Federal agents have been investigating illegal gambling and extortion rings allegedly involving restaurant owners James Gerodemos, Dean Gialamas and Filippo Rovito, among others.
All 22 defendants pleaded not guilty Thursday.
While it hasn't happened yet, at least once defense attorney told ABC7 he worries this will be tried as a RICO case, meaning all defendants, no matter how small their accused role in the alleged illegal gambling ring was, would be punished equally.
Filippo "Gigi" Rovito walked into a federal courthouse in Hammond, Indiana on Thursday, charged along with 21 others in a wide-ranging criminal indictment that describes the well-known Burr Ridge restaurant owner as the debt-collector in a nationwide gambling ring that for five years was allegedly run out of two popular restaurants in Northwest Indiana.
"Our position is quite simple. We pled not guilty," said Tom Breen, a defense attorney for Rovito.
According to prosecutors, this is about a lot more than just gambling. They allege that members of the organization used threats and intimidation to collect on gambling debts.
Rovito, who owns Capri restaurant in Burr Ridge, is alleged to have been on the giving end of those threats. Quoted at one point as saying "he was going to knock VICTIM 2's lights out and shove his head into a machine."
"Mr. Rovito is absolutely a harmless individual," Breen said. "There is some kind of vendetta against him, it appears to me."
An 87-page indictment was made public two weeks ago. In it, prosecutors allege the defendants, 22 in all, built an illegal gambling organization that operated both in person and online at Gino's Steakhouse in Merrillville and Paragon in Hobart.
The restaurants' owner and one of the alleged ringleaders, James Gerodemos, is one of five defendants who remain behind bars. His daughter Athena, is charged alongside him, accused of using her bank account as a pass thru for illegal gambling proceeds.
"We need to get all the government's information," said Mark Gruenhagen, a defense attorney for Athena Gerodemos. "We'll go through that, and obviously at this point it's a family matter in addition to a legal case, so it's very tough on everyone."
While each of accused gambling ring members are alleged to have had differing roles in the organization, an defense attorney whose client remains incarcerated said Thursday in the end they may all be punished equally.
"I'm very confident that the government is going to supersede this indictment with a RICO indictment," said John Cantrella, a defense attorney for Peter Pavlopoulos. "They would all get over 10 years. So even minimal participants in this case, I'm concerned for all of them and their future."
While Indiana has a speedy trial act, all involved agreed Thursday the complexity of this case means the required timelines are unlikely to be met. Prosecutors saif the trial itself, once it starts, will last around three months.