I don't believe the Eleganza arrest got too much media scrutiny. It did have a thread on MERB, but it came to light MUCH later. I think Joe was running Eleganza while John was in jail so the agency was not actually shut down by LE. It continued for a while after the arrest- maybe months or even a year. At the time, it didn't cause too much of a ripple of concern because John apparently was recruiting some girl who was a minor, her parents found the messages or emails and went to the police. It was never clear if John knew the girl was a minor. This is what my memory is of what occurred - I could be wrong.I always love your historical view, EB. And I don’t even know if the Eleganza issues back in the day resulted in the type of hysteria with booking agencies we’re seeing on Merb now, right?
Last edited:





