from www.philly.com – GEORGE FOREACRE is not a coldhearted guy.

But he couldn’t help but celebrate last week’s death of notorious strip-club mogul Robert Laflar, who faced trial in October in the fatal beating of Foreacre’s friend.

“I know he [Laflar] has children, and they’re innocents. That’s the ones I feel bad for,” said Foreacre, 37, who survived the 2009 attack outside Laflar’s strip club that left him with four fractured vertebrae and his buddy Jimmy Koons dead. “But when you dance with the devil, you got to answer to the devil, and he answered to the devil today. It’s a good day.”
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Laflar, who was 46, owned the Oasis Gentleman’s Club and Christine’s Cabaret, in Southwest Philadelphia. Oasis manager John Pettit and Oasis bouncer Edwin Padua stand accused of beating Foreacre and Koons and booting them out of the Essington Avenue club – and attacking them again in the parking lot as the pair called police to report the incident.

Koons, 31, a father of two from Media, died when his head struck the pavement after Pettit allegedly punched him in the forehead, knocking him to the ground. Foreacre said yesterday that Laflar had sucker-punched him. Surveillance cameras captured the incident.

Laflar and Pettit were charged with third-degree murder and related offenses. Padua is charged with aggravated assault. A trial for Pettit and Padua is set for Oct. 16, the third anniversary of Koons’ death. Tasha Jamerson, spokeswoman for District Attorney Seth Williams, said that her office would proceed with the trial as scheduled against Pettit and Padua.

Laflar’s attorney, Fortunato N. Perri Jr., said he did not know the circumstances of his client’s death. But acquaintances said that Laflar had struggled with substance abuse for years and recently spent time in drug rehab in Malibu, Calif.

The FBI was investigating Laflar’s strip clubs and his auto-salvage shop, Gianni’s, in connection with alleged kickbacks involving the Philadelphia Police Department and the Department of Licenses and Inspections, the Inquirer reported last February.

Since Koons’ death, Foreacre has grown so concerned about Laflar’s crooked connections that he got four dogs to protect him and moved to Florida.

“I still am petrified,” he said, but he vowed that he’ll return to Philadelphia to testify against Pettit and Padua and “see justice done.”

Still, one admirer described Laflar as “an entrepreneurial guy who ran a good ship.”

“You could eat off the floor at Oasis; it was really, really clean, and the girls were pretty,” said Harry Jay Katz, the East Falls millionaire and storied playboy.

“Plus, when I was single, it certainly didn’t hurt to have him, who had 50 to 60 magnificent nymphomaniacs working for him, as a friend.”

Last June, Laflar told the Daily News that he was a former model and claimed to be a close, longtime friend of actor Brad Pitt, who he said he met when both were 16 and shooting a jeans commercial in Los Angeles. Since then, Laflar claimed, Pitt, Angelina Jolie and their kids quietly visited his Blue Bell, Montgomery County, home about once a year.

from www.ru-crazy.com – Where is the FBI probe into Philadelphia strip clubs, towing companies and city officials heading?

Possibly to a big-time public trial in the near future. A Federal grand jury is looking at ties between two strip clubs, several towing companies, the Licenses and Inspections department of

Philadelphia, a beer distributor and some Philadelphia police officers in the complex investigation. For starters, the Oasis Gentleman’s Club in Philadelphia was raided by the FBI as the feds looked for records. Anastasia said the FBI was looking for financial records at Oasis and a Christine’s, a nearby “cabaret.”

“According to some of the documents we’ve seen, they are looking for potential payoffs to city officials,” Anastasia said. “The bottom line is
payoffs to public officials, L&I is mentioned, members of the Philadelphia police department,“ Anastasia says. “This thing goes in a lot of directions.”

The investigation is also connected to Chappy’s, a South Philadelphia beer distributor. “You know how the feds operate, they want to squeeze from the bottom, and go up the ladder,” he says, indicating the FBI put the recipients of last week’s search warrants “in the cross-hairs.” He also said there have been long-standing questions about who benefits financially when abandoned cars are towed away at the city’s request. “I think the money is significant,” Anastasia says.

From 2000 to 2008,about 275,000 abandoned cars were removed from the city of Philadelphia. People get paid to tow the cars away and then the cars get salvaged for cash. One connection is that the strip club and salvage businesses generate a lot of cash. That cash connection will also bring the
Internal Revenue Service into the equation. One person connected to the clubs and the salvage business is Robert Laflar of Blue Bell, Pa., who was visited by the FBI.

Laflar’s attorney refused comment on the corruption probe. Another person, Henry Alfano, received a visit from the FBI. He owns the property where the strip clubs are located.

Sources tell Fox 29 that the FBI took away more than $500,000 in cash from Alfano’s house in South Jersey in addition to financial records. Anastasia said Alfano has been a “major player” in the towing and salvage business. “Mr. Alfano’s been involved in legitimate business enterprises for the past 40 years and he intends to fully comply with the government’s

investigation in this matter,” said Fortunato Perri Jr., Alfano’s attorney.