Nevada brothel boss faces deportation from Chile

Saturday, Feb. 22, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

In documents filed Friday in U.S. District Court, federal prosecutors said evidence suggests the Mustang Ranch brothel owner fled to Chile from Brazil about the time an arrest warrant was issued for him in Brazil. The charges were unspecified.

"Chile will make the decision as to when an arrest will take place, how Chile will proceed, and to which country (Conforte) will be deported," wrote Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Barr in the documents.

The documents were filed two days after Conforte's lawyers said he would be willing to return to the U.S. to face wire and bankruptcy fraud charges if he is guaranteed bail.

The attorneys said Conforte has lived in Chile for the last six years and cannot be forced to return to the U.S. under a 1902 treaty with that country.

Federal prosecutors responded Friday by saying the bail deal would be a bad idea given Conforte's past actions.

Conforte's "lack of respect for this country's laws, institutions, judicial process, and his inflated sense of importance are truly staggering," Barr wrote.

Barr said a federal judge couldn't decide if Conforte could qualify for release on bail until he's in custody, but Conforte lawyer Daniel F. Cook disagreed.

"Clearly, the judge has the authority, the right and the power to hear the motion, contrary to the government's assertion," Cook told the Reno Gazette-Journal.

Cook declined comment on Conforte's alleged impending deportation from Chile.

Conforte, 71, was indicted by a federal grand jury in 1995 on charges he used money laundered through a secret Swiss bank account to buy back the Mustang Ranch brothel after the Internal Revenue Service seized it for unpaid back taxes in 1990.

In January, the IRS claimed Conforte still owns the brothel east of here in petitions seeking $16 million in back taxes for nine years beginning in 1977 and ending in 1992.

Conforte has said he has no financial interest of any kind in the U.S. He also said he would return to the U.S. when his doctors allow it to face the charges against him.

Barr was skeptical about Conforte's reported medical problems, saying the U.S. government would like its own medical evaluation of him.