The Mustang Ranch and Congress

The original owner of the Mustang Ranch, Joe Conforte, arrived in Nevada in the mid 1950s from Oakland, Calif., where he worked as a cab driver who often steered his fares toward his prostitutes.

He took over the Mustang Ranch about 10 miles east of Reno in 1967. Four years later, Storey County licensed it as the first legal brothel in the state, not to mention the country.

As Conforte amassed a fortune from his 104-room brothel, he remained in constant trouble with the federal government. A grand jury in Reno found close ties to Reno-Sparks officials in 1976, but there were no indictments.

In 1982, a grand jury in the county where the Mustang Ranch was then located determined that Conforte had unusual influence in the county and implicated the district attorney and the sheriff. Again, no indictments were returned after a 2 1/2-year investigation.

The Mustang Ranch was burned down in 1975 in an apparent arson, but Conforte rebuilt it. In 1976, heavyweight contender Oscar Bonavena was shot to death by a Mustang Ranch bodyguard.

Conforte dealt mostly in cash and kept few records. By 1990, the IRS had seized the ranch, putting the federal government in the unique position of running a brothel.

The government failed and the ranch was padlocked for the first time. The IRS auctioned off beds, the bidets — even the room numbers — to recover some of Conforte’s tax debt.

The brothel was sold for $1.49 million to a shell company overseen by Conforte and his attorney, Peter Perry. Conforte returned briefly to run the ranch, then fled to Brazil in 1991.

The IRS got its final say in 1997 when it filed a $16 million tax lien, followed in July 1999 by indictments of Conforte and principals in his shell company on charges including racketeering and money laundering. Millions of dollars allegedly were wired to Conforte in Brazil.

Four years later, the brothel’s new owner, the federal Bureau of Land Management, put the brothel up for grabs on eBay.

Gilman, who opened the Wild Horse Resort & Spa in 2002, a brothel located across the parking lot from the Mustang, estimates he has spent $6 million to move the 12 buildings four miles from Mustang to his property just off Interstate 80 in Patrick, then refurbish the decaying buildings.

“They’d been sitting there unattended since ‘99,” he said.

OK, Let me get this straight. Our Congress couldn’t make money selling sex and alcohol and now they are taking over banks and car dealerships. Amazing.

Ken Maddox of OneAngryMan.com

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