dictionary

Gold Club

The Gold Club, a popular Atlanta strip club, is at the center of a federal racketeering trial. Prosecutors allege that the club is a front for prostitution, money laundering and other crimes and has links to organized crime. Club owner Steve Kaplan insists he is running a legitimate business.

	ALSO
Sex, sports and the mob: The Gold Club trial

Kaplan

Steve Kaplan has owned the Gold Club since 1994 and has turned it into one of the most profitable strip clubs in the country. He is charged with prostitution, credit card fraud, obstruction of justice, extortion, money laundering, bribing police and paying protection money to the New York-based Gambino organized crime family.

• Jacklyn Bush, who used the stage name "Diva," is a former dancer at the club and was one of its top money earners. She is charged with prostitution.

Sicignano

Thomas "Ziggy" Sicignano is a former manager at the Gold Club and one of the prosecution's key witnesses in the trial. He testified that Kaplan ordered him to arrange sexual activity between dancers and a number of athletes. Sicignano testified as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors.

Davis

Antonio Davis filed a $50 million defamation lawsuit against Sicignano for saying he had sex with Gold Club dancers. The Toronto Raptors star called the claims "malicious lies."

Sadow

Steve Sadow is Kaplan's defense attorney and one of most high-profile criminal defense attorneys in Atlanta. Kaplan successfully defended NFL player Ray Lewis co-defendant Joseph Sweeting last year against murder charges related to the stabbing deaths of two men outside an Atlanta nightclub.

• Assistant U.S. Attorney Art Leach is the head of Atlanta's organized crime task force and is the lead prosecutor in the Gold Club trial.