Philadelphia- A Cherry Hill man who owns a Philadelphia strip club and was swept up in an investigation of a former city councilman pleaded innocent in federal court Wednesday to tax and fraud charges.

Bishop Krabsz, 59, is one of six men named in a 40-count indictment charging that they failed to report some $800,000 in income for tax years 2000 to 2004 while exaggerating their earnings to banks from which they sought more than $2 million in loans.

Krabsz, who is also known as Stephen Bishop, owns Dangerous Curves, along with Kevin Rankin, 60, a Philadelphia resident also charged in the indictment.

The indictment alleges that the club owners provided employees with some $1.4 million in cash salaries for which payroll taxes of about $107,000 were never paid.

The indictment, announced Tuesday, includes charges against accountant Enrico Nardini, 67, of Boothwyn, Pa., who is accused of submitting false tax returns to lenders on behalf of Krabsz and Rankin.

Also charged with submitting fraudulent loan applications through Nardini are three South Jersey businessmen — James Sanford, 68, of Berlin Borough; William Lavan Sr., 73 of Ventnor; and William Lavan Jr., 28, of Egg Harbor City.

Krabsz and his attorney, Carl Poplar, declined to comment.

Attorneys for the other defendants could not be reached on Wednesday.

The other defendants will be arraigned at a later date, assistant U.S. attorney Kenya Mann said.

The charges grew from an investigation of former Philadelphia City Councilman Rick Mariano, who is serving a 6 1/2 year sentence for accepting bribes, said Richard Manieri, a spokesman for U.S. Attorney Pat Meehan.

Mariano was convicted in March 2006 of 18 tax, fraud and corruption charges.

Rankin’s attorney, Christopher D. Warren, called the new indictment a “face-saving” effort on the part of investigators who were unable to link the defendants to Mariano.

Armed with a warrant, Warren said, investigators “stumbled across” guns in Rankin and Krabsz’s homes.

“In our view, they went fishing for evidence linking Kevin (Rankin) to Rick Mariano and came back with charges of guns and tax evasion,” Warren said.

Neither Rankin nor Krabsz was allowed to possess guns because of prior felony convictions, Manieri said.

Both men were released on $75,000 bonds and required to surrender their passports to authorities.