10-18-1999 Planning Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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Although it is clear that organized crime is involved to some degree in the oomography industry, various sources reach different conclusions as to the depth and extent cf this involvement Part of the difference in assessment is based on diHerences ^ the way the term "organized crime' is defined. Authorities who restrict their definition of organized crime to the highiy organized ethnic hierarchy known as La ^ Nostra (LCN) tend to find fewer links than those who define the term to include er organized criminal enterprises. Where there has been intensive law enforcement and prosecution, it is more likely that linkage between sexually oriented businesses and organized crime figures will be evident The working Group has adopted the definition of organized crime contained in Minnesota's Report of the Legislative Commission on Organized Crime (1975). The Working Group s concerned about the relation between sexually oriented businesses and any "organized criminal conspiracy of two or more persons that is tenuous in nature, involves activity generally crossing jurisdictional lines and results in ihird-p^ profit' The threat from organized crime includes, but is not limited to involvemen national crime enterprises such as LCN. Recent federal hdidmenls of James G. Hafiz in Indiana for petjunfl/ and.of Harry V. Mohrey in Michigan for tax evasion suggest a possible conneeUon organized crime and a Minnesota pornography business. Hafiz, a Minnesota resWert who is an agent of Beverly Theater. Inc., the company which operated the ftua Theater in St Paul.2/ has been linked to Mohney, a major pomographer Michigan. The indtatments allege that .Mohney caused the ktoo^n of t^ comiLiy which operated the Faust that a corporation owned by Mohney paid to improvements to the Faust and that Mohney Is. in fact the oriented businesses, including the Faust gee United States v. Hati^ n i • IP 88-102-CR (S.D. Ind.. Sept 15. 1988); United States v. Mohrtey. Indictment No. 88-50062 (ED. Mich. Sept 9.1988)). 1/ Hafiz was acquitted of the perjury charges. St Paul Pioneer Press, Jan. 11,1989, p. " 10A. 2/ The City of St. Paul bought out the Faust for $l .8 million, closing the entertainment ^ complex on March 7,19M. -15-