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Here is the 'editorial' that Monger22 was referring to in it's entirety.
Don't Let The Johns Off Hook
March 24, 2004
HARTFORD -- U.S. Attorney Kevin J. O'Connor should consider the culpability of the 4,600 clients who over 25 years patronized a Franklin Avenue brothel known as the Alpha Leisure & Health Club until federal authorities recently shut it down.
The names on the list are not directly relevant to Mr. O'Connor's case against the brothel's operators, who have been indicted on charges of using interstate wires to make millions of dollars in credit card transactions for prostitution.
The list, if the clients' names and their patronage of the brothel can be verified, may hold clues to how the business stayed open. Running a busy house of prostitution on one of Hartford's main streets for 25 years would be difficult without law enforcement authorities or public officials knowing or hearing of its operation.
Mr. O'Connor's office has so far secured a plea deal from the club's madam, Gail Gaer of Newington, and its manager, Josephine Ramondetta, for conspiracy. Ms. Gaer faces up to 25 years in prison and $750,000 in fines and Ms. Ramondetta faces five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. In Ms. Gaer's plea agreement, she admitted pocketing more than $5.4 million while she ran the club and keeping huge sums of the money in Swiss bank accounts.
But Mr. O'Connor should weigh the possibility of going after those whose patronage enabled the brothel to thrive. Perhaps more recent entries and any records of payment could conclusively tie patrons to the brothel and lead to charges still within any statute of limitations.
Although the list is sealed to public view by law until the case is closed, judicious use of the information, along with court permission to share it with the Hartford Police Department if warranted, could bring patrons of the brothel to justice and reveal potential reasons that city law enforcement authorities failed to close it sooner.
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Sun night cruise. 2 new white SW in DP. Long blondish hair. 20s.Both got picked up quickly. Went to Garden an found Latina from 3 weeks ago after a 45 minute search. Not many active ladies observed.
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>> Sun night cruise. 2 new white SW in DP.
>> Long blondish hair. 20s.Both got picked up quickly.
One of them was there this afternoon also.
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Mighty Spearsman:
>Looks like I may have underestimated the amount of money available for the owner to stash into a
>Swiss bank account, so thanks to everyone for the lively discussion over the last week. Even if the
>owner had only hidden $100,000 a year (after spa expenses and her own requirements) of the
>presumed $450K - $500K gross revenue, over a 25-year period that amount would have grown
>tremendously if the interest earned was reinvested.
Ordinary Swiss bank accounts pay negligible interest (and if you're a foreigner the bank takes back 1/3 of that). "Secret" accounts pay no interest, and have fees too. The Swiss banks know perfectly well that the main reason foreigners have accounts there is to evade taxes at home, or otherwise hide loot, so they don't have to pay them interest--and they don't.
If she was just using the Swiss bank accounts to launder the money temporarily somehow, then reinvesting it, sure she could have built up her nest egg. But putting the money into the bank and leaving it there wouldn't have done much for her balance except keep it out of sight of the Feds.
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WTIC 530 news Tues 3/30 Hartford Police have begun arresting patrons of A today. First 5 guys arrested this afternoon. Arrests could reach the hundreds.HTFD Police working in conjunction with the Feds the report said. State arrests have a 1 year statute of limitations, Federal 10 years. Im sure the Courant will have all the details tomorrow including all the guys names an addresses. I guess they had more than first name last initial in their records. Stoner was 100 % correct in his advice an wisdom. If you are gonna play dont use your credit card. Use cash.
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Coming home at 8 I passed Homestead an Garden. I spot this white girl an her GF turning onto Sargeant St. I turn round an pull over. WOW>>Her name is Katie. 5 ft 3 106 lb long long brown hair 24 YO No kids Lives in East Hartford. Guys I found another CHRISTINA......Unbelievable in bed $20 Not ur usual SW. Former dancer at ELECTRIC BLUE...Now works at a reastreaunt in Manchester PT. HOT HOT HOT.....
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According to fox 61, they went by credit card receipts. Also the men were at the club when they raided it in October. They also arrested annother manager and the other owner. The manager was Becky and the other owner was Angela.
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Here's the full article from Hartford Courant's website:
Brothel Customers May Face Charges
March 31, 2004
By MATT BURGARD, Courant Staff Writer
There could be a lot of nervous johns out there, now that law enforcement officials say that hundreds of former customers at a closed Hartford brothel could face charges as part of an investigation into one of the most lucrative prostitution operations ever seen in the city.
Mark R. Pawlina, the acting Hartford police chief, said Tuesday that five men have been arrested on charges of paying to have sex with prostitutes at the Alpha Leisure & Health Club on Franklin Avenue in Hartford.
Federal officials announced that two people were indicted on charges of profiting from the club's operations. Three others pleaded guilty to similar charges earlier this month.
The five men accused of patronizing prostitutes were identified by Hartford police as [names edited]. They were the first alleged customers of the Alpha Club to be arrested. Officials said they were inside the establishment when police conducted a series of raids there.
The raids also yielded lists and other paperwork containing the identities of more than 4,600 customers who patronized the club over the quarter-century it operated until it was shut down for good late last year.
It's doubtful that police will seek arrest warrants for every customer listed, but officials said hundreds of people will be looked at as possible suspects.
"We anticipate many more arrests - there could be potentially thousands of customers eligible for charges," Pawlina said, adding that women who worked at the club as prostitutes are expected to be charged in the weeks ahead.
Kevin O'Connor, the U.S. attorney for Connecticut who has helped oversee the investigation, said the number of arrests probably will be limited for a number of reasons, including the statute of limitations.
Since patronizing a prostitute is a misdemeanor in Connecticut, the statute of limitations gives police only a year from the date of the offense to make an arrest. Anyone who paid to have sex at the Alpha Club more than a year ago will not be eligible for charges.
O'Connor said the fact that someone's name may be on the list or other documents would also probably not be sufficient to warrant charges.
"We don't want people to think we'll be rounding up thousands of johns," he said. "It's not that easy. But if we find people who we can build a case against, we will do it."
The club, which for years drew the wrath of neighbors in the city's south end, brought in millions of dollars in profits for its handful of owners and managers.
Pawlina said city police frequently carried out undercover investigations and raids to shut the club down over the years. But the small-scale prostitution arrests they made were not enough to close its doors permanently, he said.
It wasn't until city police got an idea of how profitable the club was that federal investigators were called in to track the money and build cases against the club ownership, he said.
Working with investigators from the FBI and the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, detectives with the department's vice squad carried out undercover sting operations in which detectives posed as prostitutes and johns, O'Connor said.
"We realize that in an operation as large as this, it takes two to tango, and if it wasn't for the customers coming to patronize the prostitutes, this business wouldn't have been able to thrive like it did," he said.
This month, O'Connor's office accepted guilty pleas from three people in federal court who admitted profiting from the brothel's proceeds, in some cases reaping millions of dollars in credit card charges from johns. The owners then transferred the money to bank accounts in Switzerland, and mailed bulk payments back to the U.S., officials said.
Besides the three who have pleaded guilty - Gail Gaer, 63; Josephine Ramondetta, 48; and Reed Jaffe, whose age was not provided by officials - O'Connor said, two more people were indicted this week in connection with running the club.
He said Tuesday that a grand jury has also handed up a 38-count indictment against Angela Moutsatsos, 49, of West Hartford, who was identified as one of the club's principal owners, and Rebecca M. Arrowood, 32, of Florida, who was identified as a longtime club manager.
The indictments accuse Moutsatsos and Arrowood of profiting from the club's revenues, which amounted to more than $5 million during a five-year period from 1997 to 2002.
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Monger22 wrote: "WTIC 530 news Tues 3/30 Hartford Police have begun arresting patrons of A today. First 5 guys arrested this afternoon. Arrests could reach the hundreds.HTFD Police working in conjunction with the Feds the report said. State arrests have a 1 year statute of limitations, Federal 10 years. Im sure the Courant will have all the details tomorrow including all the guys names an addresses. I guess they had more than first name last initial in their records. Stoner was 100 % correct in his advice an wisdom. If you are gonna play dont use your credit card. Use cash."
Thank you for your post, Monger22.
I was wondering: even if there are credit bills (if one was lazy/crazy enough to use it) and complete names of certain people, how can these people be arrested so easily? Are people from Alpha pointing fingers?
Unless these "5 guys" freely admitted to being johns OR there is videotape of these gentlemen having a sexual act and exchanging money with the women, it doesn't really seem to make sense. Am I missing something? I apologize for any ignorance, but it simply doesn't add up for me.
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play2-
Some of the local TV stations have the video of their broadcast stories available on their websites. The reporters are saying that those arrested for prostitution (the johns) were the patrons of the Alpha at the time of the raid. They most likely were caught with their pant's down, literally. For anyone else not caught in the act, anything other than a legal massage would be hard to prove.
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The New York Times article on Alpha gave me a chuckle.
"Several men who said they grew up around Franklin Avenue described a stream of jazzy cars driving around to its spotlighted rear entrance and sharply dressed men walking through its front door at all hours."
Sharply dressed, hey? Jazzy cars too! You CT mongers are way too high class for us out-of-staters, obviously.
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Alpfa article in todays Courant. In past couple weeks 3 employees have pled guilty to Federal charges. Awaiting sentencing. Appears they are cooperating with Feds. Yesterday a Federal grand jury indited 2 other former employees on 38 counts. Names are in paper. More arrests to come. Hartford PD arrested 5 johns. Chief said hundreds could be arrested. Prostitutes who worked there will be arrested also. Good news is they are only going back one year.Read an interperate article for yourself.Apprears they are NOT going after all 4600 credit card customers.More arrests though are sure to happen in the future. What the Courant will do with the 4600 names when they get them is anybodys guess.
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No sir officer, nothing like that happened. I went had a soda and pleasant conversation. A fun place to hang out, I never did any thing illegal.
Expect LE to try and scare you: Were going to check your story out with the neighbors, employer and wife. Unless you want to co-operate.
Me (or you?): Go ahead, they know about it already, you can't blackmail me.
If someone does "co-operate", he'll get plenty of media coverage at the trial.
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This is my 400th post, and unfortunately it has to be about the latest news on Alpha!
The article in today's Courant is located above the fold on page B3 of the Connecticut section and is entitled "Brothel Clients Face Charges" and listed the names of 5 local gentlemen (who I certainly will not name here) who were arrested. I hope that none of them are contributors to this board - I feel as if all of you are friends-of-a-sort and I'd hate to hear that any of you were arrested.
Interestingly, the five were arrested [B]not[/B] because their names were on the list of 4,600, but because "officials said they were inside the establishment when police conducted a series of raids."
I am worried a bit but not that much, because:
* The fact that the guys were in Alpha at the time of the raids I consider to be significant, since it is difficult to arrest someone after-the-fact for paying for sex unless there's real evidence (I'm sure that both the guy and girl would deny any illegal acts of a sexual nature).
* Alpha's list supposedly had only first names plus a last initial. So unless someone paid by credit card, that person is not likely to be arrested since there are numerous people who could fit any particular listing, such as "John R."
* Even the credit card receipts may have limited value, again because it's hard to prove that something illegal occurred after the fact.
* As the article said "the statute of limitations gives police only a year from the date of the offense to make an arrest. Anyone who paid to have sex at the Alpha Club more than a year ago will not be eligible for charges." Since the Alpha's been closed for over 3 months, this reduces the time period to about 8 1/2 months.
* I'm not sure if the Federal statue of limitations of 10 years is significant, since the Feds are interested in the money laundering, not any supposed prostitution (which is a misdemeanor, not a felony).
* I'm curious if what I am about to describe has ever happened to any of you. I can think of several occasions in the early 1990s (more than a year ago!) when I stopped by Alpha, checked in at the front desk but did not pay any house fee, went inside to enjoy my free soda, chit-chat with the ladies, maybe play some pool, then decided that I didn't want to spend more time with any of the ladies, so I left and went home. Or, I may have learned that the waiting time to wait for a particular lady would be up to an hour or more, so I decided not to wait but to come back at another time. I certainly did not do anything remotely illegal, yet my name would be listed as one of the visitors that evening. Hmmm....
Finally, I loved the post by VilunyaChert, which also reminded me of a comment I made a few weeks ago - I don't see that neighborhood as being any better now than when the Alpha was open and operating. Maybe it's time to bring back the jazzy cars and sharply-dressed men? (and maybe the NY Times journalist is a ZZ Top fan?)
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Mighty,
What surprises me, is the amount of effort that went into busting what is, a small criminal enterprise. My guess is that its part of a bigger deal. Even more surprising is that similar places aren;t closing up shop and flying away in the face of this. Keep in mind that new laws allow all sorts of snooping to occur.
If the employees are cooperating, as the article says, that suggests that they have turned over the keys to the book-keeping system. So, together with a little help from Visa etc, LE can piece together who was there and how often - going back years! That probably means license plate numbers, and other personal info guys didnt know may have been collected. I'm sure LE isnt going to clog up the court system by arresting 100s of guys who spent $100 there, they're looking for something bigger -maybe the regulars, maybe it was a front for something truly nefarious.
My guess is that they can prove this was a brothel and the guys who are defendants will have to be mighty clever to explain how a brothel got his signature on a credit card slip, along with other info on certain dates. Judges aren't stupid. Probably lots of guys will plea bargain out on some minor charge and end up in divorce court.
This may not be pretty. And if you've been there in the last year, I would, at a minimum, make some calls to criminal defense lawyers to start figuring out what you're gonna do, if you get a summons or a call.
