American businesswoman, a chic and attractive brunette known as the notorious “Hollywood Madam.” She was convicted on 2 December 1994 on three counts of felony pandering for providing high priced call girls to undercover cops during their 1993 sting operation and given a sentence of three years prison. She was video-taped supplying prostitutes to agents posing as Japanese businessmen, boasting that she ran the most exclusive call-girl ring in town.
In 1994 she and her dad, pediatrician Paul Fleiss faced charges of depositing checks for prostitution services into his bank account and lying about their income on tax returns. She also faced state pandering and drug charges. She tested positive for drugs four times since 9 August 1994, violating the terms of her release from jail. On 19 September 1994, she was ordered to enter a drug treatment program.
Heidi was the third of six kids, always vying for attention. She was indulgently raised by Paul, a pediatrician affiliated with UCLA and his now ex-wife, Elissa. Her brothers and sisters excelled at school: Heidi majored in running wild. In junior high, it was shoplifting in the mall. By high school, Heidi was stealing car radios, cutting classes to go to the racetrack, and paying other students to cheat on exams. She also sold home-grown pot, all for the thrill of contesting the establishment. Partial to cut-off T-shirts, she like to flash her bosom to startle people. Heidi confided to her friend that she preferred older men for the best sex.
Soon after dropping out of high school, Heidi flipped her Jeep with six passengers in the parking lot of a Hollywood nightclub in July 1984. She was drunk and on downers. Despite serious injuries to her passengers, Heidi fled the scene, unhurt, with no charges filed and her folks buying her a brand new Jeep. A few months later, she was waiting tables when she met playboy international financier Bernie Cornfeld, 38 years her senior. They embarked on a sumptuous four-year international affair out of which Heidi gained an active appreciation for the good life.
Heidi segued to another older man, 50-year old Ivan Nagy, a Hungarian-born director. Their affair was brief and the fallout bitter. Apparently Nagy gave Heidi an entree into the world of high-class hooking. She became the No.1 girl for Madam Alex in Hollywood. Ambitious to have her own stable, Heidi either stole Alex’s phone numbers, as Madam has charged, or simply had the right looks, energy and drive to start a booming business of her own by 1991. By July 1992 she was flush enough to move into a $1.65 million Benedict Canyon aerie purchased in her dad’s name. She accumulated a stable of at least a hundred mostly college-age girls, a dozen of whom would be working on a typical evening. Their average asking rate was $1,500 a night, with Heidi taking in 40% of the take. To keep a turnover of new talent, Heidi recruited rock clubs and bistros.
Eventually her high profile and boasting made Heidi a top vice target. The hook was baited in April 1993 with a series of phone calls from so-called Japanese businessmen who needed “entertainment.”
The news broke on 30 May 1996 that state appeals court overturned the pandering conviction and a money laundering charge with sentencing set for September 1996. On 7 July 1997 Heidi was sentenced to 37 months jail and a $400 fine plus payment of back taxes and a forfeit of more than a half million dollars from the sale of her Beverly Hills home plus three years probation. With a plea bargain on 10 February 1997, she was given 18 months in state prison to be served the same time as her 37-month federal rap for money laundering and tax evasion. While she was waiting her trail she capitalized on the attention by opening a lingerie shop called “Heidi Wear.”
After 20 months in a northern California federal prison, she was transferred on 19 November 1998 to a halfway house in Los Angeles. On 20 October 1999, a little more than a month after completing her federal prison sentence, Heidi filed for bankruptcy in Los Angeles. She listed debts of nearly $270,000, including $155,000 owed to lawyers as well as $90,000 in back rent and inventory from her ill-starred lingerie venture.
Apparently still battling a drug problem, Fleiss spent the weekend of 31 March 2001 behind bars following her arrest for allegedly using methamphetamines and missing a drug test, both of which were in violation of her parole. On 9 March 2001, she was court ordered into a drug program.
The former Hollywood madam brought charges of abuse against her ex-fiancé, Tom Sizemore in May 2003. Sizemore pleaded innocent to 16 counts of assault, threats, and harassment. On 15 August 2003, he was found guilty of six counts, including physical abuse and harassment. The couple met shortly after her release from prison in 1999, and their relationship began to deteriorate in November 2001, according to her tearful testimony.
Link to Wikipedia biography