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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
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‘Manhattan Madam’ Charged With Selling Prescription Pills

(CN) - Former "Manhattan Madam" and New York City comptroller candidate Kristin Davis has been arrested and charged with selling prescription drugs, according to an indictment unsealed Tuesday.

Davis, 38, known as the "Manhattan Madam," gained notoriety for having run a high-end prostitution ring in Manhattan that served high-profile clients. She was also involved in the 2008 prostitution scandal that forced the resignation of Gov. Eliot Spitzer, whom Davis is now running against for city comptroller.

Federal prosecutors say Davis sold hundreds of ecstasy, Adderall, Xanax and other pills to a cooperating witness about once a month from 2009 to 2011.

She told the witness that she bought the ecstasy and Adderall pills "at least in part to provide them to others, explaining that she provided these drugs to others at house parties," the indictment states.

In the fall of 2011, Davis began trading Adderall for ecstasy, prosecutors say, which she then sold. The following year, she also sold the witness Xanax, Ambien and Soma pills about once a month for cash, according to the indictment.

Davis is charged with four counts of distributing controlled substances based on deals the confidential witness videotaped on Jan. 7, Feb. 6, March 21 and April 24, prosecutors say.

Davis allegedly told the witness via text, "If u run low let me kno!!! Ur the best!"

She also arranged to have the witness buy 180 oxycodone pills for $3,600 from a "guy" she knew, Erik Pichardo, who has been charged with dealing oxycodone and is at large, prosecutors say.

Authorities say Davis was the sixth person arrested as part of an ongoing investigation of prescription drug dealing in and around the Big Apple.

She faces up to 80 years in prison if convicted.

The unnamed witness was arrested last December on drug-dealing charges, pleaded guilty and is cooperating with authorities for a potentially more lenient sentence, according to the indictment.

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