from www.browardpalmbeach.com – Question from a commenter: Is there was a connection between Scott Rothstein and Tiger Woods.

Answer from the Pulp: Of course there is. It comes in the form of Michelle Braun, a notorious “madam” who once supplied Hollywood (the one in California) and South Florida with a bevy of beautiful, high-priced prostitutes from her base in Boca Raton.

Braun recently boasted to the New York Daily News that Woods was a regular client and even identified his favorite call girl (a Playboy bunny). While facing federal criminal charges in California recently, she was represented by none other than the law firm of Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler.

Her criminal attorney was Marc Nurik, the same lawyer now representing Rothstein on his federal racketeering, money laundering, and fraud charges.

Braun also used Rothstein’s firm to help her open several Florida corporations, with names like The Girls of Ocean Drive LLC, Dirty Vodka LLC, and the BlueJean Mafia Management. Braun’s lawyer in those endeavors was RRA attorney Kari Rosenfeld, whose representation of Braun predated that of Nurik’s (and whose tiny photograph is at left).The companies’ corporate addresses were listed under the same address Rothstein used for many of his corporations in Tallahassee.

A source and key player in the ever-unfolding Ponzi story told me that Rothstein “backed” Braun’s prostitution business and at times booked her
services, perhaps for clients and others. But Nurik vehemently denied that was true.

“Some have described [Braun] as making Heidi Fleiss look like she was selling Girl Scout cookies, but there is no connection to Scott other than the firm representing her,” said Nurik. “I will say, without reservation, that your source is smoking crack on that point. Scott was never a client of her [prostitution business]. She effectively shut down her business in October 2007. From that point on, she never booked another girl. The government, which investigated her up the wazoo, has verified that.”

Nurik said he’d just seen Rothstein at the Federal Detention Center in Miami. “He’s coping with his life as a prisoner,” Nurik told me. “He’s slimming down. His hair is shorter and a little grayer. He’s looking more distinguished and more fit.”

He said Rothstein had met Braun during the course of his representation of her, which began after that October 2007 arrest by the FBI. Braun pleaded guilty and cooperated with the feds. Last month, she was sentenced to three years’ probation and six months’ house arrest, which she is now serving at her Boca Raton home.

Braun’s clients allegedly included Mickey Rourke, Charlie Sheen, Jose Canseco, and Courtney Love, among others. She was in the prostitution business for more than ten years and charged as much as $50,000 for a weekend with one of her women, some of whom were allegedly recruited from the pages of Playboy magazine. She recently claimed to the New York Daily News that Tiger Woods was a regular client of her prostitution business, even specifying former Playboy model Loredana Jolie as his favorite girl.

A mother of two, Braun is now planning a tell-all book.

Political consultant Roger Stone told me he was involved in two conference calls with Braun during his tenure working with Rothstein.

“She pulled together 25 grand from someone, and Nurik took it as a down payment,” Stone said. “But she was completely focused on selling her memoirs and completely unfocused on staying out of prison. She was so erratic and so unfocused and so crazy and she had no access to cash. So I basically told Nurik, ‘Forget about my involvement.'”

Stone said he didn’t know if Rothstein ever used Braun’s services. “I don’t know what you would need her for — there were plenty of prostitutes in Fort Lauderdale,” he quipped.