When you first heard about NY Governor Elliott Spitzer's "involvement" with a prostitution ring, you knew there had to be a Miami connection, didn't ya?
Well, naturally, there is: according to a federal complaint filed by the U.S. Attorney's Office in New York, the Emperor's Club VIP website allegedly booked escorts for clients in The Big Apple, Los Angeles, London, Paris and, yes, Miami. It cost johns anywhere from $1,000 to $5,500 an hour for the services of the high priced call girls; one prospective client was quoted a price of $25,000 for an "extended prostitution date" in Europe.
There's no indication that Spitzer had any, uh, encounters, here in Miami. But the federal complaint does offer a window into the operations here in the Magic City.
On page 15 of the 55-page complaint, two of the four people in charge of the website (who were indicted last week) were caught on a wiretap talking about the availability of girls in Miami. Mark Brener, one of the website operators, commented that a Miami prostitute "looks like a butcher in my opinion" and lamented that his business partner "could not market the girl." The complaint does not list the ugly call girl's name.
On page 30 of the complaint, the feds detail how on Feb. 2, 2008, the wiretap picked up Emperor's Club organizers discussing the fact that there were so few call girls in Miami. Tania Hollander said that in Miami "there was not enough variety down there." Another call on the same day outlined a crisis of sorts: two New York clients were in Miami and wanted to hire "three girls, possibly four" for four hours each. But the service only had two girls available in Miami, and Emperor's Club organizers were worried they would lose the entire appointment.
After a flurry of text messages and prices at around 6:15 p.m., the clients agreed to hire two girls at a price of $3,600 if paying in cash or $4,140 if by credit card (kind of like a gas station. Cash discount). Three hours later, one of the alleged hookers (named "Dorene") paged Emperor's Club bosses to say that the clients had paid and they "were asleep."
Check out the full federal document here. --Tamara Lush
