Philadelphia- from myfoxphilly.com – Fox 29 has some new information to get into wide-sweeping FBI probe of corruption in Philadelphia.
Sources tell Fox 29 News the activities of former Licenses and Inspections deputy commissioner Dominic Verdi are being looked at, including more locations than we first reported last month.
The FBI has already served search warrants at two Essington Avenue strip clubs. Investigators are looking into allegations the clubs did business with a South Philadelphia beer distributorship owned in part by Verdi and disbarred attorney Gregory Quigley in return for favorable treatment from L and I.
Now sources say investigators are looking into allegations about L and I activity at three more night spots.
One is on South Street, another that was shut down by l and I on Rittenhouse Square and a club at 21st and Market. All three have had problems with the city’s Nuisance Task Force that Verdi was a part of.
Now Verdi was removed from the task force last month by L And I Commissioner Fran Burns and Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey. He quickly resigned from L and I where he made over $95,000 a year. He has denied any wrong doing.
Sources say the grand jury is looking at Verdi, some strip club owners and police. They are expected to hear from at least two of Verdi’s family members.
One relative worked for the beer distributorship, another for one of the strip clubs.
They are also expected to hear from one, or possibly two, former L and I inspectors and a police sergeant, who was removed from his post when this story broke. Sources also say the grand jurors will hear some secretly recorded tapes.
As of Wednesday, Land I inspectors are no longer involved when police, vice detectives and state liquor control enforcement agents go calling on so called nuisance bars and clubs.
They will only be called in after those raids. The FBI, police and L and I officials have refused comment.
