Connecticut- To her former landlord, Patricia Gougelmann is a “regular housewife and a nice lady.” But to federal officials, she is a big-time madam who ran brothels that raked in well over a million dollars in Danbury, Bridgeport and Waterbury.

On Friday, the 66-year-old Newtown woman admitted in federal court to operating the houses of prostitution, including one at 23 North Street in Danbury.

Patricia Gougelmann, also known as Patricia McNally, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to using an interstate facility to promote prostitution and money laundering. The investigation was initiated by the Internal Revenue Service.

Gougelmann’s lawyer, Joseph Dimyan, did not return a phone call for comment Friday. Attempts to locate Gougelmann were unsuccessful. She was released Friday on $50,000 bail and is due back in court for sentencing Oct. 24. She faces a maximum prison term of 20 years and a fine of up to $500,000.

“The federal government wouldn’t be involved if it wasn’t a large operation,” said Tom Carson, spokesman for Connecticut’s U.S. Attorney. “There is a substantial amount of money involved and it is large by brothel standards.”

The Danbury brothel was in a business billed as the Genesis health spa. It was in a brick building, next to Deep’s Market, that also houses the restaurant El Milenio.

The front doors to Genesis were walled up years ago, said landlord Tony Rasendes, as part of a renovation. Patrons then walked from the back parking lot to a side door.

“She was there when I got there,” said Rasendes who bought the building in 1989. “She’s been a lady all the years I dealt with her. She sent me the rent money early every month and paid the water, sewer for her portion and I never had a problem with her.”

Rasendes said he suspected about seven or eight years ago the business may have been a brothel, but said he had no reason to investigate.

“Genesis was a health spa and I never had a need to go in the place,” Rasendes said. “Basically they took care of everything. I took care of the roof and siding,”

By December, Rasendes said he decided not to continue Gougelmann’s month-to-month lease because El Milenio wanted to expand its dining room. That’s when Gougelmann called with the news she was under investigation.

“I never thought of her being that way,” Rasendes said about the prostitution charges. “She said the feds came in and accused her of money laundering and she didn’t expand on it.”

Several local business owners weren’t surprised Genesis was selling sex before it closed in December or January.

“They used to be a prostitution place,” said El Milenio owner Luis Bautista. “People told me it was giving me a bad reputation. Sometimes I’m upset because people think it’s the same place.”

Bautista said he saw four or five women open the business every day at 10 a.m. Bautista said he’s been there for five years, but said he really got suspicious about the spa a year ago. He said the whole thing was bad for the neighborhood.

“People asked where the ladies are and how much they charge,” Bautista said. “I would say what are you talking about? This is a restaurant.”

Jack Deep, owner of Deep’s Market, said he saw Genesis – formerly known as Jason’s – customers using his parking lot.

“They came and went,” Deep said. “It’s been there for years. Everyone talked about it. Everyone knew about it.”

According to court documents, Gougelmann owned and operated Matrixx Enterprises, which did business as Genesis; Anthemion Enterprises; which did business as Cleopatra’s Spa in Waterbury; and Alpha Enterprises, which did business as Dolce Vita in Bridgeport. These corporations were registered with the state of Connecticut as health spas.

The court documents state that although Genesis and the other two businesses advertised and promoted themselves as health clubs offering services such as whirlpools and tanning, Gougelmann admitted Friday that they were, in fact, “houses of prostitution in which women performed sexual acts for customers in exchange for money.”

Between about January 1998 and March 2004, the three spas received approximately $1,129,000 in gross receipts from credit card charges.

Bautista, who is trying to expand his Ecuadorian restaurant, said business has picked up since Genesis closed.

“Customers are happy now,” he said. “I get a lot more families coming in because they know that place is not there.”

Posted on the Republican-American:

BRIDGEPORT — Patricia Gougelmann looked more like a 66-year-old grandmother than a massage parlor madam as she pleaded guilty Friday afternoon to federal prostitution and money-laundering charges.

Gougelmann ran three massage parlors in Waterbury, Danbury and Bridgeport as houses of prostitution, and a federal prosecutor described her as a successful, crafty brothel operator.

Gougelmann, of 11 Palestine Road in Newtown, faces a maximum of 25 years in prison and a $750,000 fine at her sentencing Oct. 24. No sentencing recommendations were made Friday.

Federal prosecutors did not make public how Gougelmann and her prostitution operation came to the attention of law enforcement. However, the interstate processing of credit card transactions clearly caused her undoing.

The masseuses at Cleopatra’s Spa in Waterbury, Genesis in Danbury and Dolce Vita in Bridgeport recorded more than $1 million in credit card receipts between January 1998 and March 2004. All three establishments are now closed. Cleopatra’s Spa was at 1480 Meriden Road in Waterbury.

Assistant U.S. Attorney James J. Finnerty explained to U.S. District Court Judge Janet Hall how Gougelmann contrived to conceal her illicit sex business after she read newspaper accounts of how federal authorities used credit card records to bust a similar prostitution operation in Hartford.

Federal investigators and Hartford police nabbed the owner and the former owner of the Alpha Leisure & Health Club on interstate prostitution charges based on the massage parlor’s acceptance of credit cards. The former owner was sentenced to 36 months in June. The club’s current owner is awaiting sentencing.

Finnerty said Gougelmann read news accounts of the Hartford bust in March 2004 and then stopped taking credit cards at Cleopatra’s Spa and Genesis, and removed the credit card machines from the two massage parlors. She canceled merchant agreements with credit card companies two months later. Dolce Vita had stopped taking credit cards in January 2002.

Finnerty said FBI agents found a copy of a newspaper article on the investigation of the Alpha Leisure & Health Club when they searched Gougelmann’s home in New York on Dec. 21. The house has since been sold and Gougelmann and her husband moved to Newtown.

Finnerty said Gougelmann’s actions in March 2004 and the news clipping found in her home showed how she sought to escape the possibility of prosecution based on the use of credit cards. However, she was too late.

Gougelmann had been under investigation, her establishments had been under surveillance and some of her prostitutes had turned informant. Investigators had seized condoms and other evidence of prostitution found in the trash from the three massage parlors.

Gougelmann did not dispute Finnerty’s account of her actions during an hour-long plea hearing Friday afternoon in U.S. District Court in Bridgeport. She told Hall that she was pleading guilty because she was guilty of the offenses charged.

With her husband and her attorney John Dimyan at her side, Gougelmann pleaded guilty to one account of promoting prostitution and one count of money-laundering. She also agreed to forfeit $131,289 to the government. Her husband is not facing any charges. State records only list Gougelmann as owner of the three massage parlors.

Gougelmann stood straight before Hall and did not appear ill at ease. She spoke clearly in court, mostly answering “yes” or “no” to the list of questions the judge asked her. She wore a simple black business outfit and her long, straight hair was pulled back and held in a clip. Her round-rimmed glasses added to her grandmotherly countenance.

Hall released Gougelmann, who is also known as Patricia McNally, on an unsecured $50,000 bond. She must get permission to travel outside of Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey. She also surrendered her passport.