|
Jason ItzlerJason Lubell Itzler, born February 23, 1967,[1] is an American businessman, attorney, YouTuber, and the founder of the escort agency New York Confidential. He has been imprisoned for money laundering, drug charges and prostitution.[2] Early life and educationJason Lubell Itzler was born as Jason Lubell Sylk[3] and is the only son of Ronnie Lubell and Leonard Allen Sylk.[3] Following his parents’ divorce, Itzler moved to New York with his mother.[3] While growing up, Jason was influenced by his grandfather, Nathan Lubell, who was a founding partner in the Riviera in Las Vegas. He also owned an amusement park in Coney Island for his four young daughters.[3] Jason's mother remarried Ron Itzler,[3] a lawyer in the firm of Fischbein, Badillo, Wagner, and Itzler, and so the family moved to the suburbs in New Jersey. Jason attended a number of private schools, including the Elisabeth Morrow School, the Dwight-Englewood School, the Hotchkiss School, and Tenafly High School. Jason spent many of his evenings at the New York Friars Club, and summers in the Catskills, where he worked as a cabana boy at the Concord Hotel.[3] Jason graduated from The George Washington University with degrees in political science and art history. Itzler enrolled in the Shepard Broad College of Law in the late 1980s and graduated with a J.D. in 1993. Business ventures and convictionsWhile in law school, he started a phone sex operation called M2 Communications, Inc., where he would charge $4.98-a-minute, and soon become a young millionaire. The company averaged $1,500,000 a month.[3] Due to his mother's untimely death from cancer in 1994, he abandoned his business and was eventually forced to declare bankruptcy in 1997.[3] His next company was called SoHo Models, one of the first companies to supply Webcam porn, which he ran out of a rented an 8,000-square-foot loft on the corner of Canal and Broadway in New York City. In 2001, Itzler was arrested at Newark Liberty International Airport for trying to smuggle ecstasy into the United States.[4] After serving seven months in jail for the drug charge, he was released on parole in 2003, after which he started an escort service named New York Confidential.[4][3] To meet the condition of his parole that he maintain legitimate employment, Itzler was fraudulently listed as a paralegal in the office of his attorney, Paul Bergrin.[4] New York Confidential was run out of Itzler's Art Deco apartment in Hoboken, New Jersey.[3] The company was doing well and the office was moved to a 5000 sq ft. loft at 79 Worth Street in Manhattan.[3] In 2004, Itzler was averaging a gross of $55,000 a night.[3] "That's because we were the best," said Itzler. "At NY Confidential, I told my girls that the pressure is on them because we have to provide the clients with the greatest single experience ever, a Kodak moment to treasure for the rest of their lives. Spreading happiness, positive energy, and love, that's what being the best means to me. Call me a dreamer, but that's the NY Confidential credo."[3] It was this attention to detail and customer satisfaction that made the group successful, attracting a wide array of clients, including senators and famous athletes.[3] There were even talks of franchising Confidentials in other cities, such as Las Vegas.[3] In 2005, authorities arrested Itzler, who pleaded guilty to money laundering and promoting prostitution in 2006, and was sentenced to 18 months in prison.[4][5][6] On May 14, 2012, Itzler was sentenced to four years in prison for prostitution, money laundering, and drug charges after an investigation the previous summer found evidence that he had sold cocaine and provided a prostitute to a Manhattan customer.[7] Personal lifeItzler is Jewish and has been engaged seven times.[3] He has dated his own girls, including the number one escort Natalie McLennan, known as Natalia.[3] Natalia made as much as $2,000 per hour with a two-hour minimum working as an escort at New York Confidential.[3] Asked if the work affected her relationship with Itzler, Natalia says he would sometimes get jealous of the time she spent away from him, but not of the men.[3] It would only bother him if she slept with another man for free.[3] In 2010, Natalia pleaded guilty to a charge of attempted money laundering in connection to New York Confidential.[8] Itzler has had Hanuman and "Super Lucky" tattooed on his arms since the early 1990s.[9] In 2010 Itzler shared an apartment in Flamingo Towers with Hungarian photographer Zoltan Prepszent. This apartment was subject to controversy when former University of Wisconsin-La Crosse student, Julia Sumnicht died in Miami in March of 2010. The New York Post claims to have obtained the autopsy report which allegedly cites an overdose on GHB as the cause of death.[10] As a result of an interview ith Itzler while he was in a Manhattan jail where he faced other unrelated charges, Itzler claimed to have also taken GHB himself the night that Sumnicht had visited their apartment. Additionally, Sumnicht's body was only discovered after she had visited the apartment of a different photographer later that night.[11] MediaItzler has been featured on The View.[12] He appeared several times on The Opie and Anthony show, including phoning in from prison. He also appeared as a guest twice on The Howard Stern Show.[citation needed] References
|