Joseph Conforte was a legal brothel owner from Sparks, Nevada, spokesperson for the legal prostitution movement, a professional boxing promoter, restaurateur, philanthropist, and Nevada statesman who embarrassed the United States Department of Justice and successfully swindled the United States.
| FactSnippet No. 2,249,294 |
Joe Conforte owned the Mustang Ranch brothel, impacted federal law and the laws of Nevada, and was a fixture of pop culture, affecting people's attitudes and opinions about prostitutes and prostitution.
| FactSnippet No. 2,249,295 |
Joe Conforte was reportedly connected with organized crime, and was sometimes called the Godfather of legal prostitution.
| FactSnippet No. 2,249,296 |
Joe Conforte was born Giuseppe Christophe Joe Conforte in Augusta, Sicily, December 10,1925, the youngest of one brother and three sisters.
| FactSnippet No. 2,249,297 |
Joe Conforte ran away from home to Manhattan in New York City at age fifteen.
| FactSnippet No. 2,249,298 |
Joe Conforte moved to Los Angeles in 1942 and soon leased the produce side of the Shermart Market in West Hollywood.
| FactSnippet No. 2,249,299 |
Joe Conforte enlisted in the United States Army on November 1,1945, before his twentieth birthday.
| FactSnippet No. 2,249,300 |
Joe Conforte was in the military police in the army and discharged in January 1950 as a staff sergeant.
| FactSnippet No. 2,249,301 |
Joe Conforte operated illegal brothels in Oakland, California in 1952 and 1953.
| FactSnippet No. 2,249,302 |
Joe Conforte moved to Wadsworth, Nevada in 1955 and started the Triangle River Ranch brothel.
| FactSnippet No. 2,249,303 |
Joe Conforte's operation grew and soon he met and teamed up with Sally Burgess, with whom he had a series of run-ins with law enforcement:.
| FactSnippet No. 2,249,304 |
In 1960, Joe Conforte was convicted of extortion by threat of Washoe County District Attorney William Raggio, and was sent to prison.
| FactSnippet No. 2,249,305 |
In 1963, Joe Conforte pleaded guilty to federal tax evasion while in state prison for extortion.
| FactSnippet No. 2,249,306 |
The event lead to instant fame for Joe Conforte who assumed the role as leader of the legal prostitution movement.
| FactSnippet No. 2,249,307 |
Joe Conforte spoke publicly about the need and benefit of legal prostitution to organizations such as the Lions Club, Rotary Club, on national and regional TV shows, and on talk radio.
| FactSnippet No. 2,249,308 |
Joe Conforte was behind a 1971 initiative in California to legalize brothels in that state.
| FactSnippet No. 2,249,309 |
In 1976, Joe Conforte began sponsoring heavyweight Bernardo Mercado who went on to beat Trevor Berbick in 1979 to win the World Boxing Council Continental Americas Heavy Title.
| FactSnippet No. 2,249,310 |
Joe Conforte was accused of conspiring to murder the boxer but charges were never filed against him.
| FactSnippet No. 2,249,312 |
In 1977, Joe Conforte was convicted of tax evasion and fraud, and sentenced to twenty years in prison; fraud charges were added due to his regularly destroying his financial records.
| FactSnippet No. 2,249,313 |
In December 1980, Joe Conforte fled the country to avoid prison for the tax evasion conviction and prosecution for the attempted bribery of John Giomi.
| FactSnippet No. 2,249,314 |
Joe Conforte lived as a fugitive of US justice in Brazil for three years.
| FactSnippet No. 2,249,315 |
Joe Conforte gave himself up to the US federal authorities in Miami in December 1983.
| FactSnippet No. 2,249,316 |
Joe Conforte provided testimony of alleged bribes paid to Claiborne before a Reno grand jury and Claiborne was indicted based on those claims.
| FactSnippet No. 2,249,317 |
Joe Conforte was prosecuted separately for the crime of attempted bribery of the Lyon County district attorney and sentenced to eighteen months in state prison to run concurrently with his federal sentence.
| FactSnippet No. 2,249,318 |
December 1984, Joe Conforte was released from federal prison after serving twelve months of what was an original twenty-year sentence for tax evasion and fraud.
| FactSnippet No. 2,249,319 |
Joe Conforte served no jail time for the state crime of attempted bribery of the Lyon County district attorney.
| FactSnippet No. 2,249,320 |
Joe Conforte created a public offering of Mustang Ranch stock that could have satisfied the remainder of his debt to the IRS, but three attempts at the IPO failed.
| FactSnippet No. 2,249,321 |
Joe Conforte then blamed the IRS for interference through his bankruptcy attorney.
| FactSnippet No. 2,249,322 |
In 1985, Conforte opened a Swiss bank account under the alias Jose C Montoya and began skimming profits from Mustang Ranch and sending them to the Swiss account with the aid of several accomplices.
| FactSnippet No. 2,249,323 |