King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng announced today the filing of charges against four individuals who are accused of funneling illegal campaign contributions to three members of the Seattle City Council during the 2003 election.

Seattle’s Ethics and Elections Commission and the King County Prosecutor’s Office conducted the investigation. The case arose from a zoning issue that was before the City Council related to the proposed expansion of a parking lot at Rick’s, a strip club in Lake City.

The club’s owners, Frank Colacurcio, Sr., and his son Frank Colacurcio, Jr., are being charged today with conspiring to file false campaign financial reports and causing the campaigns to file false reports. Two of the Colacurcios’ close associates and employees, Gil Conte and Marsha Furfaro, are also being charged under the same criminal statutes as the Colacurcios.

The four are accused of funneling the contributions through third parties to the re-election campaigns of City Council members Jim Compton, Judy Nicastro and Heidi Wills. The defendants would then provide cash reimbursements to the individuals who wrote checks for the campaigns, thereby falsifying both the true source of the contributions and the total amount of contributions actually made by the defendants. Those amounts exceeded legal limits.

The defendants in effect caused the candidates to file false documents with the city and state agencies that oversee elections. The three council members returned $39,000 in contributions when the scheme was discovered.

“Our public policy is not for sale to the highest bidder, nor should our public officials ever be in a position where they owe their office to one or two large contributors with special interests. These defendants engaged in political money laundering, and it’s a crime,” said King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng.

The Rick’s parking lot proposal passed in a 5 to 4 vote. There is no evidence that Compton, Nicastro or Wills were aware of the source of the contributions.

The charge of causing the filing of a false report is a class “C” felony and the charge of conspiracy to file a false report is a gross misdemeanor.

The defendants are out of custody on their personal recognizance pending arraignment, which is scheduled for July 19 at 8:30 a.m. at the King County Courthouse in Seattle.

More Information: Statement of King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng: Seattle Elections Case

Dated: July 12, 2005