New York Attorney General Letitia James announced Sept. 16 the indictments of top executives of RCI Hospitality Holdings, Inc. (RCI), a company that owns and operates strip clubs throughout the country, for their roles in a major, multimillion dollar criminal tax fraud and bribery scheme.

They also said that RCI executives paid for the auditor’s hotels and restaurant visits during these trips as well. Additionally, they said on at least 10 occasions since 2010, Timothy Winata, RCI’s controller and accountant, traveled to Manhattan from Texas to provide the auditor with illegal bribes at RCI’s three Manhattan clubs, Rick’s Cabaret, Vivid Cabaret, and Hoops Cabaret and Sports Bar.

OAG officials went on to say that Winata was responsible for directly providing the bribes to the auditor and accompanied him on trips to RCI clubs. They said after one such trip in February 2022, the auditor allegedly texted Winata, “This was the best trip I had in Florida. The girls were very beautiful and nice…I hope we can have another trip before the summer.”

OAG officials said the trips and bribes were authorized, directed, and overseen by Eric Langan, RCI’s president and CEO, Bradley Chhay, RCI’s chief financial officer, Ahmed Anakar, RCI’s director of operations, and Shaun Kevlin, a regional manager for RCI’s New York City strip clubs and later RCI’s assistant director of nightclub operations. They said the defendants also falsified the business records of RCI strip clubs to conceal their crimes and recorded the cash payments used to bribe the auditor as “promotional” expenses for the clubs.

OAG officials said RCI clubs use an in-house currency called “Dance Dollars” that customers purchase and redeem for private dances. As part of its tax fraud scheme, they said RCI failed to collect and pay over $8 million in sales taxes on the sale of “Dance Dollars.” In exchange for the illegal bribes provided to him, they said the auditor agreed to settle pending and future DTF sales tax audits of RCI’s Manhattan strip clubs for substantially less in back taxes, penalties, and interest than were owed, saving RCI millions of dollars.

OAG officials said that in emails and text messages, the defendants openly discussed using trips to RCI clubs to help secure more favorable treatment from the auditor. For example, in June 2023, Chhay texted Langan and Anakar to boast that one of their clubs, Vivid Cabaret, would pay just $47,000 as the result of an audit. “Tim [Winata] got the guy to $47k in Vivid New York. But owes him a couple trips,” he allegedly wrote.

They said that in another instance, Winata allegedly explained that RCI “may need to pamper [the auditor] more this time” to obtain a favorable settlement of a sales tax audit. 

Meanwhile, OAG officials said Langan allegedly personally supervised RCI’s negotiations with the auditor and approved the payment of bribes to him. They said that for example, on April 12, 2018, while Winata was in Manhattan to meet with the auditor at Rick’s Cabaret and other locations, Langan texted Anakar, allegedly writing, “We need to talk about New York and Dance Dollars,” and allegedly explaining that RCI was “going to be hit by 3M in sales taxes soon.”

OAG officials said that later that same day, Langan allegedly texted Anakar, writing, “I think I got the sales taxes in New York to 350 plus interest possibly. Tim [Winata] is discussing with the auditor tonight ;).”

That same day, they said Langan allegedly personally authorized the payment of a bribe to the auditor in New York and the alleged falsification of RCI’s business records to conceal it. They said Kevlin allegedly texted Langan that “Tim guest would like another $1500” to spend at an RCI-owned strip club in Manhattan and allegedly explained that they “did $2k yesterday.”

OAG officials said Kevlin allegedly stated that the money would be recorded in the club’s records as a “promo” expense, and that Langan allegedly responded, “That’s fine. Go ahead.” They said that as Kevlin allegedly discussed with Langan, he and Anakar later allegedly created a false receipt and sales report that listed the $1,500 used to bribe the auditor as an expense for a strip club “promotion.”

They said the people charged in the indictment are:

• Ahmed “Ed” Anakar, 58, of Plantation, Florida;
• Bradley Chhay, 41, of Conroe, Texas;
• Shaun Kevlin, 45, of Warwick, New York;
• Eric Langan, 57, of Bellaire, Texas; and 
• Timothy Winata, 71, of Houston, Texas.

They said a sixth individual has also been indicted but not yet arrested and will be arraigned at a later date. They said the indictment will remain sealed as to that defendant until they are arraigned.

They said the corporations charged are RCI and its three Manhattan-based subsidiaries are Rick’s Cabaret, Vivid Cabaret, and Hoops Cabaret and Sports Bar.

OAG officials said if convicted on the top count of criminal tax fraud in the first degree, Langan, Winata, and Anakar face a maximum sentence of eight and one third, to 25 years in prison and if convicted on the top count of bribery in the second degree that they are charged with, Chhay and Kevlin face a maximum sentence of five to 15 years in prison.

The charges in the indictment are merely allegations and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law. 

Norwood News reached out to RCI Hospitality Holdings, Inc. for comment. We received what we were informed was the following previously issued statement (at the time of the indictment) from Daniel J. Horwitz, a partner in Tannenbaum Helpern’s Criminal Defense and Litigation and Dispute Resolution practices, counsel for the company.

The OAG thanked DTF and Acting Commissioner Amanda Hiller; Brian M. Hickey, director of DTF’s Office of Internal Affairs; Scott Gullie, assistant director of DTF’s Office of Internal Affairs; Investigator Richard Gambino; Chunyip Tsui, section head in the OAG criminal investigations division; Harry Marc-Charles, forensic auditor II; and Christine Stevens, executive attorney in the OAG criminal investigations division for what they said was their outstanding assistance with the investigation.

The OAG investigation was conducted by Senior Detective Brian Metz of the OAG’s major investigations unit under the supervision of Deputy Chief Juanita Bright, Assistant Chief Samuel Scotellaro, and Detective Supervisors Anna Ospanova and Walter Lynch. Additional assistance was provided by Det. John Collins of the special operations unit under the supervision of Deputy Chief Sean Donovan. The OAG’s investigations bureau is led by Chief Oliver Pu-Folkes.

Assistant Attorneys General Matthew Luongo and Gregory Morril and Senior Advisor and Counsel Gary Fishman are prosecuting the case under the supervision of Public Integrity Bureau Chief Gerard Murphy and Deputy Bureau Chief Kiran Heer, with assistance provided by Samantha Shaughnessy, legal support analyst, and Hannah Mueller, former legal support analyst.

Both the Investigations Bureau and the Public Integrity Bureau are part of OAG’s Division for Criminal Justice. The Division for Criminal Justice is led by Chief Deputy Attorney General José Maldonado and overseen by First Deputy Attorney General Jennifer Levy.