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

As was widely reported last week, accused Madam Anna Gristina (who went by Anna Scotland professionally) was arrested moments after leaving a meeting with supposed business partner (and Morgan Stanley employee currently on leave) David Walker. At the time, Gristina and Walker were said discussing financing for her business, an alleged brothel on East 78th Street. If we're to believe the Manhattan DA and the various employees of Anna who've come forward, Gristina/Scotland and Walker were trying to raise money to expand her brothel biz on the internet, where more "powerful and wealthy men" looking to pay between $1000 and $2000 an hour could be reached. If we're to believe Gristina/Scotland's lawyers, she and Walker were trying to raise money not for a whorehouse but for an "internet dating site to rival Match.com." Today brings new evidence that could potentially shed light for either argument: interior shots of the East 78th Street Headquarters.

On the one hand, does this strike you as a place anyone would want to get laid? And while the dresser drawer contains items one might use for sexual intercourse, it certainly doesn't look like the accoutrements one would expect at $2000/hour. (From her cell on Riker's Island, Gristina "says she’s stunned that prosecutors claim that she — or anyone — would run a high-end hooker ring out of the tiny pad, noting that it's 'hardly luxurious'.") On the other, perhaps customers were willing to overlook the accommodations for a while but had begun grumbling, hence the need to raise cash to be put towards interior design.

Alleged brothel just a crash pad for mistresses: 'madam' [NYP]
Inside the shabby flat used by Manhattan madam for '$2,000 trysts with high-class hookers' [DM]