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LAS VEGAS (AP) — A Las Vegas limousine company operator and two top executives are set to take plea deals that would avoid trial in what federal prosecutors allege was a multimillion-dollar racketeering conspiracy involving prostitution, drug trafficking and fraud.
CLS Nevada chief executive Charles Horky is due to plead guilty Sept. 25 before U.S. District Judge Robert C. Jones in Las Vegas, and company manager Kimberly Flores and financial adviser Archie Granata are scheduled to enter guilty pleas July 7, according to the court schedule.
They were accused of providing drugs and prostitutes to clients and collecting millions of dollars in inflated payments from credit cards.
Flores' attorney, Craig Drummond, said Thursday that the pleas are contingent upon each other.
Details of the agreements and possible sentences were scheduled to be made public after the pleas are entered.
Granata's lawyer, Richard B. Herman, said his client has leukemia and "looks forward to getting this nightmare behind him."
Herman said the agreement notes that Granata had "minimal participation" in the crimes alleged, and no involvement in drug trafficking or prostitution.
Attorney David Chesnoff, representing Horky, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal (http://bit.ly/1iyCua4 ) that his client accepted responsibility for actions involving some financial activity at the company and was ready to assume the consequences.
Horky, Flores and Granata were arrested in December 2012 after their indictment by a federal grand jury on conspiracy, racketeering, fraud, and unlawful use of a facility of interstate commerce charges.
The indictment sought the forfeiture to the government of about $5.2 million in ill-gotten gains.
Six other people were accused of lesser roles in the scheme, including CLS drivers Clarence Adams, James Reda, Mikhail Maleev and Dawit Moszagi, and associates Solomon Zemedhun and Olive Toli.
At the time of the arrests, CLS Nevada operated a 24-hour chauffeur-driven fleet of about 70 vehicles including airport shuttle buses, limousines and vans.
The Review-Journal reports that Horky has been running a scaled-back version of the company with oversight by a court-appointed monitor.
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Information from: Las Vegas Review-Journal, http://www.lvrj.com
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