Gotham City brothel owner says police persecution cost him $700,000

The owner of South Melbourne’s Gotham City brothel says he’s been left $700,000 out of pocket by a failed police prosecution.

Gotham City brothel in South Melbourne. Picture: David Crosling

The owner of Melbourne’s Gotham City brothel has hit out at police after a failed prosecution cost him $700,000.

Franco Puleo said he was the victim of police persecution and disgruntled former staff when he was charged in 2019 over allegations of running an illegal sex business and drug offences.

The case against him was dropped last year.

Mr Puleo told the Herald Sun he was the victim of a smear campaign after dismissing several staff who he discovered were using and dealing ice.

“I don’t take shit. I do things by the book,” he said.

Mr Puleo said those workers then embarked on a campaign of posting bad reviews and making false reports to Crime Stoppers.

Franco Puleo says he’s the victim of police persecution.

He said police carried out a June, 2019, raid at his Clarke St businesses off the back of allegations by those staff.

Mr Puleo said one of the ex-staff who started his problems was the last person who should have been approaching police.

He said she had been using ice to run multiple under-age sex workers out of a room at Crown.

One of the allegations against Mr Puleo was that he ran girls out of the adjacent Studio 583 photographic studio, a charge he said was able to be categorically proven false.

The operator of the studio, Anthony Mokasi, said it had never been used for sexual purposes.

Mr Puleo said he was charged with small amounts of drugs, including cocaine and MDMA, which were found on his girls.

A glimpse inside Gotham City. Mr Puleo says some disgruntled former employees made false claims to police.

Two Gotham City sex workers were also found with erectile-dysfunction treatments which Mr Puleo said could hardly have come as a surprise to anyone.

“If a client can’t get it up, they give them a Viagra or a Kamagra,” he said.

Mr Puleo said he had been subsequently banished by banks.

“When you get drug charges and shit like this, they don’t want to know you,” he said.

Ultimately, his legal costs had come to $700,000, money he will not be able to recoup.

Mr Puleo said his occupation, appearance and tattoos made some people think he is a criminal.

“Make no mistake, there are a lot of shady people in the industry,” he said.

“The narrow-minded people think I’m a criminal. What you see is what you get.”

Victoria Police confirmed the charges against Mr Puleo were dropped in June last year.

A statement said charges were later laid against another person as part of the same investigation.

“In April, 2020, a then-52-year-old St Kilda woman was also charged with knowingly living on earnings of sex worker and drugs offences. She was fined and convicted in court in January 2022.”

Mr Puleo said he had previously had unhappy experiences with the law.

In 2002, a former drug squad detective was given a suspended two-year jail term for trying to obtain money dishonestly from Mr Puleo.

The County Court said the officer sought a $15,000 payment in exchange for helping Mr Puleo vary his licence.