This Week In Prostitution

It's been a busy week for the world's oldest profession, so let's relax and get right to it:

Life Imitates Late Night Cinemax Movie: In the category of "why didn't I ever get a teacher like this in junior high?" a New Zealand educator was discovered moonlighting as an escort. Here's the real twist: She may actually keep her day job. Prostitution is legal in New Zealand and the woman is arguing that as long as she does it on her off hours and it doesn't interfere with her teaching, they don't have cause to fire her:

Teachers' Council director Peter Lind said the most important factor was whether the teacher's second job was affecting her teaching duties, "and there would have to be actual evidence".

She's not alone either:

Prostitutes Collective national co-ordinator Catherine Healy said there were several teachers who had second jobs as prostitutes.

Prostitutes -- A Leading Economic Indicator. Despite the carnage on Wall Street, a Columbia University sociologist says the meltdown is not likely to hurt Gotham's call-girl business. That makes sense. If ever there was a time those Wall Street guys needed to blow off some stress, this is it. Meanwhile globalization is bringing a better quality of escort to India, the land that gave us the Kama Sutra. Elsewhere around the world, there's crackdown going on in South Korea.

Atlas Shrugged, Then Humped: New York Magazine prints the epic account of a high class New York pimp who says he was inspired by Ayn Rand:

To me, the higher percentage of your life you are happy, the more successful you are,” says Jason, who came upon his philosophy while reading Ayn Rand. “I was really into the ‘Who is John Galt?’ Atlas Shrugged thing. I thought I could save the world if I could bring together the truly elite people, the most beautiful women with the most perfect bodies, best faces, and intelligence, and the elite men, the captains of industry, lawyers, and senators. This would bring about the most happiness, to the best people, who most deserved to be happy.”

The New York Post reports how his agency's staff included a young woman named "Kristen" who was a favorite of "Client No. 9" better known as Eliot Spitzer. "This girl could be our next superstar," one of the agency's top girls said. Be careful what you wish for. That's her in the picture above.

Duncanville, Texas, Knows How To Make Zoning Disputes Sexy: Despite the best efforts of the local prosecutor, including alleging the participants are involved with prostitution and money laundering, the Cherry Pit, a Texas swingers' club, defiantly continues to operate:

"We want it to shut down. We asked them. We told them they're illegal," City Manager Kent Cagle said. "We gave them lots of chances – they continued to operate."

The Cherry Pit's slogan now is "Fight For Your Right To Party."

H&R Block Is My Pimp: A New York attorney tried and failed to get the money he spent on hookers and related services written off on his taxes:

All told, Halby spent about $322,000 to satisfy his desires, according to court papers.

In 2002 alone, Halby deducted $111,364 for "therapeutic sex" and massages "to relieve osteoarthritis and enhance erectile function through frequent orgasm."
***
A former counsel for the Equitable Life Insurance Society of the United States, Halby represented himself through the proceedings. He meticulously recorded each liaison in a notebook titled "Tax Journal," including the cost and practitioners' first names.

Astonishingly, the IRS did not see it his way. The guy is appealing though. Maybe he can still get a happy ending.

It's Hard Out Here For a Pimp: Especially when your 'hos look like this.

Somewhere Eliot Spitzer Is Crying

The one on the left is Ashley Alexandra Dupre, the prostitute that cost Eliot Spitzer his gig as New York governor. The one on the right is her 46 year-old mother. So you can kinda see where Ashley's hotness comes from.

I have no point whatsoever to make with this picture. I just had to post it. You understand, I trust.

Via Egotastic, which has more pictures.

The Gift That Keeps on Giving

That would be the Eliot Spitzer-hooker story. There is a possibility you have already seen the girl in question naked. Yesterday Joe Francis of Girls Gone Wild revealed that Ashley Alexandra Dupre spent seven days hanging out with his film crew in 2003. According to the AP, Francis had been in talks with her to appear in an upcoming video when one of his people searched their film library and made the discovery:

"It'll save me a million bucks," Francis told The Associated Press on Tuesday. "It's kind of like finding a winning lottery ticket in the cushions of your couch."

Francis said at that point, his offer was off the table.

"We actually had been dealing with her rep," he said. "Our (offer) was the real deal. We just never made the connection."

***

According to a "Girls Gone Wild" press release, Dupre visited Miami in 2003 to celebrate her 18th birthday. After fighting with a friend and getting thrown out of her hotel, Dupre found a nearby "Girls Gone Wild" bus, the company said.

She signed legal papers and spent a full week on the bus, filming seven full-length tapes which included nudity and same-sex encounters, according to the company.

There does appear to be a hitch though. She may not have been eighteen when the tapes were made. Francis, being that class act that he is, will probably release it anyway:

Dupré's lawyer, Don A. Buchwald, immediately took steps to inform Francis that the New Jersey native, her birthday being April 30, 1985, was only 17 when the footage was taken.

But Francis tells E! News he's going ahead with the release anyway, albeit not for at least a few days while his lawyers debate the repercussions.

"We are getting pressure from her lawyer," Francis said at his Santa Monica, Calif., office Wednesday. "As soon as we withdrew the million dollar offer—he is just mad because her price has dropped. Even if she was only 17, we could still release it. There was no sexual contact. There's only nudity."

So, look for pictures of Dupree to start appearing as spam in in your inbox in 3 ... 2 ... 1 ...

Profitable Mistake

How many of you would like to make a $5,000/hr mistake?

Now that her alleged involvement with Emperors Club V.I.P. has been exposed, "she's just trying to work through it," says high school friend Joe Pawlak, who remains in touch with Ashley. "We're just trying to keep her head up and keep her strong, have her look at this as a positive. People make mistakes. All you can do is try to go on, grow from the experience."

Yeah, move on. I'll translate for you -- Move on: Capitalize on your fast, and probably short-lived fame with a few high-priced media interviews and a shady music deal or two.

I'm not sure I get all this hand-wringing over her decision to sell her body and sexual talents for what would certainly be considered more than fair market price. As a society we tend to look up to politicians like say Barack Obama, who make a living out of selling more than just their bodies to the highest paying special interest group, doing damage not only to their souls, but to our pocketbooks and freedoms. I know which whore I respect more.

Spitzer To Resign

News media is reporting that Spitzer will resign any moment now. No word yet on whether he will be attending rehab for stupidity. How dumb can one politician be? A politician who was a prosecutor no less. The phone calls, all those text messages and e-mails...Was he thinking at all? He must have been thinking somewhat; he didn't want to use his credit card for the transaction, and he paid extra cash so that he didn't have to go through the payment process again. Still though, all that communication on tape and paper. So stupid and so unnecessary.

My tip to Spitzer if he ever finds himself in the halls of power again: Drive around a run-downed section of a city really slow. After that, it's pretty simple and self-explanatory. And cheap. You won't be spending $80,000 on sex if you operate that way. Health insurance is a must if you're getting your hookers that way, but it's still a bargain. As I always say -- Street walkers are the Wal-Marts of prostitution.

Client #9 Was a Bully

My view of Eliot before this scandal was that he was a major aggressive asshole. He didn't only seek to prosecute individuals, he seeked to ruin them. He shook down Wall Street and never took a case to court and never won a single case in court but exacted fees so the firms could avoid indictment. He famously told the former head of highly respected Goldman Sachs, who dared to write an op-ed opposing his policies,

"I will be coming after you. You will pay the price. This is only the beginning and you will pay dearly for what you have done. You will wish you had never written that letter,"

This guy is a bad guy and I have total schadenfreude in his demise. His interference in capital markets firms, and his requirement that they separate investment banking from research has killed the US IPO market. Remember when the US had an IPO market? Well we don't anymore, thanks to Spitzer. The lack of an IPO market has significantly devalued most private companies, leading to a massive loss of wealth.

Markets Up

This morning's Spitzer Effect on Wall Street?

And more news on TtP's favorite John: Turns out Spitzer was the target of the federal investigation, because of suspicious movements of money that looked like he was hiding bribe money. I'd say on a scale of bad to good news for E Dawg, this is pretty fucking bad news. Also, The Smoking Gun has more hooker documents up.

More Spitzer Links

The Fix has a decent, take-it-for-what-its-worth run down of the political implications of this, where I learn that the Lieutenant Governor of New York -- who would take over if Spitzer resigned -- is a legally blind black man. Which would have to be some sort of milestone in regards to governors, as well as a major coup for the blind African-American community years after the not-too recent exit of Ray Charles from the national stage.

Also, from this WCBS news blurb I learn that escort service he was allegedly using was way out of my price range. By about $5,540/hour:

[...]the high-profile "Emperors Club VIP," which was accused last week of offering prostitutes to wealthy clients, topping out at $5,500 an hour. Four people were arrested in the ring that was linked to cities in the U.S. as well as in Europe.”

And, of course, The Smoking Gun has all the documentation (mostly in relation to the Emperors Club), including transcripts, which will require a lot of whisky and time for me to go through it all tonight.

We've also got our Eliot Spitzer tag up, so be sure to give it a click if you landed on this page from google or another link.

Eliot Spitzer Linked to Prostitution Ring

Oh this is rich. The New York governor, who used scorched Earth tactics as New York attorney general to terrorize Wall Street firms (he never won a case in court, they all settled out of fear) for his own political gains and to burnish his holy image, has been linked to a NY prostitution ring. The evidence against him must be pretty damning, as he has not tried to deny the allegations and is already talking about patching up his relations with his family.

In a short statement this afternoon, the Democratic governor apologized to his family and to the public but did not elaborate on his actions.

"I violated my obligation to my family and my own sense of right and wrong," he said in a one-minute statement with his wife by his side. "I must now dedicate time to regain the trust of my family

This is good news in a market that has mostly bad news. Spitzer revived the obscure Martin Act (a NY law) to circumvent federal banking law and harass companies that do business in New York so that he could build a crusader platform to win higher office. He was a nightmare thorn in the side to legitimate financial companies. I have glorious schadenfreude about this development.

Actual Breaking News: NY Gov. Spitzer Likes Him Some Hookers

I hated the guy until I read this:

NEW YORK - The New York Times is reporting that Gov. Eliot Spitzer has told senior advisers that he had been involved in a prostitution ring.

Spitzer is scheduled to make an announcement Monday afternoon. Spitzer officials wouldn't immediately comment on the story. Spitzer, 48, is married and has three daughters.

AP story here. Thanks to my Dad for the early heads-up on the story.

UPDATE: More from the NYT story:

ALBANY - Gov. Eliot Spitzer has been caught on a federal wiretap arranging to meet with a high-priced prostitute at a Washington hotel last month, according to a person briefed on the federal investigation.

The wiretap recording, made during an investigation of a prostitution ring called Emperors Club VIP, captured a man identified as Client 9 on a telephone call confirming plans to have a woman travel from New York to Washington, where he had reserved a room. The person briefed on the case identified Mr. Spitzer as Client 9.

I'm guessing this is where he found himself in some relatively serious trouble, but if we have any readers who are lawyer types that would like to elaborate on the details of this kind of case, please do.

Federal prosecutors rarely charge clients in prostitution cases, which are generally seen as state crimes. But the Mann Act, passed by Congress in 1910 to address prostitution, human trafficking and what was viewed at the time as immorality in general, makes it a crime to transport someone between states for the purpose of prostitution. The four defendants charged in the case unsealed last week were all charged with that crime, along with several others.

And of course, how could we forget to mention this from Spitzer's not-too-long-ago past:

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.”

I feel for anyone who gets popped for the crime of paying to get his dick wet. Really, it's a shame in most cases...this just doesn't happen to be one of them.

UPDATE 2: Sorry guys but this is a pretty big story, and I'm enthralled by it, so I'm going to keep posting worthless re-hashes of what I see on cable news and read at political blogs...

Looks like Spitzer will may be indicted based on this complaint filed in the Southern District of New York, and has been identified as "Client 9". The full complaint has been posted by the NYT here. But I pulled this interesting bit from it where the hooker "Kristin" talks to the home offices for the service.

LEWIS continued that from what she had been told "he" (believed to be a reference to Client-9) "would ask you to do things that, like, you might not think were safe - you know - I mean that . . . very basic things. . . . "Kristen" responded: "I have a way of dealing with that . . . I'd be like listen dude, you really want the sex? . . . You know what I mean." Near the end of the call, LEWIS and "Kristen" discussed "Kristen's" departure via Amtrak, the room that Client-9 had provided for "Kristen," and "Kristen's" share of the cash that Client-9 had provided to her. (Call 9750R).

Oh God this is too good...Does Spitzer have an asphyxiation fetish? Not safe...Could be not safe in a non-hygienic way, feces or the like, (who doesn't enjoy a good log on the chest?) but I'm guessing asphyxiation, etc. If I had to make a wild guess I'd say he isn't the dominant. But maybe he is.

BTW, I'm waiting for my call Fox, CNN, MSNBC. I'm there to do on-the-spot, studio analysis on this breaking story. Perhaps I can clear up any questions that might result from sexual information that leaks out. I'm great with fetishes. I'm even pretty good at figuring out where they come from. Where's my agent...? I need air time! Pronto!