https://www.cbsnews.com/miami/news/broward-county-mother-and-son-money-laudering-prostitution-real-estate-shell-companies/

A Broward County mother and son were arrested and charged with money laundering this month after authorities found the two allegedly using real estate and shell companies with the earnings made through prostitution, court documents revealed.

Christopher Jelavic, 48, was arrested on Sept. 11, and his 70-year-old mother Margareta von Lambert was arrested the following day. The two are currently facing one count of money laundering over $100,000 within 12 months and deriving support from prostitution proceeds.

According to the documents, Jelavic and von Lambert have been operating a Pompano Beach business called "Pretty Woman Escorts" as a "criminal enterprise engaged in commercial sex." The duo allegedly created the business on Sunbiz on April 20, 2000. Since then, the mother and son had allegedly used shell corporations registered with the Florida Division of Corporations to "facilitate the laundering of commercial sex proceeds."

Additionally, von Lambert had allegedly used her Florida-registered real estate and broker's license to facilitate the enterprise, the documents stated.

In January, detectives with the Broward County Sheriff's Money Laundering Task Force became aware of Jelavic after finding multiple ads and classifieds for "escort services" and though there had been many investigations into Pretty Woman Escorts, none of them had been successful at disrupting or dismantling the business, the documents stated.

After reviewing the previous investigations, detectives were able to find individuals allegedly "engaging in a pattern of racketeering activity" with Jelavic, including prostitution and money laundering through Pretty Woman Escorts and other businesses.

A new investigation began, where detectives were able to gather information from records searches and some relevant police actions, including surveillance, traffic stops, subpoenas, controlled recorded calls, confidential sources, undercover operations, trash searches and arrests that were directly related to the enterprise, the documents stated.

In one particular incident on the night of July 25, a confidential source told detectives that Jelavic allegedly expressed "deep frustration and stress" to von Lambert about ongoing issues with his enterprise, the documents stated.

During the investigation, detectives found out through a confidential source that Jelavic told an associate that he had to cancel attending an event that night because of a "major issue with an employee."

According to the documents, Jelavic explained that a woman he was training for a month had accidentally sent a mass text message to all his clients, leading to a complete shutdown of his business operations, causing his phone and business to stop functioning properly.

Following the incident, Jelavic allegedly expressed that he was "fed up with the stress" of the business and that his associate suggested they should focus on real estate instead.

Jelavic allegedly continued venting, saying that everyone — including his son — "constantly asks him for money" and that he considered selling the Pompano Beach building used as the enterprise's "nerve center" due to the stress, the documents stated.

According to the documents, Jelavic allegedly met up with his mother again on Aug. 1 to talk about transferring properties to his son to reduce tax liabilities, along with other discussions regarding estate planning and asset transfers.

The documents also said the investigation found that Jelavic's bank accounts allegedly received about $174,000 in the form of Zelle, credit card transactions and cash deposits that came from prostitution earnings between June 2023 and June 2024.

These payments were then allegedly funneled out of his accounts as checks and online transfers to joint accounts with von Lambert, which were mentioned in discussions between the duo in August, the documents stated.

During this time, von Lambert's bank accounts received about $84,000 in deposited checks and Zelle payments that came from those other accounts, the documents stated.

In addition to these transactions, one of Jelevic's shell companies sold a Tamarac property — and the real estate agent involved was von Lambert, who helped "facilitate this money laundering transaction," the documents stated.

According to the documents, authorities were led to believe that Jelavic and von Lambert attempted to leave the U.S. and head to Brazil to avoid prosecution.