Prosecutors claim strip club owner deducted pet's items

By Corey Williams Associated Press DETROIT (AP) -- Prosecutors are seeking a prison sentence of 37 to 46 months for a Detroit area strip club owner who they say claimed pet store purchases for the family dog as deductions for fetish toys on his corporate taxes. Nicholas Faranso faces sentencing Thursday before Judge John Corbett O'Meara in U.S. District Court in Ann Arbor. He was indicted last year on one count of conspiracy and three counts of filing false corporate and personal tax returns for 2003. He pleaded guilty earlier this to the conspiracy charge. Faranso of Oakland County's Orchard Lake used money from his two strip clubs to pay for veterinary bills, pet shop items and an invisible fence for "Pebbles," the family dog, according to a sentencing memorandum filed by prosecutors. "The veterinarian bills were deducted on the corporate returns as services while some of the pet store purchases were deducted as fetish toys," prosecutors wrote. Corporate funds also were used to pay private school tuition for his children, and a $1,492 photo of Faranso's four daughters was deducted as "decorations," according to the filing. More than $574,000 was skimmed from the two clubs in 2003. A software program was used to remove portions of actual sales from a computerized sales system "to make it appear that Faranso's clubs received less income than they actually did," the filing stated. In his own sentencing memorandum, defense attorney Eric Nemeth asked for two years of supervised release, stating Faranso "is the only real financial support" for his wife, two college-age children, one in high school and another who is 12. A co-defendant, Theodore Kramer, received two years' supervised release for his role in the sales deception. "This is a unique case," Nemeth told The Associated Press Monday. "I'm confident Judge O'Meara will use his wisdom to grant the appropriate sentence." Faranso owns Tycoon's in Detroit and BT's Lounge in Dearborn, Nemeth said. Published: Wed, Aug 3, 2011