Tourist who was owed $9M by ex-Las Vegas strip club boss dies without cashing in

Now — a bar fight, a federal racketeering investigation and several legal battles later — Henry is dead, and Rizzolo could be sitting on nearly $9 million he still owes the computer cable salesman who dared dispute a bill at the Crazy Horse Too strip club.

Henry died this month at 58. The exact cause of his death is undisclosed. But his life expectancy was severed back in September 2001, when a Rizzolo henchman snapped his neck in the cabaret parking lot after Henry accused employees of padding his $88 bar tab.

Neither man emerged on top after the fight that occurred in the pre-dawn hours of that late-September Thursday. Henry was paralyzed from the neck down. And Rizzolo’s high-rolling days soon would come to an end.

The attack jolted federal investigators, who had been eyeing Rizzolo since the mid-1990s. In 2005, they ripped the cloak off of what was then the most notorious adult venue in Las Vegas with a racketeering indictment against Rizzolo and 16 of his associates. The topless club mogul and his employees were accused of using the strip joint to run a profitable criminal enterprise through which they skimmed proceeds off dancers’ earnings and violently extorted payments from club patrons. Investigative documents in the case revealed federal agents suspected Rizzolo had Mafia ties.

Rizzolo dodged lengthy prison time when he negotiated a plea deal with prosecutors that resulted in a single felony tax conviction and a one-year-and-one-day sentence. He since has dodged paying out the lion’s share of $10 million in restitution to Henry and his wife, Amy, who died of cancer in 2015.

Henry’s funeral is scheduled for Friday. Neither his family nor his lawyers could be reached for comment.

According to the U.S. attorney’s office, the debt Rizzolo owes the Henrys totals $8.8 million, including principal and interest.

The U.S. Justice Department website states, “If a victim dies, restitution may also be paid to a victim’s estate.”

The Henrys fought for years in court for the money they are owed. In 2008, they accused Rizzolo of staging a bogus divorce from his wife in order to flush away his assets. Rizzolo gave his wife $5 million and three homes in what the Henrys contended was a sham alimony agreement to protect the assets from court-ordered seizure.

The first $1 million Rizzolo owed was paid out in 2006. The multimillionaire businessman spent the next decade arguing in state and federal court that he should not be required to pay the remaining $9 million. Judges repeatedly sided with the Henrys.

Rizzolo told the Las Vegas Review-Journal in a 2003 interview that Crazy Horse Too raked in more than $10 million a year during its golden days. Those golden days are over — the cabaret is shuttered, the parking lot empty, and the windows boarded up. “Gentleman’s Club” signs in white block letters and torn posters of scantily clad women represent the only shadows of what it once was.

Rizzolo was forced to surrender ownership of Crazy Horse Too as part of his plea agreement. In 2011, a federal judge sent him back to prison after finding he violated his terms of release by hiding funds from authorities so he could enjoy a lifestyle without paying off his restitution. At the time, he owed the Henrys roughly $14 million.

Federal prosecutors slapped Rizzolo with additional tax evasion charges in 2014. The first count accuses him of hiding assets in the early 2000s to avoid paying $1.7 million in employment taxes. The second count addresses his behavior in the same years the Henrys were fighting for their money. It accuses him of hiding assets to avoid paying $861,000 in income tax. That case is pending in federal court in Las Vegas.

Numerous lawyers who have represented Rizzolo over the years either could not be reached or did not return requests for comment.

Contact Jenny Wilson at jenwilson@reviewjournal.com or 702-384-8710. Follow @jennydwilson on Twitter.