Monday - March 10, 2008

NY: Pimp My State

NY Governor Eliot Spitzer (D), elected on a platform of ethics reform and crime fighting, admits to being involved in a prostitution ring!!

Details to follow ... speech on CNN just about to start right this minute.

update - Spitzer may be connected to a high end prostitution ring busted in NYC recently…

From the NY Times online:

ALBANY - Gov. Eliot Spitzer has informed his most senior administration officials that he had been involved in a prostitution ring, an administration official said this morning.

Mr. Spitzer, who was huddled with his top aides inside his Fifth Avenue apartment early this afternoon, had hours earlier abruptly canceled his scheduled public events for the day. He scheduled an announcement for 2:15 after inquiries from the Times.

Mr. Spitzer, a first-term Democrat who pledged to bring ethics reform and end the often seamy ways of Albany, is married with three children.

Just last week, federal prosecutors arrested four people in connection with an expensive prostitution operation. Administration officials would not say that this was the ring with which the governor had become involved.

But a person with knowledge of the governor’s role said that the person believes the governor is one of the men identified as clients in court papers.

The governor’s travel records show that he was in Washington in mid-February. One of the clients described in court papers arranged to meet with a prostitute who was part of the ring, the Emperors Club VIP on the night of Feb. 13.

Mr. Spitzer appeared on a CNBC television show at 7 a.m. the next morning. Later in the morning, he testified before a Congressional committee.

An affidavit filed in federal court in Manhattan in connection with that case lists six conversations between the man, identified as Client 9, and a booking agent for the Emperors Club.

He had a difficult first year in office, rocked by a mix of scandal and legislative setbacks. In recent weeks, however, Mr. Spitzer seemed to have rebounded, with his Democratic party poised to perhaps gain control of the state Senate for the first time in four decades.

Mr. Spitzer gained national attention when he served as attorney general with his relentless pursuit of Wall Street wrongdoing. As attorney general, he also had prosecuted at least two prostitution rings as head of the state’s organized crime task force.

In one such case in 2004, Mr. Spitzer spoke with revulsion and anger after announcing the arrest of 16 people for operating a high-end prostitution ring out of Staten Island.

“”This was a sophisticated and lucrative operation with a multitiered management structure,” Mr. Spitzer said at the time. ”It was, however, nothing more than a prostitution ring.”

Albany for months has been roiled by bitter fighting and accusations of dirty tricks. The Albany County district attorney is set to issue in the coming days the results of his investigation into Mr. Spitzer’s first scandal, his aides’ involvement in an effort to tarnish Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno, the state’s top Republican.

From the NY Sun:

Governor Spitzer acknowledged today to his senior staff that he is involved a high-end prostitution ring, The New York Times reported.

Mr. Spitzer is set to make a statement about his involvement this afternoon.
Mr. Spitzer, who abruptly this morning canceled his scheduled meetings today in Albany, alerted his staff today that he was connected to an investigation of a prostitution service that charged up to $5,500 an hour.

The New York Sun reported today that prosecutors specializing in government corruption cases are leading the investigation into the prostitution service, suggesting that the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan may have evidence that a public official hired a prostitute.

Federal prosecutors last week unsealed a criminal complaint charging four people with running Emperors Club VIP, which advertised itself as an escort service. Prosecutors say the Emperors Club employed more than 50 high-end prostitutes.

Mr. Spitzer, who ran on a platform of cleaning up Albany corruption, was elected governor in 2006 by a landslide.

FoxNews is conjecturing that Spitzer may be mysterious “client number 9” and that cell phone records may have linked him to the group. In other words, all they can do is rehash what the Times and the Sun put in their papers. Apparently the “spokesmodels” at the Emperor’s Club were charging up to $5000 per hour for their services.  Spitzer is married and has three daughters.

Related - info about the prostitution bust, also from the NY Sun:

Federal prosecutors say they have broken up a high-end international prostitution ring that ran a thriving business in New York. Prosecutors yesterday charged one man and three women with running the prostitution service, which advertised itself on the Internet as Emperors Club VIP.

According to its Web site, which was taken down at midday yesterday, the Emperors Club offered to introduce clients to models, as well as provide investment services and deals on contemporary art work. The Web site billed Emperors Club as the “elite recreation venue and private club for those accustomed to excellence.”

Court documents unsealed yesterday said Emperors Club involved 50 prostitutes who billed between $1,000 and $5,500 an hour. Several phone numbers associated with Emperors Club have been under surveillance by the FBI, which intercepted more than 5,000 telephone calls and text messages during the investigation, according to court documents.

Excerpts of those intercepted calls, provided in court documents, offer a window onto some of the managerial challenges that confronted the four defendants who allegedly managed the operation. In them, the managers discuss how some of the Emperor Club prostitutes had difficulty taking imprints of their clients’ American Express cards, making it difficult to charge them. Prostitutes weren’t always punctual in arriving at their engagements. There were scheduling conflicts to resolve caused by the photo shoots of the women who modeled during the day. And clients called in wanting to know what they should tell their accountants about the expenses they were racking up with the Emperors Club.

A criminal complaint charges Mark Brener, 62, with running the prostitution ring. He was arrested yesterday morning along with a 23-year-old former college student, Cecil Suwal. Prosecutors say Ms. Suwal managed the day-today running of Emperors Club. They lived together in an apartment in New Jersey. Agents found $600,000 in cash at the apartment, an assistant U.S. attorney, Daniel Stein, said in U.S. District Court in Manhattan yesterday.
A son of Mr. Brener’s, who was in court yesterday, said he was “shocked” at the allegations against his father.

“It reads like a movie script,” the man, who would not give his name, said of the complaint in which prosecutors laid out their allegations.

The Emperors Club had prostitutes in New York, Miami, Los Angeles, London, and Paris, and would send them to meet men as far away as Vienna, the complaint alleges.

Authorities also arrested two other women, Temeka Lewis and Tanya Hollander, whom prosecutors described as booking agents who set up meetings between clients and prostitutes.

The defendants are charged with conspiring to violate federal anti-prostitution laws. And Mr. Brener and Ms. Suwal were also charged with money laundering.

The defendants did not enter any pleas in U.S. District Court yesterday. Prosecutors did not mention any client list.

More update from the NY Post:

Feds last week busted a diamond-studded international call-girl ring that offered well-heeled johns “fashion models, pageant winners and exquisite students” for up to $5,500 an hour - after one of the prostitutes turned on her pimp. The Times reported that it was unclear whether this was the ring Spitzer was involved with.

Today’s New York Sun reported that prosecutors specializing in government corruption cases were leading the investigation into that prostitution ring. Three of the assistant U.S. attorneys assigned to the case were part of the U.S. attorney’s public corruption unit, the Sun reported. The unit investigates possible wrongdoing by government officials.

The johns paid as much as $50,000 for a weekend with a prostitute and had the option of purchasing a “buy out” of their favorite girls, which allowed them to book trysts directly with the hookers, Manhattan federal prosecutors said.

The Emperors Club, an upscale escort service, ranked its hookers on a seven-diamond scale on its Web site and then charged its wealthy clientele accordingly for “dates,” court papers said.

Four people were charged with prostitution and tax crimes for allegedly raking in more than $1 million with a stable of 50 girls that serviced clients in New York, Washington, LA, San Francisco, Chicago, Miami, Las Vegas, London, Paris and Vienna.

Spitzer had served two terms as attorney general where he pursued criminal and civil cases and cracked down on misconduct and conflicts of interests on Wall Street and in corporate America. He had previously been a prosecutor in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, handling organized crime and white-collar crime cases.

His cases as state attorney general included a few criminal prosecutions of prostitution rings and into tourism involving prostitutes.

In 2004, he was part of an investigation of an escort service in New York City that resulted in the arrest of 18 people on charges of promoting prostitution and related charges.

Spitzer still has not given his press conference ... it’s about 1/2 hour late ... expectation is that HE WILL RESIGN.

Update 3:04PM - word is out that Spitzer has been indicted by the Southern District of NY for being a John. Interstate too - 5 years per hit; Spitzer allegegly went 6 times

Spitzer is a big supporter of Hillary Clinton.

Has anybody approached Charlie Sheen for a comment yet?

UPDATE 3:17PM - CONFUSION - CNN - Spitzer apologizes to family and public, is dissapointed he didn’t live up to his own standards, is taking some time to deal with his family.
FOXNEWS - is assuming Spitzer resigned, but he didn’t actually SAY THAT. Now they say the AP was wrong ... press conference only lasted a few seconds ... perhaps resignation was on papers submitted??? All heck is breaking loose in the sleepy little state capital of Albany. Did the governor - and former State Attorney General - cut a deal; if so did it include resigning?

Updated update on the updates - former NY Senator Alfonse D’Amato, speaking on FoxNews, says Spitzer has resigned, and the Lt. Governor has already been sworn in. Then he backtracks. The indictment is from March 7, so the expectation is that a deal has already been struck, and it would HAVE to include Spitzer resigning. Also rumors of federal wiretapping coming from one of the other news networks. (I can only watch one channel at a time!!)

Arggh - the indictment complaint does not mention Spitzer by name, only refers to him as Client Number 9. Charge includes shipping money across state lines to pay for hookers.

Oy, why couldn’t he be Client Number 7 or 23? Let’s start the KountDown Klock until somebody retells this story to the tune of Love Potion Number 9. (keep your eye on IMAO.US)

My final rushed update: Resignation letter is on it’s way to Albany right now, and will be read tonight at 7pm. Lt. Gov David Patterson to be sworn in immediately. Patterson is from Harlem and is legally blind. That’s all I’ve heard about him so far.

From the Associated Press:

NEW YORK (AP)—Gov. Eliot Spitzer, accused in news reports of being involved in a prostitution ring, apologized to his family and the public on Monday at a hastily called news conference. He did not elaborate on the story.

With his wife at his side, Spitzer told reporters that he “acted in a way that violates my obligations to my family.”

“I have disappointed and failed to live up to the standard I expected of myself,” he said. “I must now dedicate some time to regain the trust of my family.”

The New York Times reported earlier in the day that Spitzer told senior administration officials that he was linked to a prostitiution ring. The report cited an anonymous administration official.

The Times reported that a person with knowledge of the governor’s role believes the governor is identified in court papers as a client of a prostitution ring. Four people allegedly connected to a high-end ring called the Emperors Club VIP were arrested last week.

The Web site of the Emperors Club VIP displays photographs of scantily clad women with their faces hidden. It also shows hourly rates depending on whether the prostitutes were rated with one diamond, the lowest ranking, or seven diamonds, the highest. The most highly ranked prostitutes cost $5,500 an hour, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said the defendants arranged connections between wealthy men and more than 50 prostitutes in New York, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Miami, London and Paris.

The Times reported that the governor’s travel records show he was in Washington in mid-February, and that one of the clients arranged to meet with a prostitute on the night of Feb. 13.

The case is being handled by prosecutors in the Public Corruption unit of U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia’s office. Garcia spokeswoman Yusill Scribner said the office had no comment.

Around a stunned state Capitol in Albany, lawmakers and staff huddled around televisions to see the news conference. A media mob gathered outside the office of Lt. Gov. David Paterson, who would become governor if Spitzer was to resign.

Spitzer, 48, built his political reputation on rooting out corruption, including several headline-making battles with Wall Street while serving as attorney general. He stormed into the governor’s office in 2006 with a historic share of the vote, vowing to continue his no-nonsense approach to fixing one of the nation’s worst governments.

Time magazine had named him “Crusader of the Year” when he was attorney general and the tabloids proclaimed him “Eliot Ness.”

But his stint as governor has been marred by several problems, including an unpopular plan to grant driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants and a plot by his aides to smear Spitzer’s main Republican nemesis.

Spitzer had been expected to testify to the state Public Integrity Commission he had created to answer for his role in the scandal, in which his aides were accused of misusing state police to compile travel records to embarrass Senate Republican leader Joseph Bruno.

Spitzer had served two terms as attorney general where he pursued criminal and civil cases and cracked down on misconduct and conflicts of interests on Wall Street and in corporate America. He had previously been a prosecutor in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, handling organized crime and white-collar crime cases.

His cases as state attorney general included a few criminal prosecutions of prostitution rings and into tourism involving prostitutes.

In 2004, he was part of an investigation of an escort service in New York City that resulted in the arrest of 18 people on charges of promoting prostitution and related charges.

Posted by Drew458     on 03/10/2008 at 02:21 PM   
Filed Under: • Crime • Politics •  
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