Hollywood Madam
| Heidi Fleiss | |
|---|---|
Fleiss in 2006
|
|
| Born |
Heidi Lynne Fleiss December 30, 1965 Los Feliz, Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Residence | Pahrump, Nevada |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Madam, television personality |
| Television |
Heidi Fleiss: Hollywood Madam Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew Celebrity Big Brother |
| Partner(s) | Dennis Hof |
| Parent(s) |
Paul M. Fleiss Elissa Ash |
Heidi Lynne Fleiss (born December 30, 1965) is an American former madam, and also a columnist and television personality regularly featured in the 1990s in American media. She ran a prostitution ring based in Los Angeles, California, and is often referred to as the "Hollywood Madam".
Fleiss was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. Her parents, Paul M. Fleiss (1933-2014) and Elissa (née Ash), divorced. She has a brother, Jesse, and had another brother, Jason, who drowned on December 28, 2009 at the age of 41 off the coast of Hawaii. She also has three sisters, Amy, Kim, and Shana, the last of whom is the youngest sister.
At the age of 22, Fleiss began managing a prostitution ring under Madam Alex after meeting the famous Madam 90210 in 1987 via Fleiss's film-director boyfriend Ivan Nagy. Fleiss stated in 2002 that Alex and she had "a very intense relationship" and that she "was kind of like the daughter she loved and hated, so she was abusive and loving at the same time." In the same interview, Fleiss said she was a prostitute for a short period to learn all aspects of the business. At the time Heidi was learning to take over Alex's business, there was a labor shortage as most of Alex's prostitutes were approaching middle age and setting their sights on retiring from prostitution. Alex tasked Heidi with revitalizing the business by recruiting a new batch of young, attractive women.
By 1990, Fleiss parted with Alex and started her own prostitution ring. Fleiss has stated that she made her "first million [dollars] after only four months in the business" as a madam, and that on her slowest night, she made $10,000. By 1991 and 1992, she was so successful that she began rejecting girls looking to work for her. In June 1993, she was arrested for multiple charges, including attempted pandering.
Federal charges were filed in 1994, and Fleiss posted $1,000,000 bail. The state trial began the same year and Fleiss was convicted. In May 1996, her state conviction was overturned, and her appeal bond was set at $200,000. Fleiss was convicted of federal charges of tax evasion in September 1996 and sentenced to seven years in prison. Fleiss served 20 months at the Federal Correctional Institution, Dublin in California. She was released to a halfway house on November 19, 1998, and ordered to perform 370 hours of community service. Fleiss was released from the halfway house in September 1999.
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