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Boca mom in escort case poised to take plea deal
A Boca Raton woman charged with running a $50,000-a-night escort service is expected to take a plea deal and get probation.
BY KATHLEEN CHAPMAN
Palm Beach Post
BOCA RATON -- Federal agents descended on a white stucco home a block from Boca's Old Floresta historic district in October 2007, and seized a computer belonging to Michelle Braun.
Prosecutors say the 31-year-old mother of two ran an international escort service that matched porn stars and centerfolds with men who could afford to pay up to $50,000 a night.
Braun was charged in March with money laundering and transporting a woman from Orange County, Calif., to New York City for the purposes of prostitution. In the weeks ahead, she is expected to accept a plea deal that requires her to cooperate with the IRS and FBI.
The deal includes five years of probation -- including six months of house arrest -- and a $30,000 fine.
FLORIDA'S FLEISS
Braun, who split her time between Boca Raton and Southern California, made at least $8.5 million running two escort services, Bella Models and Nici's Girls. Before its website was taken down last year, Bella Models advertised the most beautiful women from Los Angeles, Miami, London, New York and Dubai, United Arab Emirates, including hundreds of centerfolds from men's magazines including Playboy, Penthouse, Maxim and FHM.
The women, whose head shots were posted above aliases including Tyra Banxxx and Claire Dames, were available for ''the ultimate in companionship,'' according to the site. The clients, Bella Models said, ``are affluent gentlemen who expect the very best: royalty, Fortune 500 CEOs, entrepreneurs, doctors, lawyers, celebrities, entertainment moguls, aristocrats and politicians.''
The minimum fee for a one-hour introduction was $1,500, up to more than $50,000 for ''an evening of undiluted pleasure,'' according to the website. Bella Models offered to send women along on business trips or book vacations to exotic locations.
Her connections to porn stars and high rollers in Los Angeles have invited comparisons to Heidi Fleiss, the ''Hollywood Madam,'' who went to prison for three years in 1997 on charges stemming from her upscale prostitution ring.
Braun's attorney, Marc Nurik of Fort Lauderdale, rejects the comparison. He describes Braun as a matchmaker, not a madam. The men weren't paying for sex, he said, but for a chance to meet women who were well-known, at least to fans of adult films and men's magazines.
The women, Nurik said, ``were either Playmates or porn stars. They had a popularity factor, and for people who know those industries they were celebrities in their own right.''
Obviously, Nurik said, the men had expectations -- ``I don't think men are going to be paying that type of money to talk to these women about Stephen Hawking's latest book.''
But Braun never promised that ''if you don't have sex, you get your money back, that type of thing,'' Nurik said.
OLD STORY, NEW AGE
The attraction between rich men and pretty women is an old story, Nurik said. But new technology has led to an evolution in the adult-entertainment industry. With the proliferation of porn on the Internet, and a surplus of women who are willing to pose naked, many porn stars and nude models are looking for new ways to make money, Nurik said.
The Internet has allowed those women to find men from all over the world who are interested in meeting them. Braun is ''just representative of a new wave of the industry,'' he said.
In some cases, he said, relationships evolved from the initial meetings.
LOW PROFILE
Braun, originally from Santa Barbara, Calif., has had numerous addresses in California and Florida during the past decade.
In Boca, she seemed to keep a low profile while raising her Ch*ldren. She was at the house on Aurelia Street off Glades Road at the time of the federal raid in 2007. But that house now has a for sale sign in front, with weeds growing between the brick pavers of the driveway.
She has had addresses in Delray Beach and on Palmetto Park Road, but her Florida driver's license says she lives at a house inside the Boca West Country Club.
Near the home on Aurelia Street, neighbors greeted Braun's story with curiosity.
Tomi Zito saw her story on television and thought she looked familiar, but wasn't sure whether she had even seen her in the neighborhood.
''It sounds like she had some pretty high-end clientele, and it doesn't seem like it bothered anybody -- it's not like people were over there for wild parties,'' Zito said.
Another resident, Gary Gilbertson, said this week he hadn't heard of Braun, and had no idea federal investigators had paid a visit to the neighborhood.
''Sounds interesting,'' he said with a grin, and then added: ``I'm not a customer.''
Palm Beach Post researcher Niels Heimeriks contributed to this report.
_________________  Pura Vida Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four essential food groups: alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat. Alex Levine 
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