DeBartolo Says Edwards Demanded $400,000
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BATON ROUGE, La. — Former San Francisco 49er owner Eddie DeBartolo Jr. testified Monday that ex-Gov. Edwin Edwards demanded and received $400,000 from him to ensure that his application for a riverboat casino license would be approved.
A day after DeBartolo allegedly gave the former four-term governor the money--in stacks of $100 bills in a briefcase at the San Francisco airport--the Louisiana gambling board unanimously awarded a license to DeBartolo.
DeBartolo’s testimony has been the most anticipated in Edwards’ federal racketeering trial, not only because he is one of the richest men in the country and a former NFL owner, but also because he is the only witness who claims Edwards extorted money and collected it. Other witnesses have testified that Edwards had his friends and son demand money from them.
Federal prosecutors say Edwards and his son Stephen, along with a state senator and four other men, manipulated the licensing of riverboat casinos before and after the governor left office in 1996.
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