Dadante was once part of that circle. He went to Regalbuto with a good story and a fistful of phony financial statements, claiming that the IPOF fund he started was earning big returns. All he needed were investors. Regalbuto provided them.
The list of IPOF investors, which Regalbuto shared with The Sun, is a who's who of Cleveland's Italian-American community, including the nephew of Catholic Bishop Emeritus Anthony Pilla and members of the Quagliata family, who own a string of well-known local restaurants. It included Regalbuto's family - children, grandchildren and in-laws - who borrowed against their homes and emptied savings accounts, believing that Dadante was making them rich.
But most of all, they believed in the man who vouched for him. Most still do, though at least one family is suing Regalbuto for money it invested with Dadante.
"His word is good to this day," said Jerry Ciricillo, Regalbuto's brother-in-law and an IPOF investor who lost $325,000. "If [Regalbuto] had another investment fund and he said it was good, I'd go. That's the reputation this man has."
Dadante grew up poor on Cleveland's west side. His father was a machine operator, stamping out sheet metal for Otis Elevator Co. His mother worked for Giant Tiger, a once-prominent chain of discount department stores. His parents sent him to St. Ignatius, a private Catholic high school where Dadante mingled with middle-class kids from big houses. It was there he first glimpsed a better life. It made an impression, he said in an interview before entering prison in February.
He took a series of jobs after high school - all of them trading on his business savvy and penchant for talk. But his life took a bad turn in his late 20s, when he opened a nightclub outside Cleveland called Cuzzens. It was then, he said, that he got a taste for life in the fast lane, drinking heavily and using cocaine. He ended up in rehab for a time.
The bar lasted about two years. It wasn't until the mid-1980s that Dadante found a new niche, when a friend introduced him to life as a casino host. His job was to fill charter planes with eager gamblers bound for Atlantic City.
He booked trips for Trump's Castle, the Tropicana and the Taj Mahal. Before long, he was earning a six-figure salary with a client list that included a few "whales" - industry talk for high rollers. But he was always in search of more.
