The indictments arise from a continuing investigation into the operation of the
"NY Confidential" escort agency on Worth Street in lower Manhattan. The
defendants charged are Paul Bergrin, an attorney and former local and federal
prosecutor in New Jersey, and James Cortopassi, his law clerk who is attending
law school. The third man, Hiram Ortiz, the owner of a tavern in Bloomfield,
NJ, a former New Jersey state trooper, has also been indicted.
Bergrin and Cortopassi have been charged in two indictments connected to "NY
Confidential." The first indictment, spanning a period from July 27, 2004 to
Jan. 11, 2005, charges first degree money laundering, third degree promoting
prostitution, fifth degree conspiracy, a conspiracy to promote prostitution,
and misconduct by an attorney.
The trio has been charged together in the second indictment with money
laundering, promoting prostitution and a prostitution conspiracy that continued
from Jan. 12, 2005 through March 2, 2005. The second conspiracy started after
the manager of "NY Confidential," Jason Itzler, was arrested on Jan. 10, 2005.
Itzler was indicted in January 2005 and has pleaded guilty to money laundering
and attempted promoting prostitution, and is expected to be sentenced to 1˝ to
3 years in prison.
According to the indictment for the initial conspiracy, Bergin and Cortopassi
along with Itzler and others, laundered over $800,000 in credit card proceeds
from prostitution dates arranged by "NY Confidential." The investigation
disclosed that credit card charges were processed through Itzler's shell
company, Gotham Steak, LLC, and the money transferred to another shell company,
Tribeca Models, LLC. Checks from Tribeca Models were written to pay escorts and
employees, as well as to Itzler, Bergrin, Cortopassi and others involved in the
conspiracy. The investigation also revealed that BErgrin received large cash
payments from the escort business.
The indictment alleges that Bergrin and Cortopassi perpetrated a fraud on the
New Jersey Parole Board and the New York County Criminal Court. Bergrin falsely
claimed that Itzler worked as a paralegal on one of the Abu Ghraib military
prosecutions in which he represented a defendant (U.S. v. Sgt. Javal Davis). He
did so in order to get Itzler, a parolee, more relaxed curfew restrictions so
that Itzler could manage the escort agency at night. Itzler made the false
claim to his parole officers, and Bergrin corroborated it with letters and fake
paychecks sent to parole officers. Cortopassi went to the parole office posing
as an attorney when Itzler was arrested for a curfew violation and falsely told
a parole officer that Itzler had been working with him at the time. Bergrin
continued the fraud when he represented Itzler at Itzler's arraignment in New
York County Criminal Court in January of 2005. In his bail application, Bergrin
falsely claimed that Itzler had been working with him 12-14 hours a day for
months.
A second indictment charges the three defendants with operating the "NY
Confidential" escort prostitution business from Jan. 12, 2005 though March 2,
2005. The Jan. 10, 2005 arrest of the agency's owner, Jason Itzler, threatened
to close the business down. The continuing investigation revealed that after
Itzler's arrest, Bergrin assumed direct control of the escort agency. He and
Cortopassi conspired with Ortiz and a former escort to keep the business going,
and they met with some of the escorts who worked for "NY Confidential" and
convinced them to keep on working. The new business first used the same 79
Worth Street location, and then moved to an apartment at 247 East 32 Street,
which Itzler had leased previously for use as a prostitution "in-call"
location.
It is alleged that Ortiz and the former escort handled the telephone bookings
of escort-prostitution dates. Most dates were paid for in cash, even though the
cost of the escorts was around $1000 per hour. But some dates were paid for by
credit card. When this happened, Ortiz submitted the credit card charges to
credit card companies using the "merchant processing" account for his tavern,
"Scores Sports Café," in Bloomfield, NJ, as though the charges had been
incurred there, and payments were directly deposited into the bank account of
the tavern's parent business, "Ortiz & Kaufman, LLC." Ortiz also wrote checks
from this bank account to pay the rent at 247 East 32 Street, as well as to pay
two escort-prostitutes who went on credit card dates. On Jan. 25, 2005, Bergrin
filed articles of incorporation for "NY Confidential Escorts, Inc." listing
himself at the 247 East 32 Street address as the person on whom process could
be served for the corporation. BEergrin filed dissolution papers on March 2,
2005, and "NY Confidential" shut down.
In the second indictment, the defendants are charged with conspiracy in the
fifth degree, money laundering in the fourth degree and promoting prostitution
in the third degree.
