BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) – Prosecutors painted a Cheektowaga strip club owner as a “sexual predator” who groomed vulnerable exotic dancers with free drugs to coerce them into commercial sex acts with influential men who had deep pockets. U.S. Assistant Attorney Joseph Tripi said in his nearly two-hour-long opening statement Wednesday that Peter Gerace’s business model at Pharaoh’s Gentlemen’s Club was to push financially strapped exotic dancers deep in the throes of addiction to gain control over them. A grand jury indicted Gerace in February 2021 on charges of conspiring to defraud the government, bribing a DEA agent, maintaining a drug-involved premise at Pharaoh’s, and conspiring to sell drugs and commit sex trafficking. Ex-DEA agent Joseph Bongiovanni found guilty on seven charges, including conspiracy to defraud the United States The U.S. Attorneys Office described Gerace’s “fiefdom” as an organized crime syndicate that peddled drugs and turned a blind eye to sex trafficking. Tripi said Gerace introduced dancers to cocaine, heroin, and pain pills to get them addicted so they would submit to his demands to engage in commercial sex with big spenders they called “whales” in the club’s VIP room lined with couches. He specifically mentioned a former exotic dancer, Gabby, whose dream to be a nurse crumbled after Gerace invited her to the upstairs “lair” at the strip club, where “mounds of cocaine” served on a platter awaited them. Tripi alleges that once Gerace had that control over vulnerable dancers, he coerced them – some only 18 years old - into commercial sex acts by dangling more free drugs to exploit their “serious fear of withdrawal.” “They paid that debt with their bodies,” Tripi said. This “business model” brought Gerace a lot of money, which allowed him to leave an apartment at his grandmother’s home to move into a mansion in Clarence, Tripi said. And Gerace gained more power and clout by having dancers engage in sex acts with the “whales,” which included actors, a state supreme court judge, former Buffalo Sabres players, prominent attorneys, and businessmen, Tripi alleged. Gerace gained the trust of dancers using his charm and charisma to learn their darkest secrets and vulnerabilities that he could exploit, Tripi said. It did not take long for the dancers to feel stuck with “invisible chains on them.” Gerace’s family lineage came up numerous times Wednesday, with Tripi revealing to the jury that Gerace is the grandson to the late Joseph Todaro Sr., who was considered to be the reputed leader of an Italian Organized Crime syndicate in Buffalo. The government has never proved the Todaro’s were involved in organized crime. ‘Italian Organized Crime’ in Buffalo? Depends on who you ask. Tripi said Gerace bragged about his family lineage and relationships with Outlaw Motorcycle Club members, cops, judges, and influential attorneys. Gerace got away with more than a decade of corruption, Tripi said, by bribing Joseph Bongiovanni, a “corrupt” former DEA agent and childhood friend, who shielded Gerace’s activities from law enforcement detection. Tripi said Bongiovanni derailed at least two federal investigations of Gerace. “He was a sex trafficker at a strip club protected by a corrupt DEA agent,” Tripi said. After a hung jury in August, the government re-tried Bongiovanni in October. The second jury found Bongiovanni guilty of seven of the 11 charges, including one count of conspiracy to defraud the government, conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance, and one count of making a false statement to federal agents. However, the jury acquitted Bongiovanni on charges that prosecutors directly linked to Gerace and his strip club, including the allegation that he accepted $250,000 in bribes to protect Gerace and his “fiefdom” of drug dealers. At the conclusion of Tripi’s opening statement, Gerace swiveled his chair toward family and friends in the courtroom, whispering, "lie, lie, lie, lie." Eric Soehnlein, one of Gerace’s defense attorneys, told the jury that the strip club is not a "middle school dance." The dancers play a role, he said, to accelerate an emotional connection with the men because it results in more tips. Some dancers engaged in sex acts, but “no one will say they were coerced.” But Soehnlein said the case isn’t about coercion, motorcycle gangs or a crooked DEA agent. “It’s about choice,” he said. "Choice and perspective.” He said the government’s case is “all sizzle, no steak” and it is “irresponsible” for prosecutors to hang their case on conjecture and speculation without direct evidence. “None of these people thought they were a victim until the government told them,” Soehnlein said. In fact, Soehnlein said federal agents seized stacks of boxes of financial documents from Gerace’s strip club, including weeks of video footage from dozens of security cameras inside Pharaoh’s. They also searched his Clarence mansion. “Know what they found?” Soehnlein said. “Nothing.” What prosecutors should have gleaned from those documents, Soehnlein said, is most of Gerace’s profits came from the bar and door charges, not the exotic dancers. Pharaoh’s is the top seller in the state of Red Bull energy drinks and Patron tequila, he said. And Pharaoh’s charges between $20 and $25 at the door for long lines of patrons to enter the club. In addition, Soehnlein said testimony is “bought and sold” by the government for providing some dancers with thousands of dollars in “relocation spending” and generous plea deals to co-conspirators. He said Gabby, one of the government’s key witnesses, had already been to rehab and knew the dangers of drug use, and the sex she engaged in was “her choice, her decision.” Another key government witness is Gerace’s ex-wife, Katrina Nigro. Soehnlein said labeling her relationship with Gerace as acrimonious is an “understatement”, and that, “she’s going to say things that are at odds with objective reality.” “It’s not to be believed,” Soehnlein said. Witness testimony was to begin Thursday in what is expected to be a weeks-long trial. Latest Local News Bar-Bill tavern prepares for large crowds ahead of Bills’ home games Man charged with attempted murder in connection with Buffalo shooting Prosecutors accuse strip club owner of exploiting vulnerable women to engage in commercial sex acts What’s in store for Buffalo’s winter? The 4Warn Weather team offers predictions in our Winter Weather Special Lockport man arrested on child pornography, gun charges Dan Telvock is an award-winning investigative producer and reporter who has been part of the News 4 team since 2018. See more of his work here and follow him on Twitter.