Woman 'who ran prostitutes trapped by her laptop’
Larissa Miesnieks, 39, allegedly ran a highly lucrative vice operation
A BUSINESS WOMAN who earned £300,000 by running an escort agency was caught when she reported a burglary at her London home, a court heard.
Larissa Miesnieks, 39, allegedly ran a lucrative vice operation through two websites, Atlantic Companions and pure Brit. She is accused of controlling prostitutes and laundering profits between 2006 and 2010.
Miss Miesnieks, originally from Australia, was arrested after she handed over a laptop to police investigating a break-in at one of her properties in Kensington, west London, Southwark Crown Court heard.
Officers sent the computer for analysis and experts linked Miss Miesnieks’s email address to the two websites, said Lawrence Aiolfi, prosecuting.
He told jurors: “Those websites offered prostitution services.”
Mr Aiolfi added: “The defendant, between 2006 and 2010, ran an escort agency which advertised on a series of website and that girls on the website were advertising sexual services as prostitutes.
“By her activity in running the agency, Larissa Miesnieks exercised some form of control over some of the activities and we say she did so in expectation of money.
“What we say in relation to [the alleged money laundering] is that as a result of the activities of the prostitutes that were advertised she benefited from that criminal conduct.
The benefit is estimated to be in the region of £300,000, and she knew or suspected that that was the proceeds of criminal conduct.”
Miss Miesnieks, from Fulham, denies one count of controlling prostitution for gain and one count of acquiring criminal property. The trial continues
