Meet The Madam Who Pimped Out Ex-Olympian

JANUARY 4--The madam who heads the Las Vegas escort agency that employed ex-Olympian Suzy Favor Hamilton is a former hooker who abandoned a legitimate art business to operate the lucrative call girl ring full time, The Smoking Gun has learned.

Jami Lynn Rodman, 35, is the proprietor of Haley Heston’s Private Collection, which describes itself as “the premier Boutique Escort Agency of Las Vegas.” Since 2010, Rodman’s operation has represented scores of high-priced escorts working in Las Vegas and most other major U.S. cities.

Along with Favor Hamilton--who spent a year working as an escort named “Kelly”--the Heston roster has included porn stars, centerfold models, and Rodman herself, who has used the alias “Haley Heston.”  

Until recently, the escort service maintained an extensive web site and a Twitter account that were used to market the services of its “courtesans.” However, following the publication of a December 20 TSG story about the 44-year-old Favor Hamilton’s secret life as a Haley Heston escort, the operation has been buffeted by unwanted publicity, media inquiries, and speculation about an FBI investigation into the outfit’s illegal interstate activities.

The escort service’s web site and Twitter page have been deleted and calls to its two phone numbers go unanswered. Haley Heston’s annual “meet and greet”--where johns mingle with escorts in a swanky Las Vegas hotel suite--had been scheduled for January 9, but has been postponed “in light of recent events.” The last-minute rescheduling was announced in a December 21 post on The Erotic Review (TER), a popular escort service discussion board.

In response to TER posts about the disappearance of its web site, the Heston firm noted that “Paparazzi glitter exploded in our inbox” and “I think the Mayans crashed our server.” Prospective clients were advised that they could still contact the escort service via private messages channeled through the TER site.

On December 28, a call to the escort service was answered, “Hello, this is Haley.” When a reporter told “Haley” that TSG had determined her true identity, Rodman remarked that she anticipated being outed in the wake of TSG's story about Favor Hamilton, who is seen below in a photo from the Haley Heston web site. Stating that, “Everything’s been a whirlwind,” Rodman requested a few days to decide whether she would do a comprehensive interview about her escort business (which she runs with the help of a male assistant known as “Troy”).

TSG agreed to give Rodman until January 2 to consider her options.

On Wednesday, when a reporter called Rodman in Las Vegas, she was not in the mood to talk. “You should know how this works. You’re crazy to think I’m the only one involved here. It’s a lot bigger than you think,” said a jittery Rodman. She continued, “You know, I can’t talk right now. They know you called.”

When asked about the mysterious “they,” Rodman replied, “They’re here. I can’t, I can’t talk right now. I’m gonna have to get in touch with you later.” Rodman did not respond to several subsequent phone and e-mail messages.

Rodman’s reluctance to speak further about her escort operation is, of course, understandable considering that the illicit business has likely been violating an assortment of federal laws, including promoting prostitution, money laundering, and conspiracy. Additionally, in a blog post last year on the Haley Heston web site, Rodman assured clients that the escort service could, “at the push of a button,” destroy electronic records in the face of a subpoena.

Rodman also claimed in that 2012 post that her escort service had somehow “obtained cellphones that are not registered to anyone.” Such security measures, she added, “do not come cheap, nor easy, but we are thorough and discretion is extremely important to us--ours, our ladies, and yours!”

While her off-the-grid phone claim cannot be vetted, a cell phone number Rodman has used does have a curious pedigree. The number tracks to a purported janitorial service operating out of a Las Vegas residence that is also home to a variety of other businesses, including three upholstery firms, a photo company, a landscaper, a jeweler, the “Nevada Institute of Technology,” and a telecommunications firm whose principal is a bounty hunter who also happens to own a porn web site.

An examination of court records reveals that Rodman has never been arrested in connection with her escort work or the operation of the Haley Heston firm. She was briefly jailed last August on an outstanding warrant for failing to appear in court to answer a speeding citation. Rodman was booked into the Clark County Detention Center in Las Vegas, where the above mug shot was taken.

Her rap sheet also includes minor arrests in 2000 and 2002 (theft and interfering with police). At the time, Rodman was living in Oregon, where she was raised and attended high school. In 1999, at age 22, she divorced Steven Ottinger, her 34-year-old husband, a convicted felon who previously spent time in state prison for manslaughter (he stabbed a man to death). In an earlier case, Ottinger beat a murder rap (he had been accused of stabbing a man to death).

Court records indicate that Rodman relocated to Nevada in early-2003, moving into the Spanish Ridge apartment complex about five miles from the Las Vegas Strip.

Within a few years, Rodman launched Artonauts, a firm that promoted the work of “emergent international artists,” especially those from Cuba. According to the Artonauts web site, the company brokered the purchase of foreign artworks and arranged for their importation into the U.S..

The company eventually morphed into Artonauts Fine Arts, which “began manufacturing framed artwork, canvas prints, and unique sculptures” for clients in the “hospitality, corporate, and private sectors.” Nevada state records list Rodman as the firm’s only corporate officer.

Operating from a series of small offices, Rodman was aided by a sole employee and occasional freelancers. The firm’s web site lists about two dozen clients, including hotel/casinos (Caesars Palace, MGM Grand, Harrah’s), architecture firms, interior designers, and a children’s hospital. In early 2010, Rodman’s firm was one of hundreds of exhibitors at the Hospitality Design expo inside the sprawling Sands Convention Center in Las Vegas.

However, by the end of 2010, Rodman was ready to abandon her art firm, according to a business associate who spoke with TSG.

The source said that Rodman explained that she “wanted to pursue other things” and had taken a night class in web design at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas. The associate described Rodman as “all over the place,” adding that she once spoke about enrolling in a master’s degree program for international studies (it is unclear, however, whether Rodman attended college). A freelance artist told TSG that he was stiffed on a final project for Rodman’s firm and that she “just disappeared from sight” when he sought to track her down for payment.

Rodman secured the web address for the Haley Heston site in October 2010, registering the url anonymously through a Singapore domain trust. The site went live later that month and included photos, profiles, and rate sheets for the company’s initial collection of escorts, including Rodman. “All Escorts are personal friends of Haley Heston's and elect to advertise on the most prestigeous escort site serving las vegas,” the site assured prospective johns.

In early-2011, Rodman posed for a series of racy photos that appeared on the web site of Haute Shots, a Las Vegas business specializing in “boudoir photography.” A caption accompanying the pictures (one of which is NSFW) notes that, “Ms. R is one of those feline-like females who just oozes sex appeal.” A Haute Shots representative declined a TSG request to publish one of the photos, since “The model release that we have for Ms. Rodman would not enable us permission to allow publication outside of our own marketing purpose.”

At the point the Haley Heston web site was taken down, about 30 hookers were featured on it. Their individual rates were no less than $500 an hour, with some commanding five figures for 24-hour “dates.” Favor Hamilton charged $600 per hour and became so popular that she was the third-ranked Las Vegas escort according to TER reviewers.

If law enforcement decides to examine Haley Heston’s cash-only operation, agents will face the difficult task of conducting a forensic review of Rodman’s finances (and perhaps those of escorts like Favor Hamilton). Though tedious and time consuming, following the money is central to building cases against escort firms (see: Spitzer, Eliot).

In late-November, the operator of a large Las Vegas escort service was indicted on federal charges for allegedly laundering $2.4 million in illicit proceeds. The case was brought by a task force headed by Internal Revenue Service agents and, according to the Las Vegas Review Journal, “is thought to be the first in a crackdown on the lucrative escort service business, long regarded as a haven for prostitution on the Strip.”

While it is difficult to estimate how much money the Haley Heston service banked during the past two-plus years, a clue might be contained in the finances of Artonauts, Rodman’s fine arts company. Though the firm has been dormant for two years, it maintains a web site and remains “active,” according to Nevada state records.

A recent report on Artonauts by Dun & Bradstreet, the business information firm, estimated that the company’s “annual sales” were $670,000 and that it had 10 employees. D&B gathers financial information from a variety of sources, including “direct investigations and interviews with the company principals.”

Incorporation records also show that, two months after Haley Heston’s launch, Rodman formed Theys Consulting, LLC (she is listed in state records as the firm’s registered agent and manager). Perhaps these were the shadowy “theys” to which a panicky Rodman referred when last speaking with a TSG reporter. (6 pages)