ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, May 9, 1996 TAG: 9605090077
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JAN VERTEFEUILLE STAFF WRITER
The 16-year investigation and prosecution of former Covington restaurateur Vittorio "Victor" Cucci ended Wednesday, with the government dropping all but one tax charge against him in exchange for his agreeing to pay back taxes.
Cucci admitted failing to report $116,000 of income over a four-year period in the 1980s, although the prosecutor said the IRS believes it's closer to $273,000. He did not file returns for those years.
"We're still working with the IRS, trying to get those matters resolved," said Cucci's attorney, Robert Allen. He said the undeclared income came from Cucci's legitimate businesses, not from drug dealing.
State police opened a file on the Sicilian-born businessman in 1980, believing him to be linked to what was called "the Pizza Connection," a multistate Mafia drug-distribution and money-laundering network using Italian restaurants and pizza parlors as cover.
Cucci was sentenced in 1992 to 14 years in prison for setting up a cocaine deal for two friends. That charge was the result of a government sting, and one of his friends turned out to be an informant.
"You've got to remember, the government thought they had found the Mafioso kingpin of Southwest Virginia," said attorney Tom Leggette, who represents Cucci's wife, Janet. "Now, it's come down to one dummy who when approached [by the informant] agreed to do something stupid."
Janet Cucci pleaded guilty Wednesday to two misdemeanor charges of failing to file tax returns for 1986 and 1987. She agreed to file returns for the years 1986 through 1989 and pay any taxes owed. Leggette said he doesn't believe she will owe anything.
Victor Cucci pleaded guilty to aiding and assisting in preparing a false tax return and must either file the four years' tax returns or pay the IRS estimate "promptly," according to his plea agreement.
The Cuccis' plea agreements mean neither likely will receive any prison time. Janet Cucci's charges carry a sentence of up to six months, and Victor Cucci's up to three years. Assistant U.S. Attorney Hunter Smith said the government wouldn't object to Victor Cucci's sentence running concurrently with his drug sentence.
The other nine tax charges against the couple were dropped as part of the agreements.
They are scheduled to be sentenced in August. Victor Cucci, who is serving his time in Cumberland, Md., is appealing his drug conviction.
In a 1991 interview with The Roanoke Times, Cucci said nobody wants to believe a Sicilian with just a fourth-grade education could be as successful as he was legally. Before his arrest, he owned a car dealership, clothing store, flower shop and two restaurants.
"They can't believe that my wife and I did it with 16-hour days," he said at the time. "My feet were bleeding from standing up all the time. They want to believe I'm a Mafioso."
Last year, U.S. District Judge James Turk ruled that a search conducted after Cucci's drug arrest was illegal and that evidence seized - including bank records - could not be used in the tax-evasion case. But the government was able to use the bank records as evidence after convincing Turk that investigators would have gotten them anyway by subpoenaing the banks.
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