Accused Madam Didn't Sit Through Countless Meetings Discussing Capital Markets Strategy To Be Treated Like Some Common Pimp

Remember Anna Gristina/Scotland? To recap, she's the entrepreneur we were introduced to yesterday whose business hit a bit of a stumbling block when she was arrested by the Manhattan DA and charged with "promoting prostitution" out of her firm's global headquarters, a whorehouse on East 78th Street. Gristina/Scotland is currently on Riker's Island, having been unable to post bail, set at $2 million but prior to all this going down, she she was just a (self-described) CEO with big plans and an outlook not so different from her colleagues in the business world. Before being nailed as part of a 5-year investigation, a typical day for Anna included: - Cursing her commute: "She hated coming to the city," a friend told the Post. - Reminding people she was running a Fortune 500 company here: She bragged to her old friends back in Scotland that she was “building an empire." “I’m a CEO,” she wrote to one pal from her early days in the ancient village of Kirkliston. “Takes a lot of work,” she told another. - Meeting with colleagues to discuss expansion plans, financing options, and potential IPO timeline: On the morning she was arrested, Gristina/Scotland was "with a friend and Morgan Stanley banker, having been to his office for a meeting to try to raise money to finance what prosecutors believe may be an online prostitution business." (Anna's lawyers argue she "was setting up a legal dating business, hoping to rival online titan Match.com.") - Bitching about Obama and how the guy's adolescent perspective of carried interest was going to screw her over: “Hoping to survive Obama,” she said in 2008. “Obama wants people like me to support the rest of America by taxing me more than I am already.” Dig a little deeper and you'll presumably also find Gristina/Scotland also conducted quarterly earnings calls with investors, used all kinds of financial metrics to measure performance of her hooker employees, plotted acquisitions, and tried to cut costs while expanding her global footprint. Basically, she was building a multi-billion dollar company here and if anyone thinks she's not going to fight these charges and come back stronger they think wrong. UES madam had millionaire clients, led life of suburban mom [NYP] Anna Gristina: Suburban mom or high-rolling madam? [AP] Suspected Manhattan madam Anna Gristina bragged to old friends in Scotland that she was 'building an empire' [NYDN] Earlier: Manhattan DA Pumps The Brakes On Mom/Madam’s Brothel Just As It Was About To Really Take Off With The Help Of Her Contacts In The Business World
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Remember Anna Gristina/Scotland? To recap, she's the entrepreneur we were introduced to yesterday whose business hit a bit of a stumbling block when she was arrested by the Manhattan DA and charged with "promoting prostitution" out of her firm's global headquarters, a whorehouse on East 78th Street. Gristina/Scotland is currently on Riker's Island having been unable to post bail, set at $2 million, but prior to all this going down, she was just a (self-described) CEO with big plans and an outlook not so different from her colleagues in the business world. Before being nailed as part of a 5-year investigation, a typical day for Anna included:

- Cursing her commute: "She hated coming to the city," a friend told the Post.

- Reminding people she was running a Fortune 500 company here: She bragged to her old friends back in Scotland that she was “building an empire." “I’m a CEO,” she wrote to one pal from her early days in the ancient village of Kirkliston. “Takes a lot of work,” she told another.

- Meeting with colleagues to discuss expansion plans, financing options, and potential IPO timeline: On the morning she was arrested, Gristina/Scotland was "with a friend and Morgan Stanley employee, having been to his office for a meeting to try to raise money to finance what prosecutors believe may be an online prostitution business." (Anna's lawyers argue she "was setting up a legal dating business, hoping to rival online titan Match.com.")

- Bitching about Obama and how the guy's adolescent perspective of carried interest was going to screw her over: “Hoping to survive Obama,” she said in 2008. “Obama wants people like me to support the rest of America by taxing me more than I am already.”

Dig a little deeper and you'll presumably also find Gristina/Scotland conducted quarterly earnings calls with investors, used all kinds of financial metrics to measure performance of her hooker employees, plotted acquisitions, and tried to cut costs while expanding her global footprint. Basically, she was building a multi-billion dollar company to rival the Apples and Goldman Sachses of the world. If she were to release a statement this afternoon it would be, "I am a businesswoman. These are my employees. This is a business. Stop fucking with the GDP." And if her lawyer hasn't yet drafted his closing argument, perhaps he'll consider something à la: "It is a well-known FACT that prostitution is the world's oldest profession. PROFESSION. Let that word swish around in your glass. Defense rests."

UES madam had millionaire clients, led life of suburban mom [NYP]
Anna Gristina: Suburban mom or high-rolling madam? [AP]
Suspected Manhattan madam Anna Gristina bragged to old friends in Scotland that she was 'building an empire' [NYDN]
Earlier: Manhattan DA Pumps The Brakes On Mom/Madam’s Brothel Just As It Was About To Really Take Off With The Help Of Her Contacts In The Business World

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Manhattan DA Pumps The Brakes On Mom/Madam's Brothel Just As It Was About To Really Take Off With The Help Of Her Contacts In The Business World

[caption id="attachment_69903" align="alignleft" width="240" caption="HQ on East 78th Street"][/caption]As the entrepreneurial among us know, successful, brand name business don't just happen overnight. They take blood, sweat, tears and in some cases, other bodily fluids, that the public never sees. Anna Gristina was nearly there. The mother of four (who went by the name "Anna Scotland" professionally) had been providing hookers for to "wealthy, powerful men" ("politicians, top-law enforcement, influential lawyers, bankers, entertainment execs and Fortune 500 businessmen") out of an Upper East Side whorehouse for a decade and a half, had developed a thriving client list willing to pay between $1000 (for a "Dream Girl") to $2000+ (for an “Ultimate Elite Model”) per appointment, and made millions in the process. She was ready for the big time. Just the other day, in fact, Gristina/Scotland was sitting down at the office of her friend and business associate, a Morgan Stanley employee, to hear his plan for "expanding her operation through the Internet." And then this happened. The petite, blond Gristina was caught on wiretaps claiming “to have made millions over the 15 or so years she has been in business as a madam,” Linehan said, according to newly released transcripts of the Feb. 23 hearing...Known in the industry as “Anna Scotland,’’ the Scottish native was nailed as part of a five-year investigation by the DA’s Official Corruption Unit, which probes NYPD and other uniformed officers for possible misconduct. At one point, Gristina was caught on tape saying her law-enforcement pals were “poised to help her out, to let her know if there is trouble on the front that she needs to be concerned about, particularly back during the Eliot Spitzer investigation,” Linehan said, referring to the former governor’s hooker scandal. An arrest warrant was issued for Gristina last month. When cops arrived at her upstate home, where she rescues wild pigs and raises pit bulls, they didn’t find anyone — but a wild boar chased a police officer around, the sources said. Gristina was nabbed soon after in the office of a Morgan Stanley banker and “close friend.’’ It's unclear if the friend was part of MS's dominant tech team (and was entertaining Gristina/Scotland at HQ*) but knowing they tend to go after big fish companies about to pop it's highly probable.** Hot mama is kink link to rich: DA [NYP] High-end madam busted for running upper East Side brothel is a suburban mom with four children [NYDN] *I know the tech team is based in California-- MAYBE THIS DEAL WAS SO HUGE THE GUY WANTED TO INTRODUCE GRISTINA/SCOTLAND TO BIG JIM. **In our minds. Just let us have this.

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Charlie Gasparino Names Morgan Stanley Guy Allegedly Helping To Expand UES Brothel Business

Earlier this morning it was reported that Morgan Stanley "reviewed its visitor logs" upon hearing that one of its employees was supposedly conducting business with Anna Gristina/Scotland, a purveyor of prostitutes, when she was arrested this week. In the event the bank is still on the hunt, Charlie Gasparino claims to have a name. "...the executive involved with UES madam has been identified as David Walker, a broker in the midtown office. He has not been charged and didn’t return calls. Morgan Stanley has no comment." Not to be confused with this guy.

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Inside Of Alleged East 78th Street Brothel *Could* Get Accused Madam Off

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United Kingdom Couldn't Be Prouder Of Scotland-Born Whorehouse CEO

The last six weeks have been a fairly stressful time for Anna Gristina/Scotland. On March 6, she was arrested for allegedly running a brothel out of an East 78th Street apartment, where she provided hookers to “wealthy, powerful men” (“politicians, top-law enforcement, influential lawyers, bankers, entertainment execs and Fortune 500 businessmen”), which meant her plans for global expansion (the details of which she'd been hammering out with a broker friend just that morning) had to be shelved. On April 3, her request for reduced bail (set at $2 million) was denied for a fourth time. On April 9, it became clear she was probably going to have to send her pet pigs to a farm "upstate." Right now, as she sits in a jail cell on Riker's Island, it would be fair to assume Gristina/Scotland's spirits are pretty low. And while it may be little consolation, she should know that everyone back home, across the pond, is not only rooting for her but swelling with pride over her accomplishments. When David Cameron spoke recently of entrepreneurs banging the drum for British business, he possibly wasn't referring to the woman whose entrepreneurship has become the talk of New York. In her own way, though, Anna Gristina, 44, could be cited as a curious example of British excellence. The Scottish woman, who allegedly ran a high-class prostitution racket from her Manhattan apartment for 15 years, has been showing that when it comes to sex scandals the Brits still lead the world. Heidi Fleiss may have had an A-list clientele but she didn't have Playboy models working for her, royalty and former presidential candidates on the books, an ex-husband who is a noted politician, and a stunning stand-up comedienne sidekick. For wild originality alone the "McMadam" story surely wins out. District Attorney Charles Linehan told the court that there "was no plainer example that she (Gristina) is a flight risk." If the prosecutors are playing hardball, however, so is Gristina. From her cell in Riker's Island she sent word that she would sooner bite her own tongue off than betray any of her prominent clients. One would expect nothing less of a doughty Scot, who decades ago left behind her tiny village of Kirkliston, near Edinburgh, to make her fortune in the big city but is still well remembered back home. That's our girl! McMadam is the talk of New York [Independent]

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Accused Madam's Pigs May Want To Watch Their Backs

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Accused Madam's Pigs Can Breathe A Cautiously Optimistic Sigh Of Relief

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Who Wants To Adopt Anna Gristina's Pigs?

Back in March, a woman named Anna Gristina was arrested for allegedly running a whorehouse out of an East 78th Street apartment, with plans to go global. In that time, we've learned a good bit about Gristina (who goes by Anna Scotland professionally), who currently remains incarcerated on Riker's Island. For instance, at the time of her arrest, she was meeting with a friend and broker who was supposedly helping her line up financing to expand the venture (which she maintains was an upscale dating site), she paid her hookers well, and she was an animal lover. Emphasis on the past tense because apparently anyone can be an animal lover until push comes to shove and mommy needs money for legal fees. Then it's good-bye lush accommodations upstate, hello slaughterhouse. An accused Upper East Side brothel boss is so hard up for cash that she’s had to evict most of the pigs she keeps in her upstate home to save money while she remains locked up in jail on $2 million bond. The family of accused madam Anna Gristina, who’s got a soft spot for porkers, has sent away all but two of the seven rescue pigs she keeps in order to save the hundreds of dollars per month she spends in upkeep for them at her Orange County farm, her husband said yesterday. “My son was really upset,” Gristina’s hubby Kelvin Gorr said of the decision to relocate those hogs to two other farms. “He was crying,” Gorr said of the boy, 9-year-old Nicholas. “Anna, too, was upset,” the real-estate agent Gorr said. “But there’s nothing we can do.” But Gorr assured, “They’re not going to be eaten.”blockquote> Oh really? That's interesting because most people wouldn't make a claim like "they're not going to be eaten" without explaining what WILL happen to them instead, unless you are prevaricating in flagrante. So. Apparently it falls to us. If anyone has an interest in taking in one of these pigs, speak up now. Lest the idea cross your mind that a certain hedge fund manager will be opening his doors, let me stop you right there-- there's no room at that inn.