Beech Tree News Network

In the ‘90’s, Scores became the most successful gentleman’s club in the country.  The club attracted the attention and patronage of the famous.  Demi Moore studied for her role in the movie Striptease at Scores.  Where there’s fame, there’s always fortune.  Scores was making up to $25 million a year.  But when they get into bed with the Gambino crime family (and worse), things start to get nasty.  This week is episode 9 of 10 of the Dark Side of the ‘90’s series on Vice.

Life after dark in New York City in the ‘90’s was in transition.  The artsy, dug-fueled clubs of the ‘70’s and ‘80’s are gone-victims of AIDS and Wall Street.  The newly minted Masters of the universe are searching for the next big thing.  They find it inside a gentleman’s club on the upper east side.  Scores was to the ‘90’s what Studio 54 was to the ‘70’s.  Stars such as Charlie Sheen, Motley Crue, Kate Moss, Leonardo DiCaprio, Sting, Madonna, lots of politicians(shocker), and whoever was in town would stop by.  Its ties to organized crime, however, would soon make the FBI the clubs most vigilant visitor.

“At the height, which lasted a really long time, I was taking anywhere between $40-In the early $50,000 a week out of the place” says Stephen Sergio, associate of the Gambino crime family.  Score is the creation of ethically challenged attorney-turned-entrepreneur named Michael D. Blutrich.  He was a corporate lawyer, boxing promoter and was involved in a night club in New Rochelle.  His idea was to build an upscale club for Wall Street traders with female strippers as an added attraction.  He built it all wrong, though.  That wrong included building on a block owned by the Gambino crime family.  In the early ‘90’s, led by the dapper don John Gotti, they are the most powerful of the five crime families in New York at the time.  They profited off drugs, gambling, prostitution and the extortion of legitimate businesses.

Blutrich was approached by Steven Sergio about providing security for Scores.  Blutrich takes him up on the offer.  His dad Mike was already extorting Blutrich.  While Blutrich is paying out to the Sergio’s, his new club isn’t bringing in profits like expected.  When Blutrich’s original partner gives up, he recruits mortgage broker Lyle Feiffer. Feiffer brings in Craig Carlino to be the general manager of the club.  Carlino was selling pizza with his family when he ditched that to work strip clubs before moving back to New York City in ’93.

Scores got the attention of Howard Stern via a staff bachelor party.  What resulted the next day was basically a four-hour Scores commercial on Stern’s show.  The club becomes a regular topic of conversation on the show, which, at that time, had an audience of 3 million listeners-most are men from ages 21-80.  Howard even starts booking his favorite Scores dancers on the show.  At the time, Scores saw famous clientele such as George Clooney, John Daly, Mark Wahlberg and more.  Carlino and his promotions team tip off paparazzi whenever a celebrity was coming in or out of the club.  On June 14, 1994, after winning the NHL championship, the New York Rangers celebrated at Scores, where they learn you can lose more than your money.  The team took the Stanley Cup to Scores, got drunk, and left it there.  Yes, they left the Stanley Cup at a strip club.  The notoriety is good for business and the dancers become some of the highest paid in the country.  Retired special FBI agent William Ready says “Scores, at its peak in the mid-‘90’s, was making about $400-$500,000 a week.  Back then, that was tremendous”.  All that money won’t be enough to save the owners when a shady deal threatens to send them to prison.  

While researching for her Striptease movie role, Demi Moore visits Scores.  On the same night Moore is photographed, Ethan Hawke is also photographed in the club.  As Scores’ celebrity and revenue grow, Mike, Steve and Sergio seek bigger shares by continuing to freeze out the Gambino’s, which is now being led by John Gotti, Jr.

Back in ’93, while renovating Scores, they defraud customers of the National Life Insurance company of Orlando, Florida.  The total fraud was $450 million, one of the largest in U.S. history.  This even shocks the conscience of fellow criminal Steven Sergio.  Blutrich and Feiffer were now looking at a minimum of 25 years in prison.  The FBI believes Blutrich and Feiffer can help them gather evidence about high-ranking members of the Gambino crime family, including John Gotti, Jr.

To gather evidence against the Segio’s, the FBI installs recording devices at the night club and Scores corporate office.  They also get Blutru=ich and Pfeiffer to each wear what’s called a FBIRD, which stands for FBI Recording Device.  It was the size of today’s iPhone.  The FBI gives them a code word in case of danger: I ate so much I’m going to puke.  Pfeffer eats so much that he legitimately gets sick and says the line.  The FBI starts to rush in before realizing it’s a false alarm.  They switched the code word to something more direct.

In 1995, a year after he’s sworn in as mayor, Rudy Guliani cleans up Times Square by shutting down the peep shows and mercilessly evicting its low-income residents.  He targets the extortion rackets run by organized crime.  Scores seems to be protected from the crackdown.  Meanwhile, the dumb money flowing at Scores attracts criminals looking to make easy cash and law enforcement looking to make arrests.  FBI agent Bill Ready is using Michael Blutrich to record Gambino mob associate Mike Sergio in hopes he leads them to Gambino leadership.  One night, Blutrich listened too much to Sergio’s liking and was taken back for a strip search.  Fortunately, Blutrich was able to pull the wires down pre-search and evades detection.

The body wires and surveillance camera in the Scores corporate office will eventually implicate Mike and his son Sergio for racketeering and extortion.  By the summer of ’96, there’s a better show at Scores than a celebrity fist fight or anything else.  The FBI’s hidden camera is capturing Gambino associates taking payoffs and bragging about past crimes.  The footage also captures a Gambino associate describing a shocking act of violence.  Those tapes are used to indict six associates of the Gambino crime family.  They still had nothing to connect with Gotti, Jr Segio says that’s because Gotti never got a monthly payment from Scores.  That changes when he learns Carlino had been fired and he files a lawsuit.

Carlino turns down Gotti’s assistance offer.  John Jr decides to make Blutrich and Pfeffer pay for the trouble they’ve caused in the form of $200,000.  The fee gets negotiated down to $100,000.  The owners of Scores are told this and end up generating the cash.  In order for the money to change hands, it’ll need to go through a money laundering ring already being monitored by the FBI.  It becomes a small part of a bigger case being built against Gotti.  Jr was curbed with RICO conspiracy and other acts.  It was called Christmas Tree Indictment- basically charged with everything.  Michael Sergio was charged with conspiracy to engage in racketeering.  While in jail, his life was threatened.  He ended up cooperating with the FBI after spending a few months in jail.  Steven, who turns Scores into his own personal ATM machine, is sentenced to five years in federal prison. 

As for Blutrich and Feiffer, becoming informants for the FBI isn’t the get out of jail free card they expected.  They ended up getting 25 years, more than any mafia members they cooporated against.  The government sells Scores off to a new owner and uses the money to pay back Florida insurance fraud victims.  In the 2000’s, Scores changes ownership a few times before franchising and opening half a dozen sister clubs around the country.  

Next week, I’ll wrap up the Dark Side of the ‘90’s current season.  No new vlog this week so no link.  Thanks for reading!