Editing Mustang Ranch (section)

=== Forfeiture and sale following tax fraud ===
After losing a tax fraud case in 1990, the brothel was closed for three months and auctioned off. Conforte fled the [[United States]] to [[Brazil]]. The brothel was bought by a holding company and stayed open. After that company and the brothel's manager (a former county commissioner) lost a federal [[fraud]], [[racketeering]] and conspiracy case in 1999, the Mustang Ranch was closed and forfeited to the federal government. That same year, the [[Supreme Federal Court (Brazil)|Brazil Supreme Court]] ruled Conforte could not be extradited.

In 2002, the brothel's furniture, paintings and accessories were auctioned off. The [[Bureau of Land Management]] sold the Ranch's pink [[stucco]] structures on [[eBay]] in 2003. Bordello owner [[Lance Gilman]] purchased the buildings for $145,100 and moved them to his [[Wild Horse Adult Resort & Spa]] five miles (8&nbsp;km) to the east, where the relocated and extensively renovated buildings eventually became the second brothel located at that complex.  However, the rights to the name Mustang Ranch, which Gilman had hoped to use for this new brothel, were tied up in a court battle with David Burgess, the owner of the [[Old Bridge Ranch]], nephew of Joe Conforte, and manager of the Mustang Ranch from 1979 until 1989. In December 2006, a federal judge ruled that Gilman was the "exclusive owner of the Mustang Ranch trademark" giving him the rights to use the name and branding.<ref>{{cite news|title=Battle for Mustang Ranch name over; Gilman wins|url=http://virginiacitynews.com/battle-for-mustang-ranch-name-over-gilman-wins-p918-91.htm|access-date=29 July 2011|newspaper=Virginia City News|date=17 September 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304073405/http://virginiacitynews.com/battle-for-mustang-ranch-name-over-gilman-wins-p918-91.htm|archive-date=4 March 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In late March 2007, the final remaining building, the Annex II which had been bought for $8,600 by [[Dennis Hof]], was burned down in a fire department training exercise.<ref name=shipley>{{cite news|last=Shipley|first=Jarid|title=A fiery end for the Mustang Ranch 2|url=http://www.nevadaappeal.com/article/20070326/NEWS/103260065|access-date=29 July 2011|newspaper=Nevada Appeal|date=26 March 2007}}</ref>  A ''[[Reno Gazette-Journal]]'' report<ref>[http://news.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051017/NEWS10/510170319/1002 River returning to nature] {{webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20060112092156/http://news.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051017/NEWS10/510170319/1002 |date=2006-01-12 }}, an October 2005 ''[[Reno Gazette-Journal]]'' article mentioning the fate of the Mustang Ranch</ref> cited plans for the restoration of natural conditions to the section of the [[Truckee River]] flowing through the land, following the completion of a similar restoration<ref>[http://nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/nevada/preserves/art11683.html Restoration of McCarran Ranch land] from [[The Nature Conservancy]] website</ref> five miles downstream on [[Pat McCarran|McCarran]] Ranch land owned by [[The Nature Conservancy]].

Contrary to a popular [[urban legend]] circulated by email, the Mustang Ranch was never operated by the U.S. government. It was operated by the Bankruptcy Trustee appointed by the United States Bankruptcy Court on behalf of the United States Government.<ref>[https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2003-oct-12-tr-spano12-story.html Hoping to save the wild Mustang -- Ranch, that is]</ref><ref>[http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/government/a/mustang_ranch.htm False: U.S. Gov't Tried (and Failed) to Run Mustang Ranch]</ref>