# Justice Department release on the petition to cancel Meyer Lansky's naturalization (19 December 1952)

Canonical: https://mobfiles.org/items/fbi-vault-lansky-p01-denaturalization-release-1952-12-19/

A Justice Department press release of December 19, 1952, filed in the FBI Vault's Lansky file, announcing a petition to cancel Meyer Lansky's naturalization and stating that he allegedly has gambling interests in Hollywood, Miami, Council Bluffs, Iowa, and Las Vegas.

Scan 4 of the FBI Vault's "Meyer Lansky" file, Part 01, is a Department of Justice press release "for immediate release, Friday, December 19, 1952." It was read as a page image. Attorney General James P. McGranery announced "that he has directed the filing of a petition seeking cancellation of the naturalization of Meyer Lansky of New York City," as part of a program of denaturalization of aliens "engaged in racketeering and other criminal activities." The petition, based on FBI and Immigration and Naturalization Service investigations, was to be filed by U.S. Attorney Myles J. Lane of the Southern District of New York. It "will charge that Lansky obtained his naturalization through fraud in that during proceedings which led to naturalization he deliberately and intentionally concealed his criminal record."

The release states that Lansky "was born July 4, 1902, at Grodna, Russia, and arrived in the United States April 4, 1911," and was naturalized in the federal court in Brooklyn on September 27, 1928. It then says: "Lansky allegedly has been a close associate of leading gamblers and racketeers in this country and allegedly has gambling interests in Hollywood, Miami, Council Bluffs, Iowa, and Las Vegas, Nev." It adds allegations about Prohibition-era bootlegging and a syndicate. These are allegations in a press release, not findings, and the release does not say what the Las Vegas interest was.

Lansky declined to answer a question about an interest in the Flamingo Hotel in his testimony before the Kefauver Committee in October 1950, which is printed in Part 7 of the committee's hearings, not on this page. The release is the earliest federal statement filed here that ties his name to Las Vegas.

## Sources

- FBI Records: The Vault: https://vault.fbi.gov/meyer-lansky/Meyer%20Lansky%20Part%2001/view