High-End Prostitution Ring Broken, Police Say; 4 Arrested
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."
RELATED: The Emperors Club Web Site
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.
