inc., was facing a maximum fine of $250,000 for each of the two racketeering-related counts, and $500,000 for each count of the 106 money laundering-related counts.

The trial for PML Clubs, Inc. was set last week for Feb. 9, but prosecutors filed a motion to dismiss the charges against PML Clubs Monday evening.

U.S. District Court Judge William Alsup approved the motion to dismiss on Tuesday.

Handl was found guilty of 122 counts of racketeering, money laundering and conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance at a bench trial Jan. 22.

Scalise pleaded guilty to 17 counts, including charges of racketeering, money laundering, racketeering conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy on Jan. 5.

Gaither has yet to be tried on charges of racketeering, racketeering conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy and conspiring to distribute a controlled substance.

Handl and Scalise are set to be sentenced May 31.

This story was originally published February 2, 2016 at 9:13 PM with the headline "Charges against PML Clubs, Inc. dropped in federal racketeering case."