New York Gov Eliot Spitzer Involved In Prostitution Ring

Breaking News

By David Hinz

New York Gov Elliot Spitzer has announced to his most senior aides that he has been involved in a Prostitution Ring, and will be making a public statement about it at 2:15 pm. (More than an hour late at this point)

Apparently the New York Times has just broken the story.

Mr. Spitzer, who was huddled with his top aides early this afternoon, had hours earlier abruptly canceled his scheduled public events for the day. He is set to make an announcement about 2:15 this afternoon at his Manhattan office.

Mr. Spitzer, a first-term Democrat who pledged to bring ethics reform and end the often seamy ways of Albany, is married with three children.

Just last week, federal prosecutors arrested four people in connection with an expensive prostitution operation. Administration officials would not say that this was the ring with which the governor had become involved.

According to Federal officials at the time of the arrest:

The ring, known as the Emperor’s Club V.I.P., had 50 prostitutes available for appointments in New York, Washington, Miami, London and Paris, according to a complaint unsealed on Thursday in Federal District Court in Manhattan. The appointments, made by telephone or through an online booking service, cost $1,000 to $5,500 an hour and could be paid for with cash, credit card, wire transfers or money orders, the complaint said.

--snip--

For its most valued clients, the Emperor’s Club offered membership in the elite “Icon Club,” with hourly fees starting at $5,500, according to the federal complaint. The club also offered clients the opportunity to purchase direct access to a prostitute without having to contact the agency.

As part of the investigation, federal agents worked with a woman who claimed to have worked for the Emperor’s Club as a prostitute in 2006, according to court papers. An undercover agent posed as a potential client and arranged appointments by phone and online.

As New York Attorney General Spitzer made a name for himself overseeing a task force that broke up several prostitution rings in New York. He ran for Governor on a platform of cleaning up corruption in Albany.

Eighteen men and women were arrested yesterday on charges that they helped run a sophisticated prostitution ring that masked its operation behind a series of corporate fronts and escort services with names like Gentlemen's Delight, Day Dreams and Personal Touch, officials said.

--snip--

''This was a sophisticated and lucrative operation with a multitiered management structure,'' the state attorney general, Eliot Spitzer, who oversees the task force, said in a statement. ''It was, however, nothing more than a prostitution ring, and now its owners and operators will be held accountable.''

Fox News is now reporting that a complaint has been filed in Federal Court of the Southern District of New York, and that his resignation, if not already tendered, will be shortly forthcoming. Fox News has announced that Spitzer was caught on a Federal wiretap arranging an evening with a prostitute, and was identified as "client number nine."

Upon his resignation, he will be succeeded by New York’s lieutenant governor, David A Paterson.

Elected to represent Harlem in the New York State Senate in 1985, David Paterson has demanded and achieved change at every level, not simply by what he stands for but by who he is.

In 2002, David Paterson was elected minority leader of the New York State Senate, the first non-white legislative leader in New York’s history. In 2004 in Boston, he became the first visually impaired person to address a Democratic National Convention. And 2006 saw Mr. Paterson make history again by being elected New York’s first African-American lieutenant governor.

As New York State Senate minority leader, David Paterson led the charge on several crucial issues for New York’s future, proposing legislation for a $1 billion voter-approved stem cell research initiative, demanding a statewide alternative energy strategy, insisting on strong action to fight against domestic violence, and serving as the primary champion for minority- and women-owned businesses in New York. As a result, Governor Spitzer asked Mr. Paterson to continue to lead New York State on these issues as lieutenant governor.

De-FREAKING-licious!