By John Connolly

n January 21 , 1998, Mary Jo White, the

U.S. attorney tor the Southern District of
New York, and Dennis Vacco, the attorney
general of the state of New York, held a press
conference to proudly announce the indictments of John Gotti, Jr., and 40 others on a
variety of racketeering charges. White and
Vacco, surrounded by scores of stern-faced
high-level law-enforcement types , alleged that
"Junior" (whose father, Gambino-crime-family
chief John Gotti, Sr., is currently serving a life
sentence at the federal maximum-security facility in Marion, Illinois) and the other defendants
had profited from numerous illegal activities.
The centerpiece of the 116-page indictment
was charges that Gambino-family captains
Gregory DePalma and Salvatore "Tore" LoCasio and other reputed mobsters-John

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80

"Goombah Johnnie" Saliano, Anthony "The

Carpenter" Plomitallo, Stephen "Sigmund the
Sea Monster" Sergio, and Stephen's father,
Michael "Mickey Hop" Sergio-had extorted
hundreds of thousands of dollars a year from
New York's famous Scores strip club.
At that hour-long press conference the prosecutors heaped praise on each other's efforts
in bringing to justice Junior and the top echelon
of the Gambino crime family. They boasted
about gathering thousands of hours of secret
audio- and videotapes of the mobsters engaging in all manner of criminal activity at Scores,
which bills itself as "the world 's busiest and
most successful club."
What White and Vacco didn't tell the press
was that those tapes had been gathered with
the help of-and some sources say at the instigation of-the politically connected lawyer and
de facto owner of Scores, 48-year-old Michael

PENTHOUSE

Blutrich, and his business partner, Lyle Pfeffer.

There was also no mention that Blutrich and
Pfeffer, who are currently out on $500,000 bail
that remains in place following federal guilty
pleas in Florida for bilking an insurance company of tens of millions, are still receiving tens of
thousands of dollars a week as their share of the
take from Scores. (Despite repeated requests,
the U.S. attorney's office and the New York attorney general's office refused to answer any questions relating to this story.)
Nor was the press told that informant
Blutrich's powerful law firm, originally founded
under the name Weiss, Blutrich, Falcone &
Miller, was often referred to as "Cuomo's firm ,"
a reference to its close ties to former New York
governor Mario Cuomo. Established in 1982 at
the urging of then Lieutenant Governor Cuomo,
the firm's partners included Blutrich; Jerry Weiss,
who had served as Cuomo's special counsel ;
Robert Miller, a longtime Cuomo political operative; and Lucille Falcone, who was Cuomo's
chief fund-raiser.
Not surprisingly, White and Vacco also chose
not to inform the press that Blutrich likes boysvery young boys. In fact Blutrich is a convicted
pedophile. But the cooperative pervert will not
have to concern himself with that pesky
Megan's Law (a statute in many states under
which parole officials must notify the members
of a community when a convicted pedophile is
released into their midst) because the appreciative feds are placing him in the federal
Witness Protection Program, giving him a new
identity complete with a clean slate.
As shocking as this arrangement may be to
the ordinary citizen, it comes as no surprise to
those familiar with Michael Blutrich's charmed
life and his willingness to use his powerful connections and ill-gotten money to buy the
silence of his victims.
Born and raised in the predominantly Jewish
Brighton Beach section of Brooklyn , Blutrich
graduated from Lincoln High School there and
attended New York University in Manhattan. His
father, Solomon Blutrich, was a successful accountant, and his mother, Gertrude, worked to
supplement the family income. According to one
of Michael's earliest victims, today a 40-year-old
whom we will call Sid (the names of Blutrich 's
victims have been changed here to protect their
privacy), "Mike's family was very comfortable .
They lived in a very large first-floor apartment at
Avenue Z and East 12th Street, right across from
the synagogue. In addition to three bedrooms
the apartment even had a den-something the

rest of us only dreamed about."

Sid and other young boys in the
neighborhood saw a lot of the Blutrich
apartment in the early seventies. While
living at home with his parents as an
N.Y.U. undergraduate, Michael-who
was at the time nearing 20-volunteered to coach a team of 11- to 13-yearold basketball players at the Shorefront
Y.M.H.A. in Brighton Beach . It was an
unlikely gesture, made with what turned
out to be an ulterior motive. Says Mark
Rosen , who was one of those kids
coached by Michael , "In or out of the
paint, Blutrich was the worst basketball
player I have ever seen. It was not until
years later that we all realized he
learned the game just to get close to
some of the other boys." At the Shorefront Y Blutrich also would befriend fellow coach Irving "Blitz" Bilzinsky. Blitz,
who was 36 at the time and lived off his
paltry salary as a coach plus income
from being a part-time bookie, would
soon become Blutrich 's chicken hawk
and later the front man for his ownership
of Scores. {When asked by Penthouse

realize it at the time, but that gave us

erections. After a few of these sessions,
another part of the experiment was to
see how w~ waul react if we thought he
was taking a picture of us naked . He
showed us a camera without film and
then told us to close our eyes wh ile he
supposedly snapped pictures with a
camera containing no film ."
It wasn't until two decades later that
Blutrich 's victims would learn he had
secretly kept handy another camera that
did contain film . Having heard stories
that Blutrich had pictures of naked
young boys that he would display at
Scores, the man we've called Sid went
to the club to confront his former coach.
"What had happened back then bothered me for a long time, and when I
heard about the pictures I went to
Scores looking for revenge," Sid says.
Although the pictures at Scores weren't
from the Brighton Beach experiments,
Blutrich admitted to Sid that he'd in fact
taken pictures of him and Stewart and
others from the Shorefront Y.M.H.A. 20
years earlier. Then Blutrich offered to

'We had to close our eyes,

and then he would slowly drip

.drops of water on our
penises.... That gave us erections."
about bookmaking and his involvement
in procuring boys for Blutrich, Bilzinsky
refused to comment.)
In the minds of the impressionable
kids at the Y.M.H.A. , Blutrich was not just
a coach but a friend . Says Stewart, a 42year-old who was another of his victims,
"Mike was friendly with my mother, and
after she died he was there to console
me. It was not until years later that I realized how he had used us during the
experiments at his parents' home."
With both parents working out of the
house during the day, Blutrich could
easily invite young boys over to his
home for "experiments." Stewart recalls
how Blutrich persuaded his young
charges to help with one particular
"research" experiment, supposedly for
one of his college courses. The innocent
boys somewhat reluctantly agreed to
the bizarre request.
"Biutrich would have three or four of us
come over to his house when his parents
weren't home and take us into his parents' bedroom for the 'experiments,'"
says Stewart. "He would have us take off
our pants and our underwear and get on
his mother's bed . We had to close our
eyes, and then he would slowly drip
drops of water on our penises. We didn't
82 PENTHOUSE

buy Sid's silence. "He said, 'Let's work

this out,'" says Sid. "Over the next six
years he paid me almost $60,000 to
keep quiet. I learned later that I was not
the only one being paid ."
Upon graduating from Georgetown
Law School in 1974, Blutrich went to
work for a small Manhattan law firm ,
where he specialized in apparel-andgarment arbitration law. Around the
same time he married a Brooklyn dental
hygienist named Joyce Gnatt. Little is
known about the marriage except that
the couple divorced after seven years.
Joyce Gnatt has since moved to Israel.
In 1980 a textile-manufacturing client
introduced Blutrich to Queens attorney
Jerry Weiss, a Democratic party activist
and special counsel to then New York
Lieutenant Governor Mario Cuomo .
Shortly after the introduction Blutrich
joined Weiss's firm. Although he had no
political aspirations of his own , he 'd
proved himself to be a savvy campaigner and fund-raiser. Along with Robert
Miller, a neighborhood friend who would
later join him at the Weiss law firm ,
Blutrich had managed the 1972 congressional campaign of Brighton Beach
Democrat Larry Simon. His man lost the
election, but Blutrich had established

his bona fides with the Democratic

party machine. During the Simon campaign he also found another use for his

ont5timJ Y baahetba!!

p!ay~r

"~.lhl1ri~h

would make us hand out fliers and do

other things for the candidate," says Sid.
Joining Weiss proved to be Blutrich's
ticket to the legal big leagues. In 1982,
at client Mario Cuomo's urging , Weiss
opened the Manhattan-based law firm
of Weiss, Blutrich, Miller & Falcone. The
firm , which at one point boasted 25
lawyers, quickly established itself as
one of the most politically connected in
the state, and counted among its clients
some of New York's most successful
developers, including Donald Trump
and William B. Zeckendorf.
Weiss, Blutrich , Miller & Falcone also
functioned as Cuomo's kitchen cabinet
and family sinecure. In his autobiography,
The Diaries of Mario M. Cuomo, the former governor describes how he "strongly
encouraged" Weiss to open a Manhattan
law firm so Cuomo would have a job
should his political career suddenly end.
"All this is great because it helps me provide for the future ,'' wrote Cuomo .
Found ing partner Lucille Falcone, who
would remain with the firm until 1993, was
a close Cuomo confidante and chief
fund-raiser. She was also the girlfriend of
Cuomo's son Andrew, who joined the firm
as a full partner in 1985. (Andrew, who is
currently U.S. Secretary of Housing and
Urban Development, later married Kerry
Kennedy, one of the daughters of Robert
and Ethel Kennedy.)
Even as a prominent lawyer, Blutrich
continued to indulge his pedophilic
appetites. At the end of 1988 Andrew
Cuomo quit his $225,000-a-year position
at Blutrich, Miller & Falcone (Weiss had
left the firm in 1985) for a $60,000-a-year
job at HELP-USA, building houses for the
homeless. According to sources close to
the situation, one reason Andrew left the
firm was that he was worried about the
parade of underage boys going in and
out of Blutrich 's office. A source at
firm, who requested anonymity,
"Everyone knew what Michael [Biutrich]
was doing with these young boys. On
more than one occasion a mother of one
of these boys would come up to the office
screaming and complaining about what
Blutrich was doing to her son ." (Repeated
requests by Penthouse to Secretary Cuomoat H.U.D. for comment on these matters were not answered.)
By the time he turned 40, Michael
Blutrich was living very large. He had
multimillion-dollar law firm , influential
associates, powerful clients , and a
string of boy toys. Then in 1990
embarked on a hustle that ultimate!
would prove his undoing. According
federal court records in Florida,
acting as an attorney as well as a
investor, offered to pay $4 million for

U.S.A. CONFIDENTIAL
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 82

controlling interest in the National Heritage Insurance Company, based in

Orlando. To close the deal , Blutrich illegally took $3 million from one of his law
firm 's escrow accounts. Once the deal
was closed , Blutrich and his partners,
who included National Heritage president David Davies, immediately advanced themselves $3 million against
future commissions from .National
Heritage, flew back to New York, and
deposited the money back in the
Blutrich firm 's escrow account.
Within a year Blutrich and his coconspirators had lent more than $35 million
to companies they either owned or controlled, and were in serious violation of
insurance regulations. They had also
billed National Heritage for millions
more than the actual purchase price of
land acquisitions and had pocketed the
difference. To help hide their illegal actions from regulators, Blutrich brought in
New York businessman Lyle Pfeffer, a
client and owner of a financial-services
company. Pfeffer informed regulators
that he was investing $12 million in
National Heritage as a reserve to cover
the $35 million in loans . What Pfeffer
didn't tell them was that he was getting

162

PENTHOUSE

the $12 million and more from National

Heritage itself, through front companies
set up by himself and Blutrich.
Court records show that some of that
$12 million and an additional $18 million
stolen from National Heritage ended up
in offshore accounts in the Caymans and
the Caribbean that were controlled by
Pfeffer. Pfeffer might have squirreled
some of that money away, but according
to numerous sources, Blutrich spent his
take on young boys almost as quickly as
he stole it. A former business associate
of Blutrich's recalls, "Michael would call
me at all hours of the night asking me to
give him five or ten thousand in cash. A
few minutes later one of his boy toys
would arrive at my home and say that
Michael had sent him up for the cash."
Around the same time that Blutrich
and his coconspirators began their takeover of National Heritage, Scores nightclub debuted on East 60th Street in
Manhattan . A $300,000 loan from
National Heritage provided the capital
for the club to open, and on New York
State Liquor Authority documents
Blutrich was listed as the attorney of
record for Scores. The ostensible president and owner of the club was one Jay
0 . Bildstein , who had written a book
called King of Clubs about his experiences in the club business. Numerous
sources confirm that in actuality the

owner of Scores was Blutrich, and later

Blutrich and Pfeffer. (This was not
BJutrich 's first foray into the club business. In 1985 he'd bought into a New
Rochelle , New York , disco called
Sneakers , which held twice-weekly
alcohol-free nights for underage customers. In 1988 he invested in another
suburban New York club called Pear
Trees, and in 1990 he traveled to Los
Angeles to discuss franchising Alzada's
restaurant, then owned by former (and
now deceased) Los Angeles Raiders
football great Lyle Alzada . That deal
never materialized.)
By December 1992 Blutrich was doing so
well looting National Heritage that he
leased an entire floor at Three Park Avenue, a prestigious business address in
midtown Manhattan . The horseshoeshaped space became the offices for
National Heritage, Blutrich's law firm, and
the corporate office for Scores. The strip
club was floundering, however, and
Blutrich and Pfeffer hired nightclub specialist Craig Carlino, who had previously
successfully managed Tens and Stringfellows , both topless clubs in New York
City, to manage Scores.
"When I was offered the general manager's job at Scores, they were doing
$30,000 to $40,000 a week ," recalls
Carlino. "I told them that I would take no
salary until we got the place to $70,000
a week." At Carlino's insistence the club
was completely refurbished , with the
help of an $800,000 loan from a contractor friend of Blutrich 's. Then Blutrich
bought out Jay 0 . Bildstein for $175,000
in promissory notes and installed his old
Shorefront Y.M.H.A. buddy Irving Bilzinsky on the State Liquor Authority
license as president of Scores.
According to Carlino, Blitz was yet
another beard for Blutrich's ownership
of the club , albeit one whose purpose
soon became glaringly evident. "Bilzinsky had nothing to do with running
the club ," Carlino says. "Biutrich paid
him $500 a week to front for the liquor
license. All the money went to Blutrich
and Pfeffer. Michael and Lyle were the
bosses , period." (When reached by
Penthouse, Bilzinsky reluctantly confirmed that he still receives about $500 a
week from Blutrich. Asked about the
club's finances , he replied , "I have nothing to do with any of that. I really don't
know how much comes in or where it
goes. I can't talk to you about Michael or
Lyle or anything else.")
Carlino soon found himself at odds
with Blutrich over Blitz's habit of bringing
underage boys into Scores . "At least
once or twice a week Blitz would bring in
anywhere from six to a dozen young
boys from Brooklyn," Carlino says. "They
would eat , drink liquor, and even be
given 'Diamond Dollars' to give to the
dancers. It put our license in jeopardy,
CONTINUED ON PAGE 198

U.S.A. CONFIDENTIAL
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 162

but Blitz would tell me that Blutrich said

it was okay. When I confronted Blutrich,
he told me that he was the boss and to
keep my mouth shut. I later learned that
Blitz was chicken~hawking for Blutrich."
Carlino later witnessed Blutrich's penchant for teenage boys firsthand. When
a group of eight couples from Scores
were treated to a weekend at Tropworld
Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, Blutrich, who had a real jones for gambling
and often would wager $20,000 to
$30,000 a week, brought as his spousal
equivalent two teenage boys. Recalls
Carlino, "These kids couldn't have been
15 years old. I told my wife that I didn't
want any part of this ." (In June 1995
Carlino, whose compensation included
a piece of the Scores gross, was terminated in violation of his contract. "These
guys wanted it all for themselves , so
they fired me,'' he says . Carlino sued
Scores, but was persuaded to drop the
suit when he was tipped that one of the
mobsters who worked at the club , a legbreaker named Willie Marshall who
would later turn F.B.I. informant, had
been captured on surveillance tapes
bragging about beating a man with an

By 1994 Scores had hit its stride .

Under Carlino's management the club
was generating more than $300,000 a
week in revenue. It also became a
hangout for sports stars like crossdressing basketball phenom Dennis
Rodman as well as Yankees and Mets
players. Actress Demi Moore spent
many nights at Scores studying for her
role in the film Striptease, and King of All
Media Howard Stern had become a
Scores regular, never failing to recount
his exploits there to millions of listeners.
Like National Heritage, Scores had
become another Blutrich-Pfeffer cash
cow. "By 1994 Blutrich and Pfeffer were
each taking out over a million dollars a
year,'' says Carlino. "Pfeffer put his 66year-old mother on the payroll, and at any
one time there were from one to three of
Blutrich 's boy toys receiving weekly
checks for no-show work at the nightclub." Indeed , according to sources ,
Blutrich not only had boy toys on the
payroll at Scores, but he set up one
favorite young thing with a pet shop in
midtown Manhattan and another with
a recording deal. Blutrich the Sugar
Daddy's perverted life appeared
charmed .
On July 26, 1994, Michael Blutrich was
arrested on numerous felony counts of sexual assault on a minor. The arrest was the

result of a two-year probe that included

investigators from Brooklyn's 60th
precinct, the F.B.I. , the N.Y.P.D. special
victims' squad , and the Brooklyn D.A.'s
office . From the outset of the investigation , Blutrich's political clout as well as
his ability to buy off the testimony of victims was apparent. Retired detective
Tom Bresnahan ; who was assigned to
the special victims' squad , recounts a
call he received from a police higher-up
in 1993. According to Bresnahan , "He
told me to investigate the case, but to
make no reports or notes, just report to
him directly. He said , 'This guy [Biutrich]
is hung like a Mexican bull , so be careful. '" (In police jargon "hung " means
politically connected .) Despite Bresnahan's repeated attempts, an official at
the Shorefront Y.M.H.A. who had originally filed complaints about Blutrich 's
use of the facility to recruit young boys
refused to meet with the detective. (By
now, the onetime basketball coach was
a member of the Shorefront Y's board of
trustees . Bilzinsky, however, was still
coaching , and presumably keeping an
eye out for new talent for Blutrich.)
Additionally, two of Blutrich 's alleged
victims refused to implicate the ir generous benefactor. Says Bresnahan, "Here
I am trying to build a case, and Blutrich
is taking these young kids to Europe.
He even bought one boy a brand-new
Pontiac Firebird."
In another curious development ,
Brooklyn District Attorney Charle s
Hynes, a close confidant and major
supporter of then Governor Cuomo ,
recused himself from the case, claiming
a conflict of interest. And instead of the
situation being assigned to a D.A. from
another borough, as is the usual procedure, Hynes appointed Brooklyn attorney Leo Kimmel, an Orthodox Jew, as
special prosecutor for the Blutrich case.
That appointment proved to be quite fortuitous for Blutrich.
At a bankruptcy proceeding on Long
Island in late 1993, Blutrich had made
the acquaintance of Shalom Weiss , an
Orthodox Jew who belongs to a Hasidic
sect based in the Borough Park section
of Brooklyn. Weiss was charmed by the
well-dressed , roly-poly Blutrich , who
offered him a ride back to Manhattan in
his chauffeured limousine . Seizing an
opportunity, Weiss hatched a scheme
with Blutrich to raise money for National
Heritage Insurance by purchasing mortgages with a face value of $200 million
from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Resolution Trust Corporation with $84 million fronted by a shell
company formed by Blutrich , Pfeffer,
Weiss, and others. Then they transferred the mortgages to Nationa l
Heritage, which carried them on their
books at full value, creating an instant
"profit" of $116 million . National Heritage
then could list assets of $200 million that

it had only paid $84 million for. The shell

game was just one of several schemes
that later would result in Weiss's being
indicted on insurance fraud as well as
RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) charges along with
Blutrich, Pfeffer, and other National
Heritage executives. (Weiss, who
denies any wrongdoing and claims to
have been victimized and defrauded by
Blutrich, is currently suing him for millions of dollars.)
Several months later Blutrich approached Weiss with a special request.
"He asked if I could help him with a
small problem he was having in Brooklyn," Weiss recalled when confronted by
Penthouse. "Now I can't look myself in
the mirror for helping this pedophile, but
back then I believed him, so I agreed to
help him."
Although small , the Orthodox Jewish
community wields considerable political
clout in both New York City and New York
state. Blutrich, though not an especially
observant Jew himself, was keenly aware
of this. Says Weiss, "Biutrich said that he
was innocent and that some people were
out to get him. When I asked why his
case was being handled by a special
prosecutor, Blutrich said, 'I have powerful
partners and they made sure it happened.' Blutrich knew that Kimmel was
Orthodox and that I was very big in that

community. He asked if I could help him father, went to Leo Kimmel and made
somehow get to Kimmel to be lenient."
him swear an oath to "do the right th.ing
In the ensuing months Blutrich be- for this very generous man , Michael
came a very generous benefactor of Blutrich." Asked by Penthouse if he had
the Hasidic community in Brooklyn. Ac- been approached by Rabbi Halbercording to Weiss, "Michael gave over a stam, a somewhat flustered Kimmel
quarter of a million dollars to two of the replied, "You have been talking to a lot
most powerful Orthodox sects, includ- of people." Although he refused to name
ing a check for $50,000 to Rabbi names, Kimmel allowed that he had
Tietelman, the most powerful rabbi in all been approached by a number of peoof North America." Penthouse obtained ple regarding Blutrich, but couldn't rea videotape taken during a party given member if one of them had been Halberstam. (Repeated calls by Penthouse
at Weiss's home in Monsey, New York,
in honor of Rabbi Tietelman. Blutrich, to Rabbi Naftali Halberstam's spokessartorially splendid in an expensive man were not returned .)
In any event, in the spring of 1995
blue suit, light-blue shirt , and maroon
tie , and surrounded by bearded Blutricti cut the plea deal of the century.
Hasidic men in their long black caput- Instead of the possible 25-years-to-life
sentence for his felonies, he paid a $100
tas and hats, thanks Rabbi Tietelman
for coming that evening and ends his fine and agreed to a year of psychiatric
little speech by saying, "I have a check counseling. In yet another coincidence,
here for $50,000 for your organization." the case was heard before Brooklyn
To the applause and cheers of the Supreme Court Justice Plummer E. Lott,
assembled Hasidim, Blutrich hands the a Democrat elected while Cuomo was
governor. Incredibly, Judge Lott ordered
92-year-old rabbi the check.
Also attending that event was 70- Blutrich's record sealed. Neither Lott nor
year-old Rabbi Naftali Halberstam, D.A. Hynes would comment to Penthouse on the sentencing or the decision
whose father, 90-year-old Grand Rabbi
Solomon Halberstam, is also a power in to seal Blutrich's record . A high-ranking
the Orthodox community. According to official in the Manhattan D.A.'s office tells
Weiss, Blutrich would contribute ,Penthouse, "This office would never
$200,000 to the Halberstams' charities. agree to seal the record of a pedophile
Weiss also claims that Rabbi Naftali - the public has a right to protect their
Halberstam, acting at the request of his children from predators."
Meanwhile, Blutrich 's and Pfeffer's National Heritage Insurance scam was
quickly unraveling. The various shell
games they'd concocted had bled the
company dry, and by the summer of 1994
it was unable to meet its legitimate obligations. Responding to complaints from
angry National Heritage policyho'lders,
the insurance regulators requested more
collateral. When that was not forthcoming ,
the Delaware insurance commissioner
was appointed receiver for National
Heritage (the company was incorporated
in Delaware), and a task-farce investigation was launched.
In 1995 the National Heritage investigation was turned over to the U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Florida. A
year later the feds began indicting various National Heritage executives , including David Davies. As one National
Heritage executive after another agreed
to cooperate with the government, the
focus became Blutrich and Pfeffer. In
July 1996, apparently feeling the net
closing around him, Blutrich had his
P.ark Avenue office suite swept for electronic bugs. To his dismay, numerous listening devices were discovered.
Around the same time as the National
Heritage probe, the New York state attorney general 's Organized Crime Strike
Force had launched an investigation into
the gambling and loan-sharking activities of Gambino family captain Gregory
De Palma. In the course of their probe

200

PENTHOUSE

'-

the investigators observed De Palma

and other known mobsters frequenting
Scores, and began to scrutini ze the
operations of that club. They soon determined that the mobsters controlled the
club's hat-check room , parking , and
security. In November 1996, F.B.I. and
I.R.S. agents seeking evidence of racketeering , extortion, and tax evasion raided
Scores and carted away cartons of
financial records. The club office was
bugged and taps placed on the phones
of the targeted mobsters.
Shortly after the Scores raid , Blutrich
was informed by the feds that the listening devices installed in his offices had
been court authorized. Faced with imminent indictment in the National Heritage
matter, Blutrich decided to save his skin
by cooperating with the cops in nailing
the mobsters at Scores . According to
one investigator, "Biutrich was always a
mealymouth. He couldn't wait to begin
cooperating with the feds."
Despite Blutrich 's publicized National
Heritage troubles , the mob still felt comfortable enough to continue to do business with him at Scores. Whether this
was owing to greed or stupidity or both,
it would prove the mobsters' downfall.
To build a case against those mobsters,
Blutrich and Pfeffer, who began wearing
body mikes, systematically drew them
further into the club's operations, giving
the wiseguys control of the club's new
V.I.P. Room, where they had free rein to
shake down the dancers and skim the
bar proceeds . According to sources ,
Blutrich and Pfeffer also staged incidents that would require sit-downs , in
which incriminating statements were
caught on audio- and videotapes. In
one such phony incident Blutrich threatened to fire some mob associates who
worked as bouncers , necessitating a
sit-down, at which the mobsters discussed "whacking " enemies. For more
than a year the government had a field
day collecting information , while
Blutrich and Pfeffer continued to rake in
the cash from Scores.
Blutrich wasn't through cooperating
with his new masters, though. Late last
year, when indictments against the
Scores mobsters were imminent ,
Blutrich and Pfeffer took their show on
the road . Wearing body mikes, they visited other strip clubs across the country
in an attempt to get those owners to say
something incriminating on tape . One
club owner from Atlanta who requested
anonymity says , "These guys set up a
meeting to supposedly talk about some
joint venture. When they got here, they
started asking about how we hid the
cash. We don't hide the cash . This business is so profitable that we don't mind
sharing it with Uncle Sam. It's a disgrace that the government would use
such lowlifes to try to entrap legitimate
businessmen ."
CONTINUED ON PAGE 211

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U.S.A. CONFIDENTIAL
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 201

Yet again , Blutrich appears to have cleverly twisted the system to escape punishment. While nearly a dozen former
executives and investors in National
Heritage Insurance were quickly convicted and given long federal prison sentences (e.g ., former firm president
Davies received seven years, and has
been jailed for a year already), Blutrich
and Pfeffer were not indicted until
November 1997-after the feds had
accumulated thousands of hours of
Scores tapes.
Indeed , the U.S. attorney 's office
admits that, as a result of his cooperation
in New York, and his placement in the
Witness Protection Program , Michael
Blutrich may never spend one day in
prison for his part in defrauding National
Heritage of nearly $100 million , although
the maximum sentence for those
charges totals more than 36 years.
Meanwhile, sources say, life is still very
good for Blutrich and Pfeffer. The government has permitted Pfeffer to take his
new wife, who worked at Scores , with
him into the Witness Protection Program.
The pair was recently spotted in Palm
Beach, Florida, where Pfeffer has apparently settled. For his part , Blutrich is
reportedly living somewhere in the New
York area, where his old chicken-hawk
pal Bilzinsky still oversees Scores and
loyally funnels thousands of dollars of the
club's revenues every week into
Blutrich's office. With this money, Blutrich
continues to buy silence and cooperation. A few months ago, the man called
Sid says, he received assurances from
Blutrich 's office that despite Blutrich 's
recent problems, Sid would receive his
last hush-money payment of $5,000 right
on schedule. He did.
None of this comes as a surprise to
Carlino , who now runs the successful
Fortune Club in Secaucus, New Jersey.
He recalls an interview with U.S. Attorney
White and a score of her assistants and
agents just prior to the mob indictments.
"During the interrogation I asked them if
they were going to allow a pedophile like
Blutrich to once more Michael Jacksonize his way out of trouble by paying off
another of his victims. White smiled , and
they all acted surprised to hear that
Blutrich was a pedophile . Right then , I
knew that this was all just more bullshit
from the government."
While White busily negotiates pleas
with the mobsters that Blutrich set up at
Scores and National Heritage policyholders bemoan their insurer's looting, Blutrich
gloats from his hideaway. Protected by
grateful feds, the record of his pedophilia
sealed by his political connections, he
has been free to lead his charmed life
free to prey on young boys.Of--m

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