NY Gov Spitzer linked to Prostitution Ring

[EagerBeaver]

How do u explain away that much to a significant other, especially when u have kids.

Spitzer's wife eventually divorced (and raked) him, but he was a very wealthy man even before he became Governor, and did not have to explain where excess disposable income was going. I am pretty sure his kids did not starve and went to great schools, even with the $80K - 120K a year or so he spent on SPs.

 

[The Nature Boy]

Spitzer's wife eventually divorced (and raked) him, but he was a very wealthy man even before he became Governor, and did not have to explain where excess disposable income was going. I am pretty sure his kids did not starve and went to great schools, even with the $80K - 120K a year or so he spent on SPs.

EB what was Emperors club like? Could u see the faces of the Providers? In Europe with some of the agencies who charge €1000/hour you can ask for pictures and if you book as a regular you get a pass word for a secure website. Imagine paying $1500/hour and not being able to see the face of the provider?

 

[EagerBeaver]

EB what was Emperors club like?

From what I recall, no.

 

[CaptRenault]

Spitzer never went after the commercial sex industry. His detractors dug up one case that was against a travel/tourism company that strongly hinted it could help a traveler find underaged women in Asia. None of us have a problem with the state attorney general or state executive branch pursuing action against such a company...

Patron, according to an article in Reason about Spitzer's prosecution of a sex tourism company and its owners, there was no evidence that the case involved underage girls. But making such a charge, especially when it involves girls in a foreign country, stirs up the public's emotions about a topic. It's a common tactic that has been used often in the U.S. and in Montreal. It's just the kind of tactic that an ambitious guy like Spitzer would use to increase his popularity and advance his career.

So he wasn't a rabid anti-sex crusader but it was hypocritical of him to prosecute a prostitution case and then get caught himself in a prostitution case.

Spitzer's Hypocrisy: Worse Than You Think

The disgraced New York governor's anti-prostitution moralizing extended beyond U.S. borders.

reason.com

..the governor's hypocrisy—and his belief that there is one set of laws for the little people and another set for Great Men like himself—is obvious. As attorney general and leader of the state's organized crime task force, Spitzer spearheaded the prosecution of two alleged prostitution rings, according to the Times.

But Spitzer's moralistic crusade against paid sex (by non-Spitzers, at least) wasn't confined to New York or even the United States of America. As far as Spitzer is concerned, he has the right to prevent people from exchanging cash for cuddles anywhere in the world.

Big Apple Oriental Tours was a Queens-based travel agency with an angle: it marketed vacations for men to destinations such as Angeles City, Philippines, a jurisdiction in which adult prostitution is nominally illegal but is condoned and regulated by the government because of the money it brings in. The militant feminist group Equality Now had been agitating for prosecution of Big Apple Oriental Tours since at least 1996, but had never found a prosecutor willing to take the case. (Big Apple Oriental Tours has never been linked to child prostitution, which would be another matter entirely.)

In 2003, attorney general Spitzer, with one eye on the feminist vote and the other on the governor's mansion, commenced a campaign of legal harassment against the tour company, obtaining a civil injunction prohibiting the company from advertising, which effectively put it out of business, according to owner Norman Barabash.

Spitzer then brought criminal proceedings against Barabash and co-owner Douglas Allen that continue to this day. The first indictment was dismissed because prosecutors improperly relied upon a hearsay tape recording. The second indictment was dismissed because the facts alleged did not constitute a felony, leaving only a misdemeanor charge of promoting prostitution in the fourth degree, a crime so penny-ante it applies to doormen or bouncers. The third indictment was dismissed on jurisdictional grounds, according to Barabash, and is currently before the appellate court. After all that harassment, there's been no trial.

While Spitzer's crusade may seem overzealous and, based on what we now know, disturbingly Freudian, his attempt to apply domestic laws to conduct outside the country isn't that far outside the current legal mainstream...

 

[CaptRenault]

Under the heading of "Where are they now?" here's a 2018 article from the NY Post about the main players in the story.

Where are the Spitzer scandal figures now?

Ashley Dupre The ex-call girl, now 32, is a stay-at-home mom, posting sweet pictures of her three young children on Twitter. In 2013, she eloped to Paris with her construction magnate fiance, Thoma…

nypost.com

Ashley Dupré

Spitzer's wife

The Harvard-trained lawyer, 60, continues to live in the sprawling Fifth Avenue apartment she once shared with Eliot Spitzer and their three daughters. She is now a principal in a private equity firm that specializes in investing in environmental technologies, and serves on the boards of several charities.

In 2015, she backed Hillary Clinton for president, helping the candidate raise money and serving as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 2016.

After standing grimly at her husband’s side as the “Love Gov” scandal unfolded in 2008, the North Carolina native filed for divorce in late 2013. She received a $7.5 million payout, $240,000 a year in maintenance payments for life, and use of the apartment.

Curiously, three years after filing for divorce, she sought a legal name change to include Spitzer as part of her last name.

 

[The Nature Boy]

Under the heading of "Where are they now?" here's a 2018 article from the NY Post about the main players in the story.

Where are the Spitzer scandal figures now?

Ashley Dupre The ex-call girl, now 32, is a stay-at-home mom, posting sweet pictures of her three young children on Twitter. In 2013, she eloped to Paris with her construction magnate fiance, Thoma…

nypost.com

Ashley Dupré

View attachment 10438

That sure is a lucky kid

 

[EagerBeaver]

I started watching the Client 9 movie last night but did not finish it. The first part of the movie is heavily focused on Spitzer's exploits bulldozing white collar crimes in the financial industry in NYC due to SEC inaction. As CR indicates, it is well done. By the way, the actress who plays escort "Angelina" is Wrenn Schmidt. This was her very first movie role at age 27. She subsequently has had a very accomplished acting career including a role in Boardwalk Empire:

Wrenn Schmidt - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I really like the artist who becomes a key operative in the escort agency (Hulbert Waldroup), and ends up serving 8 months in jail. Hulbert has now gone back to his full time job as an artist. He has a fascinating painting of Mick Jagger, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley, and John Lennon. Not sure why he chose that collection of 4 talented musicians, but they are all legends and perhaps inspirational to Hulbert:

Hulbert Waldroup New York Artist Painter - Hulbert Waldroup

The themes and styles that collide in Waldroup’s art pieces... I’ve always been drawn to high-intensity messages and colors in my paintings. Solid strokes and shapes dance and flirt to translate themselves into pop-culture, social and political messages. When those elements melt in my...

www.hulbertwaldroup.com

 

[jmioffe]

I think the most interesting part of this story is who Spitzer's gal managed to get married to.

Thomas (TJ) Earle - Google Zoeken

www.google.com

Tall, strapping, good-looking construction magnate, this guy could probably land anyone he wanted.

Not to say there's anything wrong with sex work, but for many guys with that much to offer, Dupree's background would be a huge strike against her. In some respects, she's done better than "reputable" women like Wendi Deng or Salma Hayek with some wrinkly old billionaire.

Maybe it was a match made in heaven. Or she had some amazing skills.

 

[EagerBeaver]

The 2010 documentary about Eliot Spitzer is now available free (for subscribers) on Amazon Prime. I watched it and thought it was excellent. I even came away from it thinking that some of the charges he brought against Wall Street bankers were a good idea.​

The movie, which is excellent, strongly suggests that the SAR that flagged Spitzer to federal authorities was not a coincidence and that either Ken Langone, Hank Greenberg or Roger Stone was behind the feds investigating Spitzer and producing his downfall. The makers of the film try to make the case that the investigation of the Emperor's Club essentially targeted Spitzer and everyone else who went down was just collateral damage. Langone, Greenberg and Stone are all extensively interviewed in the movie and they make statements potentially consistent with complicity with the feds in bringing down Spitz.

The movie can be summarized pithily as follows: when you swim with sharks, you can get bit.