The owner of porn shop in Olympia, Washington, alleges in a newly-filed lawsuit that the fire that forced him to rebuild his business more than a decade ago was the product of a wide-ranging racketeering scheme involving local competitors.
Attorneys for Desire Video’s Levi Bussanich asked a U.S. District Court judge last week to pursue a RICO case against the owners of nearby Adult Video Only and no fewer than six employees and associates now blamed for the 2003 blaze.
Investigators reviewed the facts surrounding the business-shuttering fire for years without making any arrests, and the case had nearly gone cold by the time an Adult Video Only employee, Ken Courtney, confessed to his involvement and agreed to become an undercover informant for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Courtney indeed helped build a case against his co-conspirators, but the investigation slowed once again when he died of an apparent suicide in 2007.
Authorities eventually charged Mark Fuston in 2013 with burning down Desire Video and sentenced him to 2½ years in prison after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy. More than a decade after his business burned down, however, Mr. Bussanich alleged in federal court last week that the case against Fuston has unearthed evidence of racketeering that warrants further charges being filed.
“The federal prosecution of Defendant Mark Fuston revealed, and brought to light, many other wrongs and acts committed by all Defendants named in this action,” Mr. Bussanich’s attorneys wrote. “Consequently, Plaintiffs — unable to bring a cause of action until these wrongs were recently discovered and Defendant Mark Fuston was prosecuted in federal court — now seek damages as pled in this meritorious and timely pled Complaint.”
Attorneys for Mr. Bussanich say they only learned during Fuston’s prosecution that the owners of nearby Adult Video Only and its affiliates were involved in the arson, and that they’ve been personally implicated by both Fuston and the late informant.
Had Mr. Bussanich known of their role, the lawsuit states, he may not have attempted to purchase Adult Video Only from its owners a decade prior. In hindsight, however, his attorney suggests it’s clear the competition engaged in racketeering, and now cites an alleged marijuana grow operation and video arcade tax scheme that Mr. Bussanich claims he learned about while attempting to negotiate the purchase of Adult Video Only years earlier.
Defendants “defrauded the Internal Revenue Service, burnt down plaintiffs’ business, as well as attempted to do so to others, grew marijuana illegally, and committed all acts as stated herein, repeatedly over the course of decades, as a part of their illegal racketeering enterprise or association in fact to destroy competition and attempt to monopolize profits and industry,” according to the complaint.
Attorneys for Mr. Bussanich and Adult Video Only did not immediately respond to requests for comment when contacted this week by Courthouse News Service, where the suit was first reported on Thursday.
District Court Judge Ronald B. Leighton has asked plaintiffs and defendants to file a joint status report by June 26, according to the case docket.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.