NY Governor Spitzer Linked to Prostitution Ring

[Jeff]

Announcement from Spitzer due shortly

Spitzer Is Linked to Prostitution Ring

By DANNY HAKIM
Published: March 10, 2008

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 early this afternoon, had hours earlier abruptly canceled his scheduled public events for the day. He is set to make an announcement about 2:15 this afternoon at his Manhattan office.

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.

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 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.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/10/nyreg ... oref=login

[posting tulpa]

damn Jeff you beat me to it....

[Jeff]

damn Jeff you beat me to it....

I knew I had to hurry.

Here's the story of the ring busted last week (which hasn't yet been confirmed as the one Spitzer's linked to):

Feds: Upscale Prostitution Ring Busted

By LARRY NEUMEISTER – 3 days ago

NEW YORK (AP) — Four people were arrested Thursday and accused of organizing a prostitution ring that charged wealthy clients in Europe and the U.S. thousands of dollars for prostitutes rated by diamonds.

The conspiracy charges against the man and three women accuse them of running the Emperors Club VIP ring from at least December 2004, U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia said.

On its Web site, the company displays photographs of the prostitutes' bodies, with their faces hidden, along with hourly rates depending on whether the prostitutes were rated with one diamond, the lowest ranking, or seven diamonds, the highest.

A three-diamond prostitute would cost $1,000 per hour, while the Icon Club allowed access to the most highly ranked prostitutes at $5,500 an hour, prosecutors said.

Authorities 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.

All four were charged with conspiracy to violate federal prostitution laws: Mark Brener, 62, and Cecil Suwal, 23, who live together in Cliffside Park, N.J.; Temeka Rachelle Lewis, 32, of Brooklyn; and Tanya Hollander, 36, of Rhinebeck, N.Y.

Brener, accused of being the leader and recruiter of the prostitutes, and Suwal, accused of controlling the operation's bank accounts, also were charged with conspiracy to launder more than $1 million in illicit proceeds.

Lewis and Hollander were accused of arranging meetings between prostitutes and clients. They were released late Thursday on $250,000 bail each.

Hollander's lawyer, Mary Mulligan, said her client "leads a quiet life." Lewis's lawyer, Daniel Gordon, declined to comment.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael H. Dolinger ordered that Brener be held without bail after prosecutors said $600,000 in cash and an Israeli passport were found in his apartment.

Brener's lawyer, Jennifer Brown, said her client was a U.S. citizen who had lived in the United States for 20 years.

Suwal was not immediately able to post her $500,000 bail. Her lawyer, Daniel Parker, said she denies the charges.

"We're going to conduct a thorough investigation into the charges," he said. "At the end of the day, we think she'll be completely vindicated."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Dan Stein said he believed the arrests shut down the ring.

In a criminal complaint, FBI agent Kenneth Hosey said clients were told a wire transfer to the Emperors Club would be identified as QAT Consulting to appear to be a business transaction.

Hosey said the defendants earned more than $1 million illegally through the business.



http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5j_Jy ... gD8V8CDA00

[MASONIC PLOT]

Jeff you beat me to it. I started another thread on this just after you did, please delete mine.

Thanks.

[nomo]

Well, at least it was upscale hookers and not little boys.

[MASONIC PLOT]

Well, at least it was upscale hookers and not little boys.

Not a bad point, sadly.

[slow_dazzle]

He was threatening to break up the monoline bond insurers

New York governor Eliot Spitzer has given monoline bond insurers up to five business days to find fresh capital, or face a potential break-up by state regulators who want to safeguard the municipal bond markets. The deadline was issued as Moody’s withdrew its triple-A credit rating for privately held Financial Guaranty Insurance Company, although positive comments elsewhere about MBIA and Ambac helped shares in these two listed insurers to recover somewhat on Thursday. New York regulators are considering a division of the bond insurers into a “good bank, bad bank” structure, where the monoline insurers’ municipal bond businesses would be separated from their riskier activities, such as guaranteeing complex structured securities

This was a few weeks ago. What a coincidence.

[sunny]

Well, at least it was upscale hookers and not little boys.

Yeah, I can't get too worked up about consensual, adult prostitution, but damn, is Spitzer stupid or what? He's got Bill Clinton disease thinking his enemies won't find out about his peccadilllo's and use them against him.

[Hugh Manatee Wins]

Same day that the House filed a suit to enforce subpoenas against former White House counsel Harriet Miers and White House chief of staff Joshua Bolten.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/03/10/america/NA-GEN-US-House-Contempt.php

US House files suit to enforce subpoenas against 2 White House officials
The Associated Press
Published: March 10, 2008

See if this gets as much coverage in the Operation Mockingbird press.

So...no doubt Spitzer was under surveillance by FBI/CIA/NSA to get something on him.
When they had it, they waited until they NEEDED it for a diversion from White House crimes.

That's how the game is played amongst the big boys.

[compared2what?]

Sorry to have my mind in the gutter, but....

$5,500 an hour????

How good was this sex?

[Dosha]

So arrogant to think you can keep secrets from the masses and the elite will let you do whatever you believe is right, like making corporations tow the line, sure. What a douche bag.

Smoking gun caught the Emporer's Club site here for those wanting to take a look.





http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/ye ... eror1.html

Online Hooker Ring Busted
High-priced call girls were rated on a scale of diamonds

MARCH 6--An international call girl ring that solicited wealthy male clients via a web site that rated its hookers on a scale of diamonds (and charged accordingly) has been busted by federal agents. The operators of the New York-based Emperors Club were named in a felony complaint unsealed today in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. Before the Emperors Club web site was taken down this afternoon, TSG grabbed the below screen shot showing part of the firm's hooker menu. Another page from the site described how its rates were based on a woman's rating (which ranged from three to seven diamonds) and noted that "Gift Certificates Available Upon Request." A detailed FBI affidavit provides other details about the Emperors Club operation, which charged up to $5500 an hour for one of its 50 prostitutes, who operated in New York, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, London, and Paris. The affidavit notes that one prospective hooker, who declined to work for the company because it did not pay enough, complained that a friend of hers had sex twice in an hour with an Emperors Club john who did not even spring for dinner beforehand. In one wiretapped conversation, Mark Brener, the ring's leader, complained that one of his hookers looked like a "butcher." During another call, Emperors Club employees discussed the "baggage" a hooker carries when she is a mother who has to leave appointments early to pick up her kids from school. The affidavit also includes the musings of one self-aware prostitute who remarked in a phone call, "I know what my purpose is. I'm not a...moron." (6 pages).......

Interesting diversion for MSM it is.

[isachar]

Same day that the House filed a suit to enforce subpoenas against former White House counsel Harriet Miers and White House chief of staff Joshua Bolten.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/03/10/america/NA-GEN-US-House-Contempt.php

US House files suit to enforce subpoenas against 2 White House officials
The Associated Press
Published: March 10, 2008

See if this gets as much coverage in the Operation Mockingbird press.

So...no doubt Spitzer was under surveillance by FBI/CIA/NSA to get something on him.
When they had it, they waited until they NEEDED it for a diversion from White House crimes.

That's how the game is played amongst the big boys.

Hugh, let's also not forget that it was Spitzer, as Prosecutor for NY, who had authority to investigate the various crimes - especially the financial crimes - collectively known as 911 that occurred in NYC. Which of course, he declined to do. Small wonder, huh. Even if he had been so inclined, they had the goods on him. 'Da bitches prolly set him up, too, though he was more than willing.

[sunny]

They keep saying he's "involved in" "linked to" etc as if he runs it or funds the thing. So far, I only see evidence that he was a client.

[MASONIC PLOT]

He was threatening to break up the monoline bond insurers

New York governor Eliot Spitzer has given monoline bond insurers up to five business days to find fresh capital, or face a potential break-up by state regulators who want to safeguard the municipal bond markets. The deadline was issued as Moody’s withdrew its triple-A credit rating for privately held Financial Guaranty Insurance Company, although positive comments elsewhere about MBIA and Ambac helped shares in these two listed insurers to recover somewhat on Thursday. New York regulators are considering a division of the bond insurers into a “good bank, bad bank” structure, where the monoline insurers’ municipal bond businesses would be separated from their riskier activities, such as guaranteeing complex structured securities

This was a few weeks ago. What a coincidence.

In this day and age of corporate espionge I absolutely would not be surprised if those two events are connected in some fashion. Those corporations employ spooks and have intelligence agency departments that rival or surpass the CIA etc.

[MASONIC PLOT]

Well, at least it was upscale hookers and not little boys.

Sorry cant get that damn cartoon to show but its funny.