Heirs of murdered millionaire Miami Subs founder fight for their fortune

The sons of tycoon Gus Boulis, the Miami Subs and Sun Cruz founder who was murdered in Fort Lauderdale 20 years ago, are locked in a legal battle with the man he placed in charge of their trust before he died — his own cousin.

According to a report in the Miami Herald, brothers Aristotle and Alexander Boulis are fighting with their father’s cousin, Spiro Naos, accusing him of looting hundreds of thousands of dollars from their trusts.

The Herald has the details on the legal drama.

Boulis gained fame in South Florida as the founder of the Miami Subs fast food chain and owner of Sun Cruz, a fleet of ships that sailed from Hollywood out three miles into the Atlantic, where Florida’s then-ban on gambling was not legally binding.

Barred by the federal government from owning the casino boat fleet because he was not a U.S. citizen, Boulis sold it in 2000 to a partnership headed by influential Washington D.C. lobbyist Jack Abramoff and Adam Kidan, a New York businessman known mostly for his television commercials advertising mattress sales.

The deal turned out to be fraudulent, and when Boulis demanded payment or the return of control of the casino fleet, Kidan responded by hiring mob-connected figures to signal that he was under the protection of the Gambino crime family.

Prosecutors say the main hire, Anthony “Big Tony” Moscatiello, now 82, decided on his own to kill Boulis, who was gunned down in an ambush in Fort Lauderdale on Feb. 6, 2001. Anthony “Little Tony” Ferrari, now 64, and a third associate, James “Pudgy” Fiorillo, were also implicated in the plot. The alleged gunman, John Gurino, died in an unrelated shooting in 2003.

Fiorillo, now 44, pleaded guilty to the murder and conspiracy charges in exchange for a six-year jail sentence he had already served while awaiting trial. Moscatiello and Ferrari, who both faced the death penalty, were spared that fate by juries that opted for sentences of life in prison.

Both men were granted new trials on appeal. They are scheduled to go on trial together in January.