A photo screenshot of the website, which has been taken down, can be found here, here and here. The cache is here and here. Federal authorities arrested four people Thursday on charges of running an online prostitution ring that serviced clients in New York, Paris and other cities and took in more than $1 million in profits over four years.
The ring, known as the Emperor's Club V.I.P., had 50 prostitutes available for appointments in New York, Washington, Miami, London and Paris, according to a complaint unsealed on Thursday in Federal District Court in Manhattan. The appointments, made by telephone or through an online booking service, cost $1,000 to $5,500 [scroll down for fee page] an hour and could be paid for with cash, credit card, wire transfers or money orders, the complaint said.
Eliot Spitzer, the Governor of New York, has revealed his involvement with The Emperor's Club VIP, a prostitution ring recently shut down.
According to reports, Eliot Spitzer was client number nine (9).
It's interesting to point out that a look-a-like to Hollywood celebrity Paris Hilton may have once worked for the Emperor's Club VIP, although she denies it, and it was revealed that girls worked for the starting price of $800 per hour.
The look-a-like, Natalie Reid, denies she worked as an escort for Emperors' Club VIP, where prices start at $800 an hour. The agency's Web site had listed a Canadian woman named "Melissa" with "amazing physical beauty, high intelligence and the purity of youth," plus a photo of a Reid look-alike. The woman who answered the phone at Emperors' told PAGE SIX: "I can't help you reach her because she no longer works here. She moved on." A photo of Natalie Reid can be found here.
Back to the issue at-hand, according to Wikipedia, Eliot Laurence Spitzer (born June 10, 1959) is an American lawyer, politician and the current Governor of New York. Spitzer was elected governor in the November 2006 election. He is the former New York State Attorney General, a member of the Democratic Party, and is married to Silda Wall Spitzer, the founder and chair of Children for Children, a non-profit organization.
The NY Times is reporting that Eliot Spitzer abruptly canceled his scheduled public events for the day on March 10. He scheduled an announcement for 2:15 after inquiries from the Times.
Spitzer is now being linked to a recent arrest of four people in connection with an expensive prostitution ring.
The Emperor's Club is the name of the prositution ring Spitzer may be linked to and according to breaking reports, cell phone records may have been what tied him to the ring.
Spitzer is expected to resign and has been mentioned on a federal criminal complaint as client number nine. His name is not mentioned on the document. He is alleged to have used the services of the 'club' and is reportedly referred to as 'client number 9'.
According to the office of the United States attorney in Manhattan, Mark Brener, 62, of New Jersey, was the leader of the ring, but delegated day-to-day business responsibilities to Cecil Suwal, 23, also of New Jersey. The office said that Ms. Suwal controlled the bank accounts, took applications from prospective prostitutes and oversaw two booking agents, identified by the authorities as Temeka Rachelle Lewis, 32, of Brooklyn, and Tanya Hollander, 36, of Rhinebeck, N.Y. …
The ring's Web site showed pictures of the prostitutes, cropped so faces were not visible, and listed names like Sienna and Christine. The Web site, which was disabled shortly after the arrests were announced, ranked the prostitutes on a scale of one to seven "diamonds." A three-diamond woman, for example, could command a fee of $1,000 per hour. A seven-diamond woman cost more than $3,000 an hour.
For its most valued clients, the Emperor's Club offered membership in the elite "Icon Club," with hourly fees starting at $5,500, according to the federal complaint. The club also offered clients the opportunity to purchase direct access to a prostitute without having to contact the agency.
Spitzer has NOT been indicted.According to reports, the Governor took the podium for just seconds, apologizing to his family.
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.
