The Wall St. Link to a Prostitution Case

By BEN PROTESS

Wall Street is always looking for the next great investment idea.
What about pumping cash into a prostitution ring? Well, that might seem a bit exotic, even for an ambitious Wall Streeter.
In an odd twist to the curious case of Anna Gristina — who burst into tabloid fame on Tuesday after being accused of orchestrating a multimillion-dollar brothel that catered to New York’s wealthy elite — prosecutors say she was arrested last month with an unnamed employee of Morgan Stanley. Ms. Gristina was meeting with the employee to secure financing for a new business, according to a transcript of a Feb. 23 court hearing that came the day after her arrest.
Ms. Gristina counted the Wall Streeter as a “close friend,” Charles Linehan, a prosecutor in the Manhattan district attorney’s office, said at the Feb. 23 hearing.

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The mysterious Morgan Stanley employee was not arrested, according to a person briefed on the matter who was not authorized to speak publicly because the case was continuing. The person added that the employee worked in the Morgan Stanley Smith Barney unit, the wealth management arm of the Wall Street firm.
The employee’s connection to the case was reported earlier by DNAinfo.com.
“She had been present at his office for a meeting in which she was trying to solicit money to fund what we believe is another illicit business venture,” Mr. Linehan said at the Feb. 23 hearing.
What sort of sordid venture? “Matching up male clients with female prostitutes,” Mr. Linehan said.
But Ms. Gristina’s lawyer portrayed a more benign business – specifically a dating Web site that matched consenting adults just looking for “love.”
“She has some legitimate business interests,” Peter Gleason, the lawyer, said Tuesday at a news conference outside the Lower Manhattan courthouse after her most recent hearing.
Her competition, in other words, was more likely JDate.com than New York Confidential. “She was endeavoring into a Web site that would have rivaled match.com,” he said.
But first she needed financing. That is where, according to prosecutors, her Wall Street connection may have played a role. Ms. Gristina, an immigrant from Scotland who now lives upstate, had some bona fide investors, according to a private investigator she hired.
It remains unclear whether the Morgan Street employee was counted among the investors. Officials of the Wall Street firm have yet to pinpoint which employee is involved in the case, according a spokesman, who declined to comment further.
Ms. Gristina was arrested about 11 a.m. on Feb. 22 at 53rd Street and Madison Avenue, according to court documents. Morgan Stanley has an office about a block away.
The fledgling online dating business was supposedly separate from the brothel that Ms. Gristina is accused of operating out of an apartment on East 78th Street. The government’s investigation into the alleged sex ring spanned five years and used video recordings and wiretaps, court documents said.
The case originated from a unit of the district attorney’s office that investigates police misconduct and wrongdoing by other public officials. While no officials have been arrested in the case, prosecutors say that Ms. Gristina knows “high-wealth individuals” who could have “an interest in not allowing this case to go forward.”
Ms. Gristina is being held in the Rikers Island jail.

Colin Moynihan contributed reporting.

Commentary:  Well investors,  I have some stocks to sell you for a special investment....  What the hell were they thinking?  Can I see a prospectus?  Not only do we have all of the obvious authorithies, but with Wall Street we also have the Securities Exchange Commission(SEC) that monitors every aspect of the market,  If they can catch Martha Stewart for insider trading, they're going to find a prostitution ring  lol