She is alleged to have boasted of having made more than $10 million (£6.4 million) from prostitution over a 15 year period, most of which she had sent out of the country to avoid detection.
In the interview, however, Miss Gristina insisted that she was a suburban “hockey mom” who has a modest income from the real estate development firm she owns with her third husband, Kelvin Gorr, out of their home in upstate New York, where she also runs a pot-bellied pig sanctuary.
Her lawyers claim that she was seeking funds to establish a legitimate dating website when she was arrested as she met a banker from JP Morgan on Manhattan’s Madison Avenue last month.
“They say I’ve made millions for years, and I have – for other people,” she said. “I know people. It’s like a politician. You say things to make yourself sound better.
“We live very much a simple life. I’ve been struggling to keep my daughter in college to pay the tuition. Our utilities are always on the verge of being cut off. I can show you the bills.”
Miss Gristina, who grew up in a small village near Edinburgh before emigrating to the United States in her early 20s, claimed that the reason she was not facing more charges was because prosecutors had little evidence against her as she had refused to co-operate with police.
She said she had been presented with a list of 10 well-connected New York men who officials alleged were her clients.
“Some I knew, some I didn’t,” Miss Gristina said. “In effect it was, ‘Tell us what we want, and we’ll let you go.’ The ones I knew were people I’ve known for a long time who are in politics, investing and real estate.
“I didn’t have anything to tell them. I got the impression they were trying to make a case, but they didn’t really know what it was.
“You know what it was? It was fishing. They are trying to squeeze me for information that I don’t even know what it is or have.
“It’s not about me, it’s bigger than me. If I’m such a big, high-profile madam making all this money, and they had to investigate me for five years, why did they arrest me on a single promoting prostitution charge?”
Miss Gristina complained that she was being kept in a “sweltering,” smelly cell in isolation on Rikers Island.
“Picture an old military barracks, with plastic mattresses and rusty springs. I’m in there by myself. It smells like cat urine. It’s just deplorable,” she said.
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