During mid-1978, FBI agents in Kansas City were investigating a local murder when one of their listening devices picked up a conversation between Carl "Cork" Civella and Carl "Tuffy" DeLuna in which they were discussing mob activities in Las Vegas. After widening the investigation, the agents intercepted conversations about other families that were attempting to buy into the Argent Corporation of which Allen Glick was president and sole stockholder.
In November 1978, agents bugged the home of a Civella relative and recorded a six-hour-long meeting that took place. Attending the meeting were Nick Civella, DeLuna, Joseph Vincent Agosto, and Carl Wesley Thomas. Chief among the topics of discussion were the skimming methods being used by Agosto and Thomas at the Tropicana.
Agosto worked at the Tropicana where he coordinated the skimming activities. Under the direction of Thomas, the casino�s manager and assistant manager removed the money from the playing area and handed it to Agosto. The skim money was then given to Carl Caruso who transported it to Kansas City. The money, normally in amounts of $40,000, was handed over to DeLuna or Charles D. Moretina. DeLuna and the Civella brothers would then split the money between themselves and members of the Chicago Family.
On Feb. 14, 1979, FBI agents executed a search warrant at the Kansas City International Airport and arrested a courier carrying $80,000 in skim money. The same day, agents searched the home of DeLuna and, due to his "meticulous" record keeping, hit the jackpot. William Roemer states in The Enforcer, that the records "turned out to be devastating evidence, implicating mobsters in several cities, connecting them to the skim. Their seizure played a key role in the two major trials that would result from the investigation."
The first Strawman case resulted in the indictments of the entire hierarchy of the Kansas City Family on Feb. 7, 1984. The RICO indictments included the family�s hidden interests in skimming from the Argent Corporation, the Tropicana casino, and the local bingo industry. Key testimony came from Joseph Agosto who became a government witness. On Sept. 4, 1984, Carl Civella was fined and sentenced to 10-to-30 years in prison and his son, Anthony Civella, received five years and was fined. Both DeLuna and Moretina received long sentences also.
The second Strawman case involved mostly the Chicago Family. Key information for that prosecution was also obtained in 1978 when Nick Civella called to set up a meeting at the home of his nephew, Anthony Chiavola, a Chicago police officer. The FBI intercepted the phone call and bugged the Chiavola home where the meeting was held. The four-hour-plus meeting revealed that Civella attempted to buy out the Chicago Family�s interests in the Stardust and the Fremont for $10 million dollars. The Chicago attendees rejected the bid feeling that the skim they would collect over the years would far exceed the offer.
During the second Strawman trial, former Cleveland Family acting boss, now government witness, Angelo Lonardo testified. On Jan. 21, 1986 in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Joseph Aiuppa, Jackie Cerone, Joseph Lombardo, and Angelo La Pietra, all of Chicago, were convicted along with Frank Balestrieri of Milwaukee.