Miami Companions Owners Indicted

On July 21, 2010, five defendants were indicted in the Eastern District of Michigan. The defendants included in the indictment are GREGORY CARR (a.k.a. Paul Cutlass), 43, LAURIE CARR, 39, NAYUBET LOANI SWASO, 24, and MICHELLE MATARAZZO, 36. A fifth defendant, FABIOLA CONTRERAS, 33, was arrested on a related federal complaint. It is a six-count indictment charging conspiracy to coerce and entice acts of prostitution, coercion and enticement of prostitution in the Eastern District of Michigan, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Read the DOJ press release here.

Miami Companions is an escort service based in South Florida, but they have been sending escorts all over the place for many years. They were in business when I was still in business, and the Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation (MBI) in Orlando arrested at least one escort from the company in a bust at the downtown Orlando Marriott back in 1999.

When I met Michelle in 1999, she had recently been arrested for "failure to obtain an occupational license" in Orlando. Though the agent actually fondled her breasts while pulling her sweater over her head to remove it, she was not arrested on any other charge. This was the situation that offered a clue that I was a special target. Hell, the MBI arrested any escort that showed-up at a call if that escort was from my agency – didn't even matter if she did nothing illegal whatsoever and refused the money; that is a fact.

When Michelle first called me she asked where to get an occupational license and I directed her to the appropriate county office. I later met with Michelle and her husband John at a Barnes and Noble café in Orlando and both related the story of the MBI encounter and minor arrest over her lack of a license. The breast-fondling thing didn't seem to faze her – they were from Los Angeles, used to bad cops, and they were swingers in their private life. They were indeed puzzled by the license charge though.

I had a laugh when the prosecutor in my criminal case threatened to locate and subpoena John and Michelle and fly them both in from Los Angeles to play the part of additional state witnesses. He never did locate them and poor John Craft was lost in the dark when he posed a question concerning John and Michelle as I testified in my defense. I told the jury the story, including the name of the fondling agent: Ray Peters. Michelle had shown me all of her arrest paperwork the day that we met in the café.

I have seen the Miami Companions ads on various online forums ever since. According to prosecutors they moved millions of $s into overseas accounts – aha! So the feds decided to indict them only now and no doubt over the money. All that work for so many years only to have the money forfeited by the feds. In a way I'm happy the MBI took me out when they did….

There is much more to this story – there's an informant involved that was actually arrested quite some time ago. I'll need to do a bit of research and post tomorrow on it.

Edit 10 December 2010 @7pm EST - See current latest post (10 December post) on this blog for links to the Miami Companions indictment and the related Fabiola Contreras complaint.

Image: Downtown Miami at Dusk 2010 © Philip Lange / 2010 © iStockphoto.com