'Millionaire Madam' may make bail next week

NEW YORK

Eyewitness News has learned that /*Anna Gristina*/'s defense team has filed a financial package to secure her $250 thousand dollars bond. If the Judge approves the arrangement, she could be out of Rikers by early next week.

The $2.5 million dollar loft owned by Gristina's former attorney, Peter Gleason, is expected to be her ticket out of jail after four long months.

Gleason had offered his two-bedroom loft before, but there were issues when Gristina's bail was $2 million. Now that it's been lowered, there shouldn't be a problem. Gristina, her husband and four kids won't be moving in here, though. She plans to return to the family farm in Monroe. So why is Gleason doing this?

He says he's angry that women like Gristina are punished and Johns in prostitution cases rarely get charged. Gristina claims when prosecutors picked her up in February, they did press her for names of prominent businessmen. In an affidavit, she says when she refused to cooperate, she was arrested. Her close friend, private investigator Vincent Parco.

"So this is a very lurid case. You have a Madame. You have very high-profiled people that allegedly own sports franchises own property, real estate, high-priced lawyers. Now, I met some of these people at a networking dinner that she used to throw," private investigator and friend Vincent Parco said.

Parco says that Gristina was looking to raise $2 million from investors to get involved in a high-end internet dating service called SugarDaddy.com. As a private investigator, Parco would vet the clients. But the sweet prospect of SugarDaddy.com ended with Gristina's arrest. In a recent exclusive interview with us, Gristina's husband told me there was a blurred line between her clients and her friends, and that not one has stepped forward to help.

"Not only were these so-called clients, these were friends she had on a personal level, so for them to run - extremely mad about it," Kelvin Gorr said.

Prosecutors say Gristina peddled prostitutes for 15 years and boasted that she had law-enforcement contacts. Her lawyers have said she was merely starting a matchmaking business.

She has pleaded not guilty.

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