Las Vegas Restaurateur Arrested by SWAT Team for Shooting Threat, Loan Fraud

Posted on: April 29, 2025, 12:00h. 

Last updated on: April 29, 2025, 12:50h.

Corey Levitan Read More
Expertise: Commercial Gaming, Entertainment, Expert Insight, Las Vegas, Restaurants, Las Vegas Myths.
  • Evan Glusman, whose father founded Piero’s Italian Cuisine, was arrested on charges of making terrorist threats and harassment
  • Glusman, who worked at the restaurant, reportedly lied on a $1.5 million loan application, claiming he was the owner

Last Saturday, April 26, the son of the founder of Piero’s Italian Cuisine was arrested by a SWAT team after threatening to shoot up the restaurant. According to KLAS-TV/Las Vegas, which broke the story, Evan Glusman was arrested and charged with making terrorist threats and harassment.

The current location of Piero’s, near the Las Vegas Convention Center, opened in 1987. (Image: UNLV Special Collections)

Glusman’s father, Freddie, opened the original Piero’s in 1982 at 3555 S. Karen Avenue, near downtown. He relocated it to its current location, the former Villa D’Este Italian restaurant at 355 Convention Center Drive, in 1987. Piero’s was featured in the 1995 movie “Casino.”

According to KLAS, court documents state that Glusman took out a $1.5 million loan against the business last September, committing fraud by claiming to be its owner when he was only its operating manager. When the elder Glusman discovered this, he fired his son, which made him “extremely irate.”

Evan Gusman no longer works in the family business. (Image: pieroscuisine.com)

On Friday, Glusman texted a Piero’s manager: “I hope you realize I’m drinking and I’m going home to get a gun and fucking kill them in the middle of Piero’s,” the documents read.

Las Vegas police arrested Glusman at his home the next morning and, according to KLAS, are investigating the loan fraud separately, which may result in additional charges.

In court on Sunday, prosecutors and Evan Glusman’s attorney agreed to his release on $20K bail, KLAS reported. Glusman, 46, was also ordered to wear a monitoring bracelet upon his release, and to steer clear of Piero’s and his father.

Glusman is due back in court on May 29.

Previous Criminal Associations

On March 9, 2005, former New York Police Department detectives Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa, who were friends and neighbors in Vegas, were about to dine at Piero’s when they were arrested by FBI and DEA officers for working as secret assassins for the Lucchese crime family

They were convicted on eight counts of murder and conspiracy to murder, two attempted murders, obstruction of justice, extortion, money-laundering, and drug distribution. Eppolito received life plus 100 years, Caracappa life plus 80 years, and each was fined $4 million.

Back when Piero’s was Villa D‘Este, the Italian restaurant was reportedly owned by Chicago mob associate Joe Pignatello and frequented by mafia members including Tony Spilotro and Herbie Blitzstein.