U.S. Attorney Adam Mildred said in a Thursday press conference that federal authorities want tips from the public on anyone who participated in an illegal multi-state gambling and extortion ring based out of two Northwest Indiana restaurants.
“We are coming after you,” he said, of potential co-defendants.
Particularly, they are focused on those who “took bets,” “collected debts,” worked as “support” or “protection” — i.e. threatening those who didn’t repay what they owed.
We want to “completely dismantle this group,” an official said.
An indictment unsealed Wednesday showed federal prosecutors charged 22 people earlier this month in the scheme — operating out of Gino’s Steakhouse in Merrillville and Paragon in Hobart.
The 87-page indictment detailing the alleged gambling and extortion activity between January 2021 and April 2026 names James “Jimmy the Greek” Gerodemos, of Schererville, and Dean “Dean Gem” Gialamas, of Naperville, as leaders of Gerodemos Gambling Organization.
The other people listed in the indictment are: Chris Gerodemos, of Crown Point; Basam “Donny Brasco” Ibrahim, of Portage; Sanad “Sanad Taka” Ibrahim, of St. John; Peter “Pete Goodys” Pavlopoulos, of Crown Point; Filippo “Gigi” Rovito, of Burr Ridge; Michael “Michael Way Out” Campbell; Ehab “Eddie” Mustafa, of Merrillville; Steve Armenta, of Portage; Samuel Nuzzo, of Crown Point; Alexander “Alex Gyros” Gagianas, of Mesa, Arizona; Gus “Deans Runner” Kaporis; Rami “Rami Straight Flush” Mansour, of Merrillville; Nenad “Butch Hunkee” Radoja, of St. John; Marcus “Vladimir Ganz” Ganz; Paul “Paulie Scarf” Franze; Athena Gerodemos, of Schererville; Elias Gerodemos, of Crown Point; James “Jim Macedonian” Strezovski, of Merrillville; Andrew “Caesars Andrew” Nguyen; and Giuseppe “Joe Polozzo”’ Manzi.
The indictment includes other members of the Gerodemos family, who are longtime owners of both establishments, as well as former employees. Both restaurants, which were used in gambling operations, were raided by the FBI on Wednesday morning.
In a statement, an Indiana Gaming Commission spokeswoman said they launched the investigation two years earlier in Northwest Indiana — focusing on areas including “bookmaking,” “extortion,” and “money laundering.”
That led investigators to other states, like Illinois, California and Massachusetts.
The indictment details the lengths the gambling organization went to threaten multiple victims and their relatives with violence if their accrued gambling debts weren’t paid up.
In one incident, Mustafa, an ex-Gino’s cook, traveled to Texas in June 2025 and left a Papa John’s pizza box with roses and a note threatening a man called Victim 1’s college-age daughter.
“Do the right thing, or I’m heading to Valparaiso University…n’ get ahold of the Greek,” it read.
By October 2025, James Gerodemos left a message for Victim 1 asking him to give him a call or he was going to go to Valparaiso and “(expletive) your daughter.”
About 150 police officers and agents participated in the raid Wednesday, said FBI Special Agent Tim O’Malley, including personnel from the FBI, IRS, U.S. Homeland Security Investigations, Indiana State Police, U.S. Marshals and Indiana Gaming Commission.
They made arrests in Chicago, Boston, New York, Sarasota, Florida, California, Mesa, Arizona and San Juan, Puerto Rico. Agents executed at least seven search warrants at homes and businesses, he said.
As Mildred took questions from the press at the federal courthouse in Hammond, he demurred when asked by the Post-Tribune if police had established any links to a local official.
“I’m not in a position to talk, other than anyone who is indicted,” he said. “I won’t speculate.”
If anyone generally had tips on the case, investigators were “open to the information,” he said. Mildred emphasized to reporters that the investigation was ongoing.
Detention hearings — which will determine if the 22 defendants will remain jailed — are expected to be handled on a “case-to-case” basis, depending on multiple factors, including if they were a flight risk.
The Gerodemos family is no stranger to running afoul of the law.
Police raided a since-closed Paragon restaurant in Schererville in 2013 for hiring and housing illegal workers. They did not own the restaurant at the time.
However, federal attorneys said back then that the crime started with the former owners, which records show included local restaurant magnate Louis Gerodemos. He is not named in the gambling indictment.
“The former owners knowingly hired and housed illegal immigrants at the restaurant and 1747 St. John Road,” federal attorneys said in a motion filed then in U.S. District Court in Hammond. “They also skimmed cash from the restaurant sales and used the cash to pay workers” at the business.”
Newspaper archives also show James Gerodemos got six months in federal prison in 2014 after he pleaded guilty in an illegal fireworks case.
According to archives, he was found with enough fireworks, some of which were illegal to sell even with a license at the time, to equal 4,000 pounds of TNT, which is about the amount that was used in the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, that killed 168 people and injured 850. That amount of fireworks is supposed to be stored about 75 yards away from any inhabited building, but Gerodemos stored the fireworks in a metal container just outside his store.
The judge noted that when an undercover officer bought fireworks from Gerodemos, he never asked him what he intended to do with the fireworks. Instead, the only question was if he was a cop.
Anyone with information on the gambling ring can call 1-800-CALL-FBI. You can be anonymous.
Post-Tribune archives contributed.
