Producer Cops to Seagal Extortion

His partner double-crossed him...The Mob was out to get him...His career was on the ropes... Steven Seagal's latest thriller?

Sort of. This one just finished playing out in court, though, not on the big screen--but it still had a happy ending for the Hollywood hero.

Julius Nasso, the man who helped Seagal produce such prepositional cinematic opuses as Out for Justice, On Deadly Ground and Marked for Death, copped to siccing the Mafia on the aging action star in a shakedown attempt.

As part of a plea deal worked out with federal prosecutors, Nasso pleaded guilty to one count of extortion conspiracy. In return, he'll be sent up the river for one year and pay a $75,000 fine.

The 50-year-old producer, whose non-Seagal credits include last year's Ray Liotta undercover drama Narc, says he got reputed Gambino crime family enforcer Anthony "Sonny" Ciccone to try to scare Seagal into paying several million dollars the actor allegedly owed Nasso. (Ciccone and Peter Gotti, brother of late kingpin John Gotti, were both convicted on racketeering charges as part of the same case and are awaiting sentencing.)

The trial, which has been going on since early this year, featured a star turn from Seagal back in February.

On the stand, Seagal recounted meeting with a contingent of mobsters in 2000--an event that led him to fear for his life. He claims that Ciccone demanded Seagal make a $150,00 payoff to the Gambinos for each film he did with Nasso. Seagal said he was bullied into working with the producer again after he had already dissolved their partnership.

"Look at me when I talk to you," Seagal quoted Ciccone as saying during one meeting. "We're proud people...Work with Jules and we'll split the pie."

Seagal also said the gangsters were willing to give him some real-life exit wounds if he didn't do what they wanted. "If you would have said the wrong thing, they would have killed you," the actor quoted a mobster as telling him after one meeting.

During his testimony, Seagal said he tried to "buy time" for himself by agreeing to work with Nasso again. "These were people who were not going to let it go," he said.

Prosecutors brought Seagal into the fray after wiretaps showed Nasso being told to demand money from the actor. The feds also cite a recording from a bugged Brooklyn restaurant where the suspects in the case were laughing over how "petrified" Seagal looked at a meeting.

Despite the courtroom admission Wednesday, Nasso's attorney, Robert Hantman, told reporters afterward that Nasso "has no ties to organized crime whatsoever."

Seagal's attorney, Abbe Lowell, meanwhile, released a statement saying Seagal takes no joy in Nasso's legal woes. "He has put his dealings with Mr. Nasso behind him," said Lowell, "and hopes Mr. Nasso will do the same."

But that ain't going to happen, says Nasso. He says he will go forward with a $60 million suit filed against Seagal in 2002, claiming the pony-tailed movie tough guy reneged on a deal to star in four films under the advice of his Buddhist "spiritual adviser."

Nasso, who teamed up with Seagal for 15 years and established Seagal-Nasso Productions in 1990, claims a Buddhist spiritual adviser named Mukara convinced Seagal to cut ties with his business partners and family, or he would not get to keep his coveted status as a reincarnated lama, or "Tulka," which makes him a sacred vessel of Tibetan Buddhism.

Seagal has called the suit "malicious and false."

With Nasso & Co. heading to the pen, the Half Past Dead hero can focus on making movies. He has two films in the works with Franchise Pictures. The first, Out of Reach, is currently shooting in Poland and stars Seagal as a former federal agent who stumbles upon an international slave trade operation. The second, Into the Sun, was cowritten by Seagal and will star the martial artist as--yes--a former agent who this time winds up battling Japanese gangsters.