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Edinburgh Live
Edinburgh Live
National
Stuart Macdonald & Iuliia Vlasova

West Lothian woman behind New York vice ring 'refused to provide women' for Jeffrey Epstein

A West Lothian woman, who was sentenced to five years of probation and time served after admitting to a single charge of promoting prostitution, has claimed she once refused to provide women for Jeffrey Epstein.

Anna Gristina, from Kirkliston, allegedly run a vice ring in New York's Upper East Side and made £6 million by providing services to influential men.

READ MORE: Edinburgh will have an increased police presence over the next week - here's why

Now, the 54-year-old, who insisted she ran a legitimate matchmaking service, opened up about how she once received a call from billionaire financier Epstein's former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell enquiring about her business, reports Daily Record.

Maxwell, 60, was jailed for 20 years in June after being found guilty of the enticement of minors and sex trafficking of underage girls for Epstein.

Gristina told how she refused to deal with Epstein, who killed himself in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019 while awaiting a sex trafficking trial, after hearing rumours he abused young girls.

Speaking to the US website Radar Online, she said: "She called up from London to say she had a gentleman friend in Florida who likes company, but he likes younger girls and she heard I was very reputable and had the best models in the industry.

"I was at a hockey game with my kids when the call came in.

"Afterward, I did a little digging and my friend told me to stay away.

"If I had known more at the time I would have turned him in."

Gristina has always said she never forced anybody to have sex with clients.

She has claimed her guilty plea was "coerced" and is currently trying to have her conviction overturned.

Following her arrest, involving a sting with an undercover officer posing as a potential client, Gristina was held at Rikers Island and her bail was set at $2 million.

She pleaded guilty in September 2012 to a felony count of promoting prostitution in exchange for a sentence of six months in jail, which amounted to the time she had already served.

Manhattan prosecutors said her client list included New York's very wealthy and connected. None of her alleged clients were named publicly or charged, however, and she refused to hand over her contacts book.

She now lives quietly in a modest house in New York state, where she tends pigs and writes children's books.

Last year, a TV movie based on her story called Soccer Mom Madam was broadcast on US TV.

She was played by Jana Kramer, a Michigan-born country singer and actress best known in Britain for the teen drama One Tree Hill.

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