Mafia Informant in Witness Protection Just Couldn't Resist Big Time Fraud - Arrested Yesterday

Gary LeVox of Rascal Flatts and Toby Keith (Credit: Getty, Pixabay)
 

Son & Mother Arrested For $65M+ Branded Restaurant Fraud Scheme on Toby Keith & Others

Opened 20 'Toby Keith's I Love This Bar and Grill' & A Rascal Flatts

Frank Capri, 52, of AZ., and his mother Debbie Corvo, 68, AZ., appeared in federal court following their arrest earlier today. Facing a 16-count wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering in connection with the operation of various branded restaurant locations across the US. justice.gov

Mafia informant profits from broken restaurant projects named after country music stars. He was part of the Lucchese crime family in New York City before he entered the Federal Witness Protection Program with a new name.

Taking money from broken restaurant-development projects across the country, Capri was behind the collapse of a restaurant chain named after country music recording star Toby Keith. Starting in 2009, Phoenix-based companies controlled by Capri opened 20 restaurants under the name Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar and Grill.

But by 2015, 19 of the 20 restaurants had closed. Developers sued Capri, claiming he failed to pay contractors, broke agreements to lease space in shopping centers, and took millions of dollars that were supposed to cover construction costs.

But bad publicity from that litigation didn’t prevent Capri from planning the development of another restaurant chain named after country band Rascal Flatts.

He was behind projects to open Rascal Flatts restaurants in 19 cities. But only one Rascal Flatts restaurant opened, then closed after about a year in business.

Capri used his girlfriend, Tawney Costa, and her business associate, Chris Burka, as fronts in the Rascal Flatts restaurant projects.

Ray Roshto, who owns Ussher Construction in Glendale, AZ., said Capri hired him to build Rascal Flatts restaurants in five cities. Roshto also told the newspaper that Capri insisted on keeping his name off contracts and paying for construction work through a company called RF Restaurants.

His original name was Frank Gioia Jr., and he was a member of the Lucchese crime family in NYC who committed murder and trafficked illegal drugs. To avoid prison, he cooperated with federal prosecutors and helped them convict more than 70 Mafia members in the 1990s and the 2000s.

In 2008, Capri began to present himself as a commercial developer of a chain of indoor playgrounds. He offered long-term leases to mall owners in exchange for upfront cash payments, but never built the promised playgrounds.

In similar fashion, Capri opened and closed Toby Keith restaurants, broke leases and prevented developers from getting paid. Dozens of lawsuits ensued, and by 2017, courts across the country had ordered him or his companies to pay civil judgments totaling at least $65 million. therealdeal.com

While the judges had ordered him to pay $65 million, "the total, according to developers, was a lot more."

The Story

What emerged from that across the country were these tales of development money and blown contracts and broken lease negotiations and the pattern that emerged was that he was opening restaurants, negotiating upfront development fees, cash, to build the restaurants and then not building them and not — you know, the rub with developers was, we'll provide you this upfront money in exchange for long term leases. And so what he'd do is, the restaurants would get half-finished, they would implode, people weren't getting paid on the jobs. Sometimes they'd open literally for just a few weeks, several weeks, before they crashed and burned. And then he'd walk away. And by the end of 2017, as I tracked this, judges had ordered him to pay $65 million. But the total, according to developers, was a lot more.

How did he get away with it? According to the reporter who broke the story:

- the FBI, the people, the Department of Justice, the people who put Frank in the Witness Protection Program erased his identity, so that developers would have no clue of who his background is. And the question that gets asked to me all the time is, are the feds just turning a blind eye? I don't know. Because the fact of the Witness Protection Program is they aren't allowed to talk about it. Legally, federal authorities cannot talk about who's enrolled, whether or not they're still enrolled, whether they've been kicked out or left voluntarily, all of which is okay, but that led us to write, as you know, you know, the kind of thread that strung through a very detailed series two years ago was whether or not, who protects the public from protected witnesses? And I'm telling you, there isn't very much protection. fronterasdesk.org

Editor's Note: Well, he and his mother just got arrested yesterday. But the fact is the story has been out there going on two years and all those civil judgments should have raised a few flags. You certainly would think so. We'll see how it ends up and how much time he and his mother get. Knowing full well that going to jail will probably be his death warrant. Just a thought. -Gus Downing