From www.bakersfield.com – The men Bakersfield-born Michelle Braun dealt with in her business weren’t guys who’d spend $30 on a dinner date hoping to get lucky. They were guys who wanted a dazzling, star-like woman and would spend up to $50,000 a night to take luck out of the equation.

Braun’s father, Michael Lee Braun said Thursday his daughter is “an entrepreneur.”

News stories all over the country refer to her as a Hollywood madam who supplied the best women money could buy to rich men who could pay. She has agreed to plead guilty to money laundering charges, pay a $30,000 fine, spend six months in house arrest and cooperate with the government’s investigation of the business.

The government seized $300,000 from Braun, a divorced mother of two, ages 8 and 6. The government alleged that she made at least $8.5 million over the life of her business.

Braun’s dad said the government would be better off going after priests who molest children than his daughter, who — according to news reports written about her — operated her business from a cellphone and a laptop and never met the clients or the 70-some women who worked in her escort service.

The women reportedly are Playboy Playmates, Penthouse Pets and porn stars. The government is interested in finding out who the men were, but so far those haven’t been revealed.

Braun’s father said he doesn’t know the names of any of the men.

His 31-year-old daughter attended West High School, but didn’t like the social scene because it was too “cliquey,” didn’t participate in any clubs and moved to Los Angeles after she left the school.

He said neither he nor his wife kept in regular contact with her, although he saw her last week when he drove her to the Orange County office of her attorney, Marc Nurik.

Nurik has said people would be shocked at the clients who ranged “from captains of industry, Hollywood types, sports figures and even people more influential.”

Nurik also said sex likely occurred in her business. “I’m not sure people would pay money to meet a porn star and talk about Stephen Hawking’s newest book,” he said in news reports.

Michael Braun stuck up for his daughter. “What Michelle is doing is not prostitution,” he said. “All she provided was an introduction.”

The dad said he didn’t know how he felt about what she did, but he loves her. “She’s an entrepreneur. She saw an opportunity and took it.”

Michael Braunowns the Togo’s Great Sandwiches at the Stockdale Plaza Shopping Center with his wife Oru.

He said he didn’t like the “notoriety” it brought to Bakersfield. He added that it was “old news” because a year ago Rolling Stone magazine did a profile about his daughter and her business.

Michelle Braun splits her time between Los Angeles and Florida.

News reports say she fronted Nici’s Girls where men had to pay more than $1,500 just to look at the girls’ photos on the Internet. It was also the escort service that linked wealthy men with willing women.

She also had a company called Global Travel Network which charged up to $10,000 for the women to travel to their dates.

Michael Braun said he didn’t know of any close friends that his daughter had in Bakersfield.