Rumors of such a tie have dogged DeNaples for years, based in part on unproven information in old investigative reports.
Now the grand jury is digging into those stories again.
D'Elia has been haled before the grand jury to testify, along with a number of his friends and associates. One was Shamsud-din Ali, a Muslim cleric and deal-maker convicted in 2005 in the Philadelphia corruption scandal.
In effect, prosecutors, working with state police, are redoing the background investigation of DeNaples - even though the gaming board has cleared him.
They are excavating DeNaples' fraud conviction from 1978, combing through the gaming board's documents, and turning over uncorroborated allegations about DeNaples and D'Elia found in a six-year-old affidavit compiled by the Internal Revenue Service and state police.
If they turn up damaging information, it could cost DeNaples his license - and deliver a serious blow to the credibility of Pennsylvania's system for scrutinizing and selecting casino operators.
In addition, federal authorities are conducting an inquiry into a business associated with DeNaples - an investigation unrelated to his casino. Details of the federal inquiry could not be learned.
Already, the DeNaples saga has exposed weaknesses in Pennsylvania's regulatory apparatus, and laid bare an ugly bureaucratic feud between the gaming board and the state police.
State police investigators are working closely with the grand jury. But if investigators had any negative information about DeNaples, they refused to share it with the gaming board during DeNaples' hearing - even after Gov. Rendell brokered a deal to make them cooperate.
This mess is in stark contrast with the system in other states.
In New Jersey and elsewhere, independent investigators handle casino background checks. In Pennsylvania, investigators were hired by the highly political gaming board.
