| New York governor resigns for involving in "prostitution ring" | |
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| Mar 14, 2008 14:03 | #11   |
 | It's difficult to say as to whether there was political motivation from the opposition party on this. However, most hidden personal secrets of politicians are not exposed until near election time for the benefit of the other party. Most of the time all of the "dirt" is hidden from the general public. It's a "you don't tell on me and I won't tell on you" secret pact among politicians(my opinion only). Whether the Mann Act is strongly enforced on the ordinary person is a good question, but it is always there to be used by law enforcement if necessary. Information on the Mann Act was obtained from an English dictionary and not url. |
| Mar 14, 2008 14:11 | #12 |
| By the way, all of Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) books are good "reads". At least from a Western perspective. |
| Mar 15, 2008 21:11 | #13 |
| Thanks Gary. I do agree with your opinion. Can you elaborate on Mann Act? I mean, do you know some background information for the " legislation" the Mann Act? As far as I am concern, legislation is a very strict process in USA. What factors led to the stipulation of Mann Act? Did human-trafficking (transfer of prostitutes) rage in 1900s-1910s US? I studied US history, but for that episode, the textbook touched little upon the topic concerned. Frankly speaking, I have never heard about the Mann Act before the report of Spitzer's scandal. Yea, I like Mark Twain's novels. Spitzer's scandal reminds me of Twain's novel " RUNNING FOR GOVERNOR". |
| Mar 15, 2008 23:49 | #14 |
| Deconstructing Spitzer's Spiraling End By AMY WESTFELDT and MICHAEL GORMLEY, Associated Press Writers NEW YORK - Eliot Spitzer finally had to tell someone his secret. It was last Sunday morning, and he had just spent five hours driving through a fierce storm to his family and his Fifth Avenue apartment. Until then, the law-and-order New York governor had not dropped a hint of the bombshell that was about to force him from office, not a strained word during public appearances Friday in Manhattan or glad-handing the media at a Saturday dinner in Washington. But shortly after entering his luxurious high-rise building a little after noon, Spitzer faced his wife of two decades, Silda, and he had to tell her: The "Mr. Clean" ex-prosecutor known for fighting corruption and taking the moral high ground was going to be outed as a client of a $5,500-an-hour prostitution ring. After a few hours alone, they broke the news to their three teenage daughters. A day later, the scandal went public. Two days after that, his career would be officially finished. ___ Spitzer's secrets began to unravel last year when banks tipped Internal Revenue Service agents to something strange going on with his accounts, authorities said. His money transfers were setting off all sorts of red flags. The case was referred last fall to federal prosecutors, who came to believe that Spitzer may have spent tens of thousands of dollars transferring money between accounts to pay for prostitutes, according to a law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case. The first public hint of Spitzer's downfall was dropped in a federal court in Manhattan on March 6. Four people were charged with running a prostitution and money-laundering ring called Emperors Club VIP. It was clear this was more than a run-of-the-mill prostitution bust. The prosecutors assigned to the case were headed by the U.S. attorney's public corruption unit, which generally looks at cases involving elected officials. None of the prostitution ring's clients was named, but the 47-page document detailed dealings with 10 of them — identified only as Clients 1 through 10. On pages 26 through 31, "Client 9" — who law enforcement officials say is Spitzer — was described as being caught on a wiretap Feb. 12 and Feb. 13, ordering a tryst with a prostitute at Washington's Renaissance Mayflower Hotel. "Yup. Same as in the past, no question about it," Client 9 told a booking agent when asked if he had sent cash to the same place as he did in the past, the court papers say. |
| Mar 15, 2008 23:51 | #15 |
| On Wall Street, where Spitzer built his reputation as a crusader against shady practices and overly generous pay, cheers erupted on the trading floor. Many financial industry types thought the "Sheriff of Wall Street" was a holier-than-thou bully who had overzealously ruined many careers. ___ By Tuesday, more details had seeped out. A law enforcement official said Spitzer was a repeat customer of the Emperors Club, paying up to $80,000 over an extended period. Serious criminal charges were possible: soliciting sex; violating the Mann Act, the 1910 federal law that makes it a crime to induce someone to cross state lines for immoral purposes; and arranging cash transactions to conceal their purpose. Newspapers plastered photos of Spitzer next to his sad-eyed wife across front pages under headlines like "Pay for Luv Gov," and "Eliot and the Call Girl." Late-night comedians devoted entire monologues to the scandal. Spitzer and family, holed up at the Fifth Avenue apartment, hardly ate or slept. He talked occasionally to his defense team that grew to include Ted Wells, a lawyer for I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff. Hirshman spent hours with prosecutors learning more about the possible case against Spitzer. Silda Wall Spitzer stopped telling her husband not to resign, aides said. One poll said 70 percent of the state wanted him to step down. ___ On Wednesday, national TV showed a macabre motorcade carrying the Spitzers back to midtown, to the same conference room he used for his announcement two days earlier. Reading a statement calmly, without his trademark rapid-fire bravado, Spitzer ended his career, opening the way for Lt. Gov. David Paterson to become the first black governor of New York. "Over the course of my public life I have insisted, I believe correctly, that people, regardless of their position or power, take responsibility for their conduct. I can and will ask no less of myself," Spitzer said. "For this reason I am resigning from the office of governor." Silda Wall Spitzer, dark circles under her eyes, stood a few inches farther from him than she had Monday, staring blankly into space. "It wasn't real to me until I saw her face," one close aide said. |
| Mar 16, 2008 04:54 | #16 |
| Lwet's be honest, he is not being attacked for what he did, but for being caught! But in a Christian country shouldn't he be able to confess his sins and all is forgivven? Looking at the photo back there, I can understand why he was 'tempted' !! |
| Mar 16, 2008 09:07 | #17 |
| Former high ranked Chinese communist party members, Chen Xi Tong (former mayor of Beijing) and Chen Liang Yu (former vice mayor of Shanghai) fell for the same charge- money laundering and being caught in prostitution ring -- and they are sitting in prison for the rest of their life. Spitzer, the son of a billionaire, is being investigated in if he’s touched public funds in doing such things. If he’s lucky enough, he still has his comfortable private life although his public life has been totally finished. Here is another detailed report: Toppling of the Luv Guv is ‘Wall Street revenge’ Eliot Spitzer’s downfall as governor last week may have roots in pursuit of wealthy bankers while state attorney-general Tony Allen-Mills in New York IN early 2004 Eliot Spitzer was at the height of his powers as the sheriff of Wall Street, the highflying New York prosecutor who had set his sights on the cosy corporate kleptocracy that was pocketing millions from insider deals while ordinary investors went bankrupt. His latest victim was Richard Grasso, the chief executive of the New York Stock Exchange, who had made headlines around the world by negotiating himself a $140m (£69m) retirement package that Spitzer alleged was illegal. Grasso claimed he had done nothing wrong and when it became clear he was prepared for a fight, Spitzer’s investigators went to work. What happened next helps to explain why much of Wall Street cheered – and the rest of America gasped – when Spitzer, who was later elected governor of New York state, became enmeshed in a call-girl scandal that cost him his political career last week. |
| Mar 16, 2008 09:10 | #18 |
| Not since the Monica Lewinsky affair have Americans enjoyed so mesmerising a spectacle of a powerful politician laid low by seemingly inexplicable lust. The ineffably sleazy case of the “Luv Guv” and his pneumatic tart has all the elements of tragedy as well as farce: a crushed wife standing by her man (at least temporarily); frightened teenaged daughters hidden from public view; a smirking brunette ready to cash in on her amorous adventures; and a parade of psychologists, therapists and – in Spitzer’s case – former hookers lining up to explain why men are so stupid. Yet in one key respect, Spitzer’s self-inflicted ordeal differs from the Monica extravaganza that stained Bill Clinton’s presidency as severely as it did her blue velvet dress. There are intriguing reports in New York that the man who was once dubbed Eliot Ness – after the “untouchable” FBI crime-buster – may have owed his fall at least in part to the bankers he once pursued with ruthless moral zeal. Was the governor a victim of Wall Street’s revenge? “Only one thing is certain – it’s an Eliot mess,” declared one former prosecutor. As the Grasso investigation unfolded in the summer of 2004, it became clear to reporters following the case that Spitzer’s team was interested in more than financial matters. Aides in the attorney-general’s office hinted that Grasso was having an affair with his secretary, Soo-Jee Lee; Grasso was also questioned about whether he had fathered an illegitimate child. Charles Gasparino, a television reporter who wrote a book on the Grasso case, claims he was told by a Spitzer adviser: “Everyone knows Grasso was boning Soo-Jee.” Grasso vehemently denied both allegations, but the message was clear to all of Wall Street: Spitzer would stop at nothing once he had taken on a case. He even described himself as “a f****** bulldozer”. While many outside Wall Street applauded Spitzer for tackling murky insider trading, his readiness to delve into his targets’ private lives magnified the hostility towards him. Last week there was no doubting the financial world’s glee at his fall. One of his victims, Kenneth Langone, the founder of Home Depot superstores, bluntly condemned Spitzer as a “hypocrite”, and added: “We all have our private hell. I hope his private hell is hotter than anyone else’s.” |
| Mar 16, 2008 09:11 | #19 |
| The Grasso case was scarcely the first time Spitzer had focused on sexual themes. After becoming attorney-general in 1999 he went after several prostitution rings, promising to “clean up neighbourhoods” and “prevent the abuse of young women”. In 2003 he filed charges against a New York travel agency, alleging that it organised “sex tours” to southeast Asia, where its operations led “to the systematic exploitation and suppression of young women”. Yet the praise he earned as “crusader of the year” (Time magazine), and “the enforcer” (Fortune magazine) evaporated the moment he was exposed last week as “client No 9” of the Emperors Club, a purportedly high-class escort service that was revealed in court papers to be a seedy and mostly shambolic front for a low-class prostitution network that stretched from Los Angeles to London. Far from providing “an exquisite array of carefully selected companions” who would make clients’ lives “more peaceful, balanced, beautiful and meaningful” – as the club’s website boasted – it often scrambled to find prostitutes not addled by drugs. The court papers, including extracts from wiretaps and reports from an undercover agent who infiltrated the club, reveal endless haggling between clients and pimps over payment and the quality of the girls provided. One girl was described as looking “like a butcher”; another was described as “clueless”. One girl left an assignation early because she had to pick up her children from school. A London-based girl did not want to provide sex because £500 an hour was “not a price I would ever consider of doing it for [sic]”. It has also become clear that although the club rated its girls according to their “education, sophistication and ambiance [sic]” – with a three-diamond girl fetching $1,000 an hour and a seven-diamond girl rating $3,100 an hour – the prostitutes were interchangeable and adopted different names to meet a client’s request. One girl had to be reminded that her name for a date was Samantha. |
| Mar 16, 2008 09:11 | #20 |
| According to the court papers, the Emperors Club nonetheless netted more than $1m over three years, of which $400,000 was kept by about 50 prostitutes. As comedians guffawed at the spectacle of Mr Clean caught up in such a sordid enterprise, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton suddenly found themselves pushed off the front pages by Ashley Alexandra Dupré, a curvaceous 22-year-old wannabe singer from New Jersey, who turned out to be the prostitute at the heart of the story. Using the name “Kristen”, she allegedly serviced the governor during a visit to Washington on February 13 this year. It is not yet known whether she knew his real identity at the time. The money she earned from that brief encounter pales by comparison with the sums now being offered to her. Dupré, whose real name is Ashley Youmans, was estimated yesterday to have made $200,000 in the last four days from internet downloads of two of her songs. Hustler magazine has offered her $1m to pose nude; a pornographic film studio has offered her another $1m to star in a film and a leading vodka company has reportedly offered her a six-figure sum to promote a new brand called “Vodka No 9”. Yet not even a hoard of saucy Dupré photographs unearthed by the New York Post on Friday could distract Wall Street lawyers and bankers from intriguing anomalies in the small print of the prosecution case against Spitzer, who announced his resignation as governor on Wednesday and will formally yield power to his deputy, David Paterson, tomorrow. Paterson will become both the first African-American and first partially blind governor of New York. While there was little sympathy, there were plenty of questions about how a handful of outwardly innocuous payments from his bank account came to trigger a federal investigation into his sexual activities. “The movement of the amounts of cash required to pay prostitutes, even high-priced prostitutes over a long period of time, does not commonly generate a full-scale investigation,” noted Alan Dershowitz, the Harvard law professor and former member of OJ Simpson’s legal team. Others on Wall Street were wondering whether Spitzer’s financial dealings had been singled out for scrutiny as revenge for his past prosecutions. |
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