Kristin M. Davis

Kristin M. Davis (born July 7, 1977), formerly known as the Manhattan Madam, is a former madam who was famous for running a high-end prostitution ring in New York City which claimed to have offered its services to several high-profile clients, including Eliot Spitzer, Alex Rodriguez and David Beckham. After her conviction for her prostitution activities, Davis ran a novelty campaign for Governor of New York in 2010 and was poised to run for New York City Comptroller in 2013 before being arrested (and later convicted) for drug dealing.

Involvement in prostitution industry

Davis was a madam who was arrested during a string of arrests surrounding the then-current Governor of New York Eliot Spitzer (Davis was not, however, involved with the Emperors Club VIP, the prostitution ring at the center of the scandal that led to Spitzer's resignation). Prior to her running of an escort agency, she was the vice president of a hedge fund operation with assets of over $2 billion. She stated that after leaving her job (she has variously claimed to have been "unfairly fired" and having quit voluntarily), she started her business after her mother suffered serious health problems and could no longer work. Among her employees was a woman named Irma Nici, who claims to have served Spitzer and English footballer David Beckham during her time in Davis' agency. Indeed, she stated on The Joy Behar Show that Spitzer was blacklisted from her agency for his violent behavior towards her staff. Another one of Davis's alleged clients was baseball player Alex Rodriguez, who is also rumored to have dated Davis herself; Davis has neither confirmed nor denied those allegations but has claimed to do business with Rodriguez. Davis's involvement with Spitzer, according to her, mostly took place during his time as Attorney General in 2005; for his part, Spitzer has denied ever using Davis's firm, and local police authorities have found no connection between Spitzer and Davis's firm.

She was originally defended by Mark Heller, who claimed her arrest was motivated by pressure from the Spitzer arrest. She fired Heller for incompetence after Davis spent four months in Riker's Island. Four days after replacing Heller with attorney Dan Hochheiser, Davis was freed on reduced bail.

Along with Wall Street therapist Johnathan Alpert in the Academy Award-winning documentary film Inside Job, Davis explains her pre-financial crisis customer base as around 10,000 clients, of which 40-50% of her high end escorts services were purchased by Wall Street. Use of Davis and her prostitute services extended to senior management of all major Wall Street firms, with Morgan Stanley a "little less", and Goldman Sachs being "pretty, pretty big" into using the services. She held black cards from the various financial firms and services would be expensed on corporate accounts disguised as computer repair, trading research, consulting for market compliance, etc. Prostitution services "absolutely" extended to executives at the very top of financial firms. Davis claimed in 2011 that her agency provided prostitutes to Dominique Strauss-Kahn in 2006, but that he was "rough and angry", and according to her, "When men abuse women I'm no longer going to protect their identities."

Davis served four months in Rikers Island for her invovlement in the Spitzer scandal and was sentenced to five years probation, which was cut short after two and a half years in November 2010. Davis claims she witnessed "psychosexual torture" during her time on Rikers Island. She says that she has ended her involvement in the prostitution industry as a madam after serving jail time.

Davis announced in 2011 that she would be opening "Hope House," a nonprofit organization designed to assist women affected by sex trafficking. A hotline was to be set up in the year, whilst a full shelter would be constructed in 2013 if there were sufficient funds.

Drug dealing

On August 5, 2013, Kristin Davis was arrested and charged with four counts of distributing and possessing with intent to distribute a controlled substance (including prescription drugs like Adderall and Xanax) to an FBI cooperating witness between January 7 to April 24, 2013. She was released on August 6, 2013 on a $100,000 bail, with preliminary hearing scheduled for September 5. If convicted, she faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for each count.

According to prosecutors, Kristin Davis had bought ecstasy, Adderall and Xanax pills from an FBI cooperating witness at least once a month from 2009 through 2011, paying hundreds of dollars for each purchase and allegedly providing these drugs to guests at her house parties. Based on information provided by this witness, the FBI set up the aforementioned sting operation, during which Kristin sold pills to the witness, whom she believed to be a drug dealer. The deals were recorded both on video and on audiotape; according to court papers, the FBI plant wore a wire.

Davis pleaded guilty to one of the four charges in a plea bargain with federal authorities on 7th March 2014.

2010 Gubernatorial campaign

Davis was a candidate in the New York gubernatorial election, 2010 on the Anti-Prohibition line. She ran on a platform of legalizing prostitution, marijuana and same sex marriage, and firearms rights. Among her unorthodox campaign strategies was the naming of her campaign committee as "Friends of Kristin Davis," which abbreviated to FOKD. She stated a goal of raising $2 million for her campaign. She admits she knew that she was a long shot to win the race. She also stated:

I am confident that I can collect more than enough signatures from cadres of escorts, ex-escorts, strippers, dancers, dommes, gays, lesbians, Libertarians, Ron Paul supporters, U.S. Marines, rappers who revere the pimp or other lovers of freedom moving my petitions under the direction of my communications consultant Frank Morano.

Roger Stone, who had worked as an operative for former Presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, was named as Davis's campaign manager, and was still listed as so as of April 2010, though he also cooperated with his protégé, Michael Caputo, on a competing campaign by Buffalo developer Carl Paladino. Stone stated that the two candidates have distinct goals (Davis was only seeking to gain the requisite 50,000 votes, while Paladino, in Stone's perception, had an actual chance to win), and as such he did not believe there to be a conflict of interest. Stone also said he accepted his position in the Davis campaign before Paladino entered the race. Caputo stated that he believed Davis would at least outdraw Conservative Party nominee Rick Lazio.

Davis considered seeking the nomination along with fellow candidates Sam Sloan and Guilderland attorney Warren Redlich for the Libertarian Party of New York. However, she decided not to appear at the party's convention on April 24, 2010, because the party refused to a give her and candidate Sam Sloan access to the party's mailing list so they could lobby the members prior to the convention while they gave their favored candidate, Warren Redlich, access to the list and other materials to secure the nomination. Because of this Davis chose not to seek the Libertarian nomination or attend the convention and the other candidate, Sam Sloan sued the party. Thus Davis chose to create her own party yet still continue to advocate for Libertarian ideals. Several names for the line, including "Surprise Party," "Citizens Party," "Marijuana Legalization Party," "Hookers and Pot Party," "Personal Freedom Party" and "Reform Party" were rejected by outside sources (Personal Freedom due to a conflict with Charles Barron's "Freedom Party" despite Barron's much later entry into the gubernatorial race, and Reform Party due to a dispute with the national Reform Party), before settling on the name "Anti-Prohibition Party" in July 2010.

In Davis's search for running mates she supposedly contacted Tucker Carlson as a potential lieutenant governor candidate, but Carlson apparently declined as did Watertown Mayor and supporter, Jeff Graham. Instead, Anti-Prohibition Party (APP) petitions had Linda Espejo listed as the lieutenant governor candidate, though at least one report suggests that Espejo declined the nomination, requiring a replacement to be named by a committee. The party named Jewish-Russian-American lawyer and community organizer Tanya Gendelman as Espejo's replacement. Randy Credico, already running in the Democratic Party primary and cross-endorsed by the Libertarians, was the nominee for the Senate seat held by Chuck Schumer. Vivia Mowagan was the candidate for Kirsten Gillibrand's Senate seat. Davis endorsed Democrat Kathleen Rice for attorney general, though Rice will not appear on the APP line. Jeffrey Graham, the mayor of Watertown, endorsed Davis, and despite declining an invitation to be the APP lieutenant governor nominee, he continued to campaign for Davis at his business and on his Web site.

Davis was in the official NY Gubernatorial Debate at Hofstra University on October 18, 2010 along with all six other candidates on the ballot. Davis finished with 20,898 votes in the official vote tally, less than half the necessary votes to qualify as a political party and in last place overall. Her low vote count was attributed in large part to being placed on a different ballot line than the other gubernatorial candidates, thus making it harder for voters to find them. Davis's strongest showings were in Jefferson and Lewis Counties (areas in the Watertown market, suggesting that Graham's endorsement played a major role), where she finished third, behind only Andrew Cuomo and Carl Paladino.

2013 Comptroller campaign

Davis filed an undeclared political committed with the New York City Campaign Finance Board. However, according to various media outlets she planned on running for Mayor of New York City in 2013. On Saturday January 12, 2013, Davis received the early endorsement for Mayor from the Queens Libertarian Party, the largest Libertarian chapter in New York City. She later declared that she was running for New York City Comptroller.

Davis withdrew from the race before the election and did not submit petitions to appear on the ballot, in part because of her drug arrest.