By Ed Vogel
Donrey Capital Bureau
RENO -- The saga of Joe Conforte and the Mustang Ranch came to a close at 5 p.m. Monday when federal agents seized the nation's first legal brothel ... U.S. District Judge Howard McKibben earlier rejected a second request by Mustang lawyers who sought to keep the brothel open pending an appeal. McKibben, however, advised the Justice Department that it cannot destroy or alter the brothel until claims on the property are resolved ... The IRS seized the ranch from Conforte in 1990 for unpaid taxes. Rather than run the brothel itself, the IRS put the ranch up for auction ...
http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/1999/Aug-10-Tue-1999/news/11726460.htmlSunday, August 8, 1999 - Page updated at 12:00 AM
Nev. Brothel Going Belly-Up After Decades -- Mustang Ranch Survived Tax Problems And Fire Only To Succumb To A Court-Ordered Padlock
By Tom Gardner
The AP
... Now Conforte is on the lam somewhere in South America. The payoffs to county officials have dried up, and the feds say they're itching to padlock the place forever. The court-ordered shutdown of the Mustang Ranch on Monday will remove a legal but shady business that for decades has been a thorn in the side of many and a boon to others.... His tax problems continued to dog him and finally, in 1990, he and Burgess declared bankruptcy, and the IRS seized the Mustang Ranch. It was sold at tax auction in November 1990 when Victor Perry, the brother of Conforte's attorney, Peter Perry, made the lone bid on behalf of Mustang Properties, snapping it up for $1.49 million - a tenth of the back taxes claimed by the government. Conforte said he had no part in the bidding ...
http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19990808&slug=2976197Sunday, December 15, 2002
From Anything Goes to Everything Goes at Brothel
By Tom Gorman
December 15, 2002 in print edition A-26
... The government took the brothel in 1990 after he failed to pay a $13-million tax debt and fled to Brazil, which has no extradition pact with the U.S. The IRS auctioned the Mustang Ranch in 1990 – and Conforte bought it through a network of bogus companies and Swiss bank accounts fattened by profits his associates skimmed from the Mustang’s books. Three years ago, the government again seized the property and its assets, and closed the business for good, leading to Saturday’s auction ...
http://articles.latimes.com/2002/dec/15/nation/na-brothel15<American Greed slideshow: 11 of 17>
... But in 1990, the Conforte's haven't paid off their tax debt, and the I.R.S. finally seizes the Mustang and puts it up for sale at a public auction ...
http://www.cnbc.com/id/29265969The Feds never tried to run the Mustange: they shut it down in 1990 and auctioned it off; they reseized it on 1999 and dismantled it