Heidi Fleiss, the ex-Hollywood madam, said she could show any investor a brothel for women, popularly called Heidi's Stud Farm, could be a financial success.

But it's an unconventional business. Legalized prostitution is only permitted in Nevada counties with less than 400,000 people (although a bill request before the state legislature by State Sen. Bob Coffin, D-Las Vegas, would eliminate that population cap legalizing it in Las Vegas and Reno).

Now Fleiss, who moved to Pahrump in 2005, confirmed she has decided not to pursue the brothel for women.

"I know the sex business better than anyone," Fleiss said in a phone interview Thursday. "It will work but I just don't have $3 million to start it right now. If this was a traditional business and I went to any venture capitalist it would work. I could prove supply and demand. I had enough e-mails with women wanting membership."

But Fleiss added, "it's an unconventional business."

She referred to the tough times in the economy. While more mainstream businesses are getting government bailouts, Fleiss joked the sex industry isn't included.

"Everybody says, 'Heidi when are you getting it done?' I feel like I'm letting a lot of people down but maybe I'll come to it," Fleiss said.

Fleiss has a criminal record after being convicted of income tax evasion and sentenced to prison for her high-priced call girl ring in Los Angeles that gave her widespread publicity. She's repeatedly mentioned that wouldn't prevent her from getting a brothel license in Nye County.

"So what, I'm a convicted felon," Fleiss said. "To be in this kind of business you can't be squeaky clean anyway."

"Did I do a home invasion? No. It was a victimless crime. There was a little bit of income tax evasion. You could look at something a million different ways," Fleiss said.

Fleiss said she was in shape to get a stud farm at one time. But she said federal investigators asked her to hold off on the project and she had to appear before a grand jury in the wire fraud case against Crystal brothel owner Joe Richards.

"I ended up introducing him (Richards) to Candice Trummell. I didn't know she was wearing a wire," Fleiss said.

Fleiss said she met Trummell when she was interested in applying for a brothel license, while Trummell was still on the Nye County Commission prior to 2006. Richards is accused of seeking a bribe from Trummell.

The Richards trial is scheduled for March 24 but it's been postponed repeatedly in the past.

Fleiss started Dirty Laundry, a laundromat in the Pahrump Valley Junction Shopping Center, in 2007. She is considering expanding the laundromat business.

Fleiss also has a couple other ideas she said will net her a lot of money, an environmental project she didn't want to discuss yet on the record and an on-line poker Web site, Hollywood Madam Poker.

"I don't know what tomorrow will bring I'm just thinking of going into what I think will bring a lot of money," Fleiss said.

While she awaits trial herself this spring in Pahrump on a charge of driving under the influence of drugs -- a charge she described as "overzealous" by prosecutors -- Fleiss said otherwise she is enjoying her new home in Pahrump.

"I like my laundromat and I met a lot of nice people here too," Fleiss said. "Every community has the same kind of gossip and the same kind of problems."

A story in the Las Vegas Review-Journal indicated the new Pahrump celebrity may leave town soon. That is also a possibility.

Fleiss said she's planning to sell her property in Crystal but bought 10 acres on a hill overlooking Pahrump where she's talking about building a house patterned after Frank Llloyd Wright's Ennis House, a 1924 mansion overlooking Los Angeles.

But she admitted, "I'm really in transition, I'm not sure of anything."

Fleiss said she has fallen in love with her parrots, all macaws, which will ultimately decide where she goes.

"The climate is kind of harsh on them and I will do whatever is best for my birds. I put my parrots first. It's my only responsibility and obligation I ever got in my life is these parrots," Fleiss said.

So why macaws over any other animal?

"I never had a pet. They're just born into a life in a cage. With the illegal pet trade and deforestation they don't have a prayer in this world. They're the only animal that talks," Fleiss said.