Ask Jeeves: Why Was Your Wife (Stanford Law '01) Indicted for Tax Evasion on Prostitution Proceeds?

We recently reported on Stanford Law School’s new grading system. Does it involve dollar bills? Or leaving book prizes on bedside tables?

Cristina Warthen (née Cristina Schultz) — aka the Stanford Law Escort, now married to David Warthen, the filthy rich co-founder of Ask Jeeves — is back in the news. From the San Jose Mercury News (via TaxProf Blog):

A Stanford law school graduate suspected of paying off her costly student loans by running a high-priced escort service has now been hit with federal tax evasion charges.

In court papers filed Tuesday in San Jose federal court, prosecutors allege that Cristina Warthen failed to pay taxes on more than $133,000 she earned as a prostitute in 2003, jetting off as a call girl for clients in Washington, D.C., Chicago, New York and other cities. The government has charged her with felony tax evasion for failing to pay about $25,000 in federal income taxes.

Warthen’s business as a reputed high-priced hooker was first revealed several years ago, when the federal government searched her then-home in Oakland and seized more than $61,000 in cash suspected to be linked to her escort business. Court papers allege that starting in 2001, Warthen, then Cristina Schultz, used the name “Brazil” and advertised her escort services on a Web site, TouchofBrazil.net.

Brazil. Great beaches. And waxing.

A little bit more, after the jump.


Cristina Schultz’s counsel thinks this is an Al Capone situation:

Brian Getz, Cristina Warthen’s attorney, declined comment on the charges. But he told the Mercury News in 2006 that it was easier for the government to target her for tax fraud than prostitution. “We never conceded she was an escort,” he said then.

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But is being an escort really that bad? Here is a hierarchy of whoredom:

Yale = millionaire’s mistress / “kept woman”

Stanford / Harvard = high-end escort (e.g., Ashley Alexandra Dupre)

Other top-tier school = regular call girl

Massachusetts School of Law / American Justice School of Law = streetwalker

To quote our very own Kashmir Hill: “Yale Law School. The ultimate aphrodisiac.”

Stanford Law Grad-Call Girl Indicted for Tax Evasion [TaxProf Blog]

Feds: Stanford law school grad failed to pay taxes on prostitution earnings [San Jose Mercury News]

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Cristina Warthen / Cristina Schultz [Wikipedia]

Earlier: The Stanford Law Escort: And She Lived Happily Ever After