Colorado- Pasha Cowan, a madam, is at the center of a grand jury probe into alleged irregularities in the University of Colorado’s football recruiting program.
Cowan, a 34-year-old resident of Superior, operated at least four escort services with names such as “Best Variety,” “DIA Darlings,” and “Tech Center Trysts,” according to a Boulder County Sheriff’s Office report.
But in an interview with a sheriff’s investigator last December, Cowan claimed to know nothing about allegations that escorts who worked for her were actually engaging in prostitution.
It’s also not clear who actually owned the escort services. One of the call girls who worked for Cowan in 2002 told investigators that a 6-foot, 300-pound computer programmer from San Jose, Calif., owned the businesses. Cowan told investigators that a Littleton businessman was actually the owner.
But last Friday the Littleton man denied that he owned the business, saying that he loaned Cowan some money but had no interest in the escort services. “She said loan me this, I’ll pay you back double,” the man said. “I said, ‘Well, that’s a good deal.’ I never got even a dollar, or a penny.”
Public documents show no link between the man and Cowan’s businesses, and he has no criminal record, according to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.
Cowan was the first witness to testify before a grand jury on Friday that is looking into allegations that a former CU official spent $2,000 on call girls over a 45-day period. The charge, contained in a report issued earlier this week by the commission that investigated CU recruiting practices, said the call girls were provided to young men at a Broomfield Hotel used to house visiting prospects.
The former official, recruiting assistant Nathan Maxcey, has acknowledged that he twice called Cowan but denied that he ever hired call girls for football prospects. Maxcey told the Rocky Mountain News on Friday that he has been asked by investigators for Attorney General Ken Salazar whether he would be willing to testify before the grand jury.
“They will be flying someone down to depose me for the jury,” Maxcey told the News. “That’s about all I know.”
Boulder sheriff’s investigators started looking at Cowan in the fall of 2002 after a former call girl went to police with allegations that her escorts “provide sexual favors in exchange for money.”
Phone numbers for all four of the escort services that Cowan operated were forwarded to her Superior apartment or her cell phone, according to the report.
With names like “Suzanne” and “Devon” and “Holly,” the women worked from the Boulder area south to the Denver Tech Center, charging $250 for the first hour and $200 for each additional hour, according to the woman.
Of each hour of payment, $25 went to Cowan and $75 went to the owner of the businesses, alternately described as the California computer programmer and the Littleton businessman.
The California man also acted as the “enforcer” who sought payment from clients and call girls who skipped out, according to the sheriff’s report.
When Cowan was confronted by a sheriff’s investigator in December 2003, she “was visibly shaken.” The detective told her he knew what her employees were doing. “Pasha nodded her head,” according to the report.
She agreed to disconnect all the phone numbers, and Boulder authorities agreed not to press criminal charges against her.