Quantcast

The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

Anna Gristina Puts Together $250K Bail Package

By  Irene Plagianos and Amy Zimmer | June 15, 2012 3:06pm 

MANHATTAN — Alleged "Millionaire Madam" Anna Gristina is hoping to leave Rikers Island as early as Monday after putting together a bail package using $250,000 collateral from her family lawyer, DNAinfo.com New York has learned.

After nearly four months in jail — and numerous attempts to reduce her $2 million bond — the accused Upper East Side madam was finally able to come up with the funds thanks to Peter Gleason, who used his $2 million TriBeCa apartment as collateral.

Ira Judelson — known as a bail bondsman to the stars and who helped secure the $5 million bond former IMF head Dominique Strauss Kahn — will place a $250,000 lien against Gleason's condo.

"I'm very comfortable with securing Ms. Gristina's appearance in court," said Judelson, after dropping off the bail package with DA's office Friday afternoon.

A state appeals court Tuesday reduced her bail to $150,000 cash or $250,000 bond, calling the lower court's package "unreasonable and an abuse of discretion."

Gleason had told the court in March that he was willing to put up his TriBeCa condo as bail. He said his apartment has remained "on the table" as a means to secure the bond, and he reiterated the offer after the bail was reduced. The package finally came together over the last two days, he said.

"Nobody can say Pete Gleason doesn't put his money where his mouth is," he said, adding that he made the offer because he wanted to "reunite a mother with her family."

The Manhattan DA will have 72 hours, excluding the weekend, to review the package. The DA's office declined to comment.

Gristina was charged in February with one count of promoting prostitution for running what prosecutors say was a high-end brothel on East 78th Street for more than a decade.

She will have to wear an electronic-monitoring bracelet as part of the bail conditions, according to the court ruling.