September 5th, 2009

NEW YORK – The ladies of New York have hit back at high-priced Eliot Spitzer escort Ashley Dupre’s claim that the average NY woman is no better than a prostitute as she strives to marry a wealthy man.

Ashley Dupre

Dupre, 24, had posted an online diatribe on September 2 on rap impresario Russell Simmons’ Global Grind Web site, stating that she has seen a lot of women toy with men, go on dates to get good food, beg for clothes and ask for rent money. “I don’t agree with what she said-I would totally never do anything like that,” the New York Post quoted a disgusted Justyna Cichon, 29, of Long Island City as saying.

“She did it, [and] she thinks that every woman is like that.

“When she says that all women are that way, I’m included. So I think that’s offensive,” she stated.

Another lady, who was outraged by Dupre’s statement, was Lena Herdoon, a 21-year-old student from SoHo.

“What she said about all women isn’t true. I think it’s offensive. In today’s society, you shouldn’t have to put yourself out there to get ahead,” Herdoon said.

“It’s disheartening she feels this way about women. When she says that women have to do that to get ahead, I completely disagree. As a woman, you have to have self-respect,” she added.

But while some city women were incensed, others agreed that there are some women who go about doing exactly what Dupre said.

“I agree. There are a lot of women like her. It’s expensive to live here,” Jasmin, a 20-year-old Queens woman, said.

Kristen, 24, of Manhattan, who asked her last name not be used, said she was on the same page as Dupre.

“It’s just as easy to fall in love with a rich man as a poor man, so why would you go with the poor guy?” she said.

“This city is filled with very wealthy men, and it’s not difficult to do. It’s a certain type of girl who will do that. There are girls who will play that game. [That's why] you’ve got those services like Sugardaddy.com,” she added.

Autumn, 29, a Manhattan woman who also asked to remain anonymous, said Dupre exposed one of the city’s ugly truths.

“It’s reality in New York. It’s true. I’d like to say it’s not, but it is,” she said.

“There is many a story: When you move to the city, you meet rich, 40-year-old guys who buy you drinks and offer to put you up in a hotel room.

“They are not giving you direct cash, but you’re getting things for sleeping with them. You’re getting something you want, and he is getting someone he wants,” she added.

Meanwhile, Dupre spoke out on September 4 on Twitter thanking supporters and saying that she was only speaking the “ugly truth”.

“I am only fighting to be who I really am,” she tweeted. (ANI)

Md. Firefighter Among Many Charged

By Dan Morse
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, August 8, 2009

The arrest of a longtime Montgomery County firefighter on charges of soliciting sex from a minor was part of a broader online sting operation that netted at least 17 men from a variety of backgrounds, one of whom lives as far away as Ohio, Montgomery County police said Friday.

Police said the sting, which goes back to March, worked this way: Officers placed an advertisement on Craigslist purporting to offer sex. Men who responded were directed to MySpace, where they were told the woman was 16 years old. Police said the men continued their inquiries even after being told the age.

An attorney for four of the men said the operation has been aggressive and unfair because the men were lured with a photograph of an adult-looking woman. “They’re attacking people looking for normal sex, and they’re destroying lives,” said the attorney, Rebecca Nitkin.

In some cases, her clients didn’t realize they were communicating with a purported minor, Nitkin said. Those who did realize her age did not know it is illegal to arrange online for sex with a 16-year-old or thought the claim that she was a teenager was more of a “marketing” tool than reality, Nitkin said.

A police spokesman said the initial Craigslist site might not have disclosed the age. “There’s no 16-year-old area on Craigslist,” Lt. Paul Starks said.

In ensuing exchanges, either by e-mail or text messages, the officers clearly presented themselves as underage, police said.

The sting eventually apprehended men ranging in age from about 17 to 60, Starks said.

One of those charged was Lt. Wayne A. Mothershead, a Montgomery firefighter for more than 20 years. Police said he initiated contact at a Craigslist site and was referred by police to a MySpace page that indicated that the person was 16 years old.

Nitkin, who represents the firefighter, said there is insufficient evidence to prove the charges.

According to charging documents, Mothershead was taken into custody and admitted to police that he communicated “with a subject he believed to be a 16-year-old female for the purpose of prostitution.”

Nitkin said that of her three other clients, one pleaded guilty to marijuana charges and the soliciting charges were dropped. She said the other two have entered pleas of soliciting prostitution from an adult and await sentencing.

At her office Friday, Nitkin allowed one client to speak to a reporter on the condition that his name not be disclosed. The client, an engineer, said that after his initial Craigslist query, he learned that the subject of his interest claimed to be 16. “First I thought, ‘No good,’ ” he said.

Then he said he considered several things, among them that the person had to be older to have a credit card to set up an online presence, and concluded she was older.

By Ashley Powers

November 4, 2008

Reporting from Wells, Nev. — The women at Donna’s Ranch are crowded around the kitchen table on a warm summer night, dining on stir fry, tugging at thigh-high dresses, griping about depleted bank accounts. At this northeastern Nevada bordello, which marks a gravel road’s end, they woo grizzled truckers and weary travelers for a single reason: money.

Lately, the women don’t go home with much.

Amy, 58, once bought a $32,000 Toyota Tacoma in cash; now her $1,200 mortgage saps her dwindling pay. Some weeks, she could make more flipping burgers than flirting under a made-up name. Marisol’s daughters think she works at a resort; she struggles to keep up the ruse. It now takes months, not weeks, to bring $5,000 back to Southern California.

“Marisol,” one of her regulars tells her, “it costs me in gas what it takes for me to spend a half-hour with you.”

Tonight, she tries lingering at the dimly lighted bar that’s decorated with red Christmas lights and smells of hot dogs and beans. Wearing a shimmering strapless top, Marisol sips cheap champagne and tries to seduce travelers, some with thick guts and most with thin wallets. After 20 minutes, she gives up.

Signs of the economic free fall have cropped up in many of Nevada’s 25 or so legal brothels. The Mustang Ranch, for example, has a steady stream of customers, but the number of women vying for work has soared. Even a 74-year-old applied. This summer, the Shady Lady gave $50 gas cards to those who spent $300. The Moonlite Bunny Ranch offered extras to customers paying with their economic stimulus checks.

Here, 180 miles west of Salt Lake City, near the junction of Interstate 80 and Highway 93, Donna’s Ranch has seen its business plummet nearly 20%. More than three-quarters of its customers are long-haul truckers, and high fuel and food prices have drained them of “play money,” owner Geoff Arnold says. That cuts into pay for his 10-member staff and the “working girls.”

Marisol, 49, retreats to the kitchen, a homey nook with lemon-yellow walls and a plate of scones that another woman whipped up. Amy is staring at the Lazy Susan, snuffing out a Misty cigarette. “There are two guys,” Marisol says, her voice thick with frustration. “They want to relax and drink a beer and think about it.”

She plops into a chair, pushes open blue curtains and scans a parking lot, bathed in yellow and pink by the neon advertising DONNA’S. Her face puckers. It’s empty.

The brothel’s woes start with the barflies, who are hoarding what little money they’ve saved. Tonight, two of them slouch in their stools and bemoan the economic slump, their voices rising to near shouts.

“The government’s got to do something,” says Dean Hargis, a tattooed trucker who calls Springfield, Mo., home. “Everybody who eats or drinks anything, they’re going to hurt. It affects what I eat, it affects what motel I stay in, it affects what dog food I buy.”

David Zett, a long-hauler from Loretta, Wis., gulps a Miller Genuine Draft and bashes oil companies: “They’ve got you over a barrel and can do whatever they want to you, and they don’t even kiss you when they’re done.”

“Just like this place,” Hargis says.

“No,” Zett says. “They kiss you.”

The bartender, Gayle Salinas, shakes her head. She’s pinching pennies too. She used to take home $50 in tips at the end of most shifts. Now she might pocket $12. Her pay is linked to how much the prostitutes make — and customers aren’t choosing their most expensive offerings.

The women negotiate the price of “parties” and their duration, which the bartender tracks using kitchen timers. Ten to 15 minutes costs at least $100. Customers once regularly paid thousands of dollars for extras listed on a hot-pink “menu” — but these days, for example, few men desire the hot tub or mirrored fantasy room.

Earlier that night, Marisol had guided Rob Siddoway, a gangly, pony-tailed trucker from Tooele, Utah, into the fantasy room. This was his first brothel trip in a year; he used to stop by every few months. “See how comfortable you can get?” Marisol coos. She points to a red-blanketed, circular bed and a pillow stitched with the word LOVE.

“You can see yourself in the mirror,” she says. He looks instead at her: olive skin, substantial curves, dark, tired eyes. He passes on buying an expensive party. Marisol isn’t surprised. She had played a fortune-telling card game that afternoon; it showed the future would bring little cash.

About a dozen years ago, Arnold plunked down more than $1 million for Donna’s Ranch. He’s a certified public accountant in Boise, Idaho, and had combed the books of several brothels; buying one seemed business-savvy. He owns another in Battle Mountain, Nev.

“They’re easy to run,” says Arnold, president of the state brothel association. “If you keep the girls happy, you’re done. If the girls are happy, then the guys are happy. I can’t think of any other business as good as a brothel, except for a doctor’s office — they’re equally profitable.”

Billed as the West’s oldest continuously operating bordello, Donna’s Ranch greets drivers with a sign that depicts a cowboy-hatted, buxom brunet preening atop a truck bed. The red-roofed, single-story brothel is plagued with leaks; a recent earthquake cracked its beige exterior. The women’s rooms are small. Most have a double bed, a television and DVD player, and tables with assorted lotions, sex toys and toiletries. There’s also a handmade sign that reminds customers: Tips are appreciated.

From 2006 to 2007, the brothel’s revenue climbed 7.6%, to about $1 million. This year, Arnold expects to make about $200,000 less. Closing that gap is tricky: Brothel advertising is legal, but billboards and bus ads risk upsetting neighbors. So the bordello sponsors a soccer team in Boise and a rodeo in Wells. It also bought lights for the high school football field and gave local motels pens, which boast that Donna’s is “Your Biggest Bang for the Buck.”

Arnold’s staff clips coupons to slash the $3,300 monthly grocery bill. He brainstorms other cost-cutting measures. He owns 33 acres in Wells — enough room, by his calculation, for five to 10 cows that could feed his workers.

“That’s what we’ve come to,” he says, chuckling at the idea. “Donna’s Ranch could be a real ranch.”

In the kitchen, Amy alternately smooths her black, rhinestone-trimmed mini-dress and reddened hair that falls to her waist. She appears about a decade younger than she is, with a trim figure, high cheekbones and a tendency to giggle.

She waits for the CB radio to crackle. During even-numbered hours, the women take turns sweet-talking truckers. (They cede the odd-numbered hours to Bella’s, the other brothel in this city of 1,300 people.) The tactic, which lures more than a third of Donna’s customers, is more vital now that business is slumping.

Amy is perched on a chair, legs crossed, a wedge heel dangling off French-manicured toes. At last, a trucker grunts through the airwaves: “Where you girls at?” Amy leans toward a microphone and urges him to pull off at Exit 352.

“Are you the Asian girl?” he asks.

“Bingo!” she says.

Amy has worked in brothels, on and off, for eight years. She needed cash to get her own place, but also blames “a broken heart.” Her grown son is the only person who’s figured out her line of work, something she admits with downcast eyes.

She typically does three-week stints, but starts wanting to go home to Utah after two. She used to pocket $6,000 each time — even after splitting money with the house and covering room and board, condoms, licenses and legally required medical tests. But what she wistfully terms the good old days — when she could see up to 13 men a day and afford to turn down customers — are gone.

Tonight, the bartender counts four brothel customers. Maybe, Salinas says, things will pick up. Some car buffs are in Wells for a show. “I don’t know,” Amy says. “They bring their wives.” The other women — who likewise use pseudonyms and hide their jobs from their children and friends — are discouraged too.

Tori, a blond veteran with a no-nonsense manner — she waves off questions about her age — commutes from the Reno area with an array of wigs and sequined get-ups. In the early ’90s, she was laid off from a Southern California real estate office; she eventually turned to the brothel circuit: winters in southern Nevada, summers up north. She wants to work in auto sales but makes do at Donna’s.

“Some other places want you to work 24 hours,” she says. “They don’t want you to sleep.”

Danielle, younger and more reserved than the other women, is passing time solving word puzzles. She is milky-skinned with a long brown ponytail. She ended up here after a divorce. She periodically flies to South Carolina — ticket prices have soared — and tries to return with at least $2,000. But most customers have been trying to bargain down their prices. Some are paying with credit cards — an indication they don’t have as much cash. (The receipts say Apache Wells Development Co., not Donna’s Ranch.)

“Whatever they have,” Amy says, “you have to take it.”

Earlier, when she was parrying with the trucker, Amy curled up at a folding table just big enough for a radio and mike, a water bottle, a gray stuffed kitten, an ashtray and a dry erase board listing selling points:

Free beer. Free chili. Free shower. SOUVENIRS.

“I’m going to bed,” the trucker tells her.

“Maybe come here and have a happy ending?” she purrs.

“Tell me what a happy ending is.”

“I can’t talk about it over the radio.”

Silence.

Thanks, the trucker says. Not tonight.

By Abigail Goldman
Sun, Dec 14, 2008 (2 a.m.)

The pleasure of Stacie’s company used to cost $450 an hour, but no longer. Her clients were capped at 35 and older; today she’s taking almost anyone. Sex acts once off the menu are suddenly back on — recession specials, served with a side of shrugging compromise.

If she doesn’t do more for less, Stacie says, another prostitute will. And her weekly income is still down by half.

The illegal prostitution economy in Clark County is a multimillion-dollar beast fed by a black market so diverse that it’s impossible to pin down. On one hand, midrange prostitutes like Stacie say they’re being crippled by the economy. On the other, high-end call girls claim they’re not feeling much pain. And the women charging the least reportedly are making the most these days — counterintuitive in an industry where bargains come with risks.

Consider the work of sociologist Sudhir Venkatesh, who surveyed hundreds of high-end prostitutes in New York and discovered that 40 percent of “trades” in the sex economy never went beyond light petting or kissing.

In Las Vegas, the economy’s effect on call girls is even more complicated: The bulk of clients — or johns — here are from out of town, tourists or businessmen who spend days in convention halls and nights in hotel rooms with to-your-door entertainment. These men are bread and butter for local prostitutes, provided the clients come to town. And anybody in the hospitality industry — here that illicitly includes call girls too — can agree that fewer men are flying in, with less money to spend.

Meanwhile, more women reportedly are getting into the business, which creates a classic supply and demand squeeze. An escort agency owner told the Sun he’s getting about 40 interested applicants every day, the majority of whom are women running from the wreckage of lost finance jobs.

Now fold another factor into that dynamic: When the economy is bad, when people feel their mortgages closing in, they seek comfort: alcohol, cigarettes, gambling, pornography and perhaps prostitution.

When all these elements collide in the nebulous economy of escorting, a trend emerges: The Clark County call girl economy has a tipping point — about $650.

In Vegas, prostitutes who charge between $600 and $700 are being hit the hardest. The women (and the smaller number of men in the business) who charge in the $200 to $300 range are doing the same business as before, if not better, according to Susan Lopez, founder of the Sin City Alternative Professionals’ Association for local sex workers. And women who charge thousands of dollars for multi-hour appointments tell Lopez, and the Sun, that they’re not really being affected at all.

Although this is no scientific study — and people should be wary of any numbers that claim to definitively capture any element of the sex-for-pay market — the tipping point does make sense: People tightening their belts are downgrading to cheaper service; people who don’t need to tighten their belts aren’t really doing it at all. If you can buy a Bentley today, the logic goes, you’re probably going to be able to buy one tomorrow.

Or maybe you’ll buy an evening with Rebecca. She’s been a call girl in Las Vegas for several years, after leaving a job in finance behind. Winters are always slow, she says, but overall, the money is good. How good? Her best month was $32,000. An average month is more like $15,000.

“I get a lot of doctors and lawyers and they don’t even blink,” she said. “By January or February I’m fully expecting to raise my rates.”

Her rates, for now, are $2,000 to start. Overnights cost $4,000. Travel and multiple-day excursions are negotiable.

If you don’t believe people would pay that kind of money, consider the case of former New York Gov. Elliot Spitzer, who authorities allege spent $80,000 on escorts in one year, despite having a lot more to lose than the cash.

Call girls difficult to count

Calculating Las Vegas’ call girl economy is, at best, a guessing game. Academics have estimated there are anywhere from 3,000 to 3,500 indoor working prostitutes in Las Vegas at any given time. Imagine, however, that only a fraction of them, say, 1,000, are working year-round. Now imagine that each sees only one client a day, and charges only $300. You still have an annual economy of $109.5 million. Imagine the number of working girls is even smaller — 500 prostitutes charging $250 a day. That’s still more than $45 million a year.

Trace our economy backward from bust to boom and you’ll hit the glory days that helped create the world of high-cost call girls. A glut of new millionaires, paired with a sex industry that seamlessly got online and off the streets, gave birth to agencies such as the Emperors Club — Spitzer’s alleged company of choice, where the cheapest dates still commanded $1,000 an hour.

Writing about this subject, The Wall Street Journal cited a study conducted by wealth research firm Prince & Associates, which surveyed 661 people rich enough to own private jets and found 34 percent of the men and 20 percent of the women had paid for sex. Now extend that group to people who are rich enough to own, say, a beach house, or a Porsche, or their own firm — and you get an idea of just how big the market could be.

Blogging on The Economist Web site, economist Allison Schrager notes that the prostitution market is countercyclical; less attractive and cheaper prostitutes, while available, aren’t always desirable. Prostitution, Schrager says, appears to be what’s called a “Giffen good” — a product for which demand rises with price.

Charging too little has dangers

When financial panic intrudes on the prostitution world, escorts often lower their rates in response, according to Amanda Brooks, author of the Internet Escorts Handbooks. That’s a mistake, she says, not just because established higher-end prostitutes are more immune to economic fluctuations, but because lowering rates changes the kind of clientele call girls attract.

Women who are getting into the industry for the first time also tend to price themselves too low, Brooks said, because they don’t understand that higher rates mean higher quality clients. There’s another side, too — the handful of prostitutes who Brooks says are taking on straight jobs to fill in the gaps between “dates.”

Women who price themselves at the tipping point, $600 or $700 for a few hours’ work, have “always had a difficult time. They’ve always been in a kind of limbo land, between the true high end and the rest,” she said. “Those girls are definitely feeling the crunch.”

For Stacie, who discounted her hourly rate by $100 or more, lowering costs also comes with increasing risks. She is forced to do more outcall work — going to clients’ rooms rather than the having them come to her hotel room, which makes her feel more vulnerable. She also agrees to a wider range of sex acts, which puts her at additional health risk.

“I can’t do this for too many years longer,” she said, “just until I save up enough.

“You always want to be safe, but you’re always lowering your standards.”

In the past, Stacie saved $1,000 a week — on top of the $5,000 she made and spent. Now she’s down to $3,000 and she’s not setting aside any money. Still, that’s an incredibly high salary for most people, which puts the working girls’ woes into context for others struggling with the bad economy.

Stacie and Rebecca, despite the difference in what they charge, are still part of what academics classify as the “indoor” sex trade — the vast majority of the illicit industry, though it’s largely invisible.

“Outdoor” sex workers, the stereotypical streetwalkers, are only 15 percent of the prostitution world, though they represent 85 to 90 percent of the vice arrests, according to a study by Venkatesh and “Freakonomics” author Steven Levitt, who found that street prostitutes in Chicago earn roughly $25 to $30 an hour.

How street prostitutes are faring in Las Vegas is unclear — even women with close ties to the industry, like Rebecca or Lopez, are so far removed from these prostitutes that they don’t know. None contacted by the Sun would agree to talk.

Women who work for escort services also face a strain that independents such as Stacie and Rebecca do not. The escort service charges a base fee of several hundred dollars, and it’s up to the escort to negotiate with the client on top of that — a tip determined upfront. One local escort, reflecting on the economy, said she knew things were getting bad when women who once would walk out of a room for anything less than a $1,500 tip were now hanging around for only a few hundred dollars.

But here’s the irony: When the economy is stable, women who charge midrange fees often end up making more money than call girls serving the high-end clientele, Lopez said. High-end call girl Rebecca makes $15,000 in an average month, but when times are good, Stacie, who charges midrange fees, can clear $25,000 — she just has to hustle much harder for it. It’s a trade-off that plays money against mental health and safety.

If the bad economy does anything to escorting, author Brooks figures, it will be this: Prostitutes will become better at marketing themselves.

“They going to be looking into Web sites, looking into blogging, getting a little more savvy about their marketing,” she said. “And the smart ones will compete for clients in a way that doesn’t impact the girls, not by lowering their prices and by giving more than they feel comfortable with, but by increasing their market savvy.”

One of those is Amber, a New York-based escort available for travel anywhere. She has been flown to Vegas a few times this year, by men who cover her expenses and pay about $5,000 on top of that.

“Vegas is very competitive, and you really feel it,” she said. “I’ve had to be a little more creative, a little more aggressive in my marketing.”

Even then, she added, “I travel the world, but I’m not living as lavishly as I was.”

]]> http://fantasyescortguide.com/cop-talk/usa-escorts/not-even-prostitution-is-immune-to-economics-of-supply-demand.htm/feed 1 http://fantasyescortguide.com/cop-talk/usa-escorts/sex-enomics-the-in-escort.htm http://fantasyescortguide.com/cop-talk/usa-escorts/sex-enomics-the-in-escort.htm#comments Tue, 09 Dec 2008 15:47:10 +0000 Support http://fantasyescortguide.com/cop-talk/?p=56 Source: http://media.www.maroon-news.com/media/storage/paper742/news/2008/12/05/Commentary/SexEnomics.The.in.Escort-3572266.shtml

Katie David
Issue date: 12/5/08 Section: Commentary

The world’s oldest profession seems to be very “in” right now. Between the Eliot Spitzer scandal, an NBC special on “The Business of High-End Prostitution,” a Showtime series about a London “escort” entitled The Secret Diary of a Call Girl and Ashley Dupré’s (Spitzer’s infamous call girl) media tour, the American public is very interested in prostitution. However, the media is not showing images of what many consider the typical victim of the sex trade, such as an impoverished and malnourished woman selling her body for crack. Clearly, that image is too disturbing for the middle-class American living room. Instead, the media focuses on “high-end” prostitution, where women are paid thousands for their services, which range from sex to compliments (seriously). While the data for this industry is difficult to track, the media is most likely not focusing on these “escort services” because they pose a deep societal problem. Instead the media probably sees what many young women today observe when examining the dynamics of high-end prostitution: how closely it resembles the dating situation for young women today.

Ashley Dupré and I have something in common. Neither of us has a degree in sociology or is really qualified to make sweeping statements about cultural movements. But we do it anyway. In Ashley’s recent interview with People magazine, she explains how the dynamics of prostitution have permeated the mainstream.

“This wasn’t any different than going on a date with someone you barely knew and hooking up with them,” she reasoned. “The only difference is I can pay my rent.”

In short, the relationship between sex and money is apparent outside the industry of high-end prostitution. Many young women today often joke about becoming trophy wives. I must admit that once I realized that no profession I was interested in could make me rich, that lifestyle seemed appealing to me. Women who “marry up” or “marry rich” are only lightly chastised by public opinion when what they are doing, offering up their bodies and looks for wealth, is not so different from high-end prostitution.

More pervasive, however, is how young women are responding to offers of wealth in exchange for the “hook-ups” Ashley describes. In our parents’ generation, women could expect men to pay for them and it was considered chivalrous. Today for us young women, when a boy buys dinner for us, we often feel guilty if we don’t give him something in return. In this post-feminist era, women are having trouble finding their place in the relationship balance and money only complicates that dilemma. Women are no longer burning their bras, but instead finding men who will buy them expensive ones.

According to CNBC, the most popular item offered by escorts today is called the Girlfriend Experience (or GFE). While there isn’t a standard definition, most in the industry agree that it involves some facsimile of real romance, including dinners, vacations and gifts in addition to original payments. With the advent of online dating, reality shows like The Girls Next Door (documenting the lives of the ultimate high-end prostitutes, Hugh Hefner’s three girlfriends) and the sex trade evolving into the “relationship trade,” more and more people are approaching dating like a business transaction instead of a search for companionship. And the media’s glamorization of high-end prostitution is not helping. If our society, especially young women like myself, continue to think this way, perhaps all relationships will simply become glorified “girlfriend experiences.” Chivalry may not be dead, but it could come at a hefty price.

Posted: 12/2/2008 12:31:54 PM by Jaymo

Reports surfaced last week via The New York Post that 50 Cent’s manager, Chris Lighty, would be handling the singing career of former hooker Ashley Dupre.

Dupre was the woman at the center of the prostitution scandal that lead to the resignation of former New York Mayor Eliot Spitzer. The mayor used to shell $1,000-an-hour to get serviced by Dupre and other girls.

Lighty and his Violator management released a statement today (December 2) denying the reports saying: “Despite media reports, Chris Lighty and Violator Management do not represent Ashley Dupre. Lighty helped negotiate an interview for Dupre with Diane Sawyer, and has no further involvement in Dupre’s career.”

November 18, 2008
Call girl to Spitzer’s wife: ‘I’m sorry’
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

In this image released by ABC, former call girl Ashley Dupre, whose tryst with former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, led to his resignation, is seen in New York. (AP/ABC, Heidi Gutman)

NEW YORK — The prostitute at the centre of the scandal that brought down former New York governor Eliot Spitzer has apologized to his wife.

Ashley Alexandra Dupre tells People magazine that the FBI informed her in early March that it was investigating one of her clients. A few days later, she found out which client when she recognized Spitzer on TV — resigning.

That was March 12, after revelations Spitzer had used Emperors Club VIP, where Dupre worked.

She says she was stricken by the pained expression on Silda Wall Spitzer’s face.

“I try not to revisit that place too often, but when I think about his speech, I think of her face, her eyes, the hurt,” Dupre said.

Her message to Silda Wall Spitzer: “I’m sorry for your pain.”

Dupre, 23, said Spitzer was polite and businesslike when they met. “Some guys, they want to have conversations and really get to know each other. With him, it clearly was not like that,” she said. “It was more of a transaction. Strictly business.”

Dupre, who was known then as Kristen, said she practiced safe sex with all her clients, including Spitzer. On her lawyer’s advice, she would not elaborate on their liaison, or say whether Spitzer visited her more than once. She did say that he dressed casually and she did not see his security detail.

Dupre also sat down with Diane Sawyer for an ABC “20/20“ segment to be aired Friday. In that interview, ABC said, she describes how an “upper middle-class, girl next door got into the profession and the psychological journey she continues to experience.”

Four people have pleaded guilty to running the prostitution operation. Last week, federal prosecutors said they wouldn’t bring criminal charges against Spitzer.

Dupre, 23, envisions a future for herself in music, fashion and “writing books” — but not prostitution. “Never again.”

By Abigail Goldman

Sat, Nov 29, 2008 (2 a.m.)

Mahria is a “beautiful blonde” offering “erotic wrestling” for $100.

Dru is charging $80 for an hour of “sensual massage.”

Alicia can be at your door in half an hour.

These advertisements, which come with photos a family newspaper won’t print, are a small sample of what can be found in the “erotic services” section of Craigslist in Las Vegas — an online classified ads Web site that, aside from helping people find roommates or sell old lawn mowers, has become one of the most popular ways for Clark County escorts to peddle their wares to the electronic masses. It’s an Internet buffet of costly companionship, but perhaps not for long.

Just over two weeks ago, Craigslist began charging a fee to advertise on the site’s “erotic services” section. The fee is small — $5 — but the consequences are huge.

The fee must be paid with a credit card, and Craigslist will supply this credit card information to law enforcement officials, should they subpoena it. Erotic services advertisers must also provide a phone number, which an automated system will call before any posting is published online.

In short, Craigslist is working with the police.

Erotic services advertisements in the dozens of American cities Craigslist serves have fallen dramatically since Nov. 6, when the fee took effect, the company’s chief executive, Jim Buckmaster, told the Sun. On Monday in Las Vegas, that meant there were only 362 erotic services ads posted on Craigslist. The Monday before the traceable fees, there were more than 1,100 ads.

Craigslist entered into the agreement with 40 attorneys general, including Nevada’s Catherine Cortez Masto, to clamp down on illegal services being offered online. And the shrinking number of erotic services ads are a clear victory for law enforcement, at least on the surface. Some critics, however, including local Vegas escorts, suggest the move will only force prostitutes onto the streets in search of clients they once could have courted from the comfort, and relative safety, of their laptops.

There are numerous Web sites that charge escorts considerable fees to advertise their services. Craigslist, because it was free, was a forum for escorts who didn’t have money to market themselves — escorts who are, in many ways, the most vulnerable, UNLV sociology professor and prostitution researcher Barbara Brents said.

When asked whether taking away the free online forum would endanger prostitutes by forcing them onto the streets and into casinos, a spokeswoman for Cortez Masto, Edie Cartwright, said via e-mail, “Prostitution has always been a fluid problem. It is the secrecy of anonymous ads on Craigslist that the agreement targets.”

Craigslist’s chief executive would not comment on whether the company has provided law enforcement officials with any identifying information about those who post erotic services ads.

But not everybody is scared off. Randi, a 28-year-old escort who has been working in Las Vegas for several years, said paying five dollars and risking arrest still pencils out in an escort’s favor.

“If you get arrested, it’s a few hundred dollars’ bail, a few hours in jail, and you’re out,” she said. “It’s worth it.”

She hasn’t been caught so far, she said.

For all the criticism of the clampdown, the flip side is easy to see as well: With fewer escorts advertising, prospective johns have less opportunity. And just as some prostitutes are loath to walk the streets, some johns are hesitant to hire company off the curb. Men who normally find escorts on Craigslist are increasingly scared to do so, according to one prostitute, who says her clients are equally put off by the idea police can subpoena details about their date.

The anonymity once offered by Craigslist made it easy for minors, or people selling their bodies to support a drug habit, to advertise themselves online, even though established escort companies wouldn’t employ them, Metro Vice Sgt. Gil Shannon said.

Nichole Yegge was a horrific example: The 17-year-old Vegas teen was advertising on Craigslist, allegedly pimped by the couple arrested this August in connection with her slaying.

If Yegge hadn’t been so easily sold on Craigslist, if she had had a harder time becoming an underage escort, perhaps she might not have been wound up mutilated in the Nevada desert.

Told of the drop in erotic services ads, Shannon said, “That’s fantastic.”

You could hear his smile through the phone.

Metro vice has worked with craigslist before, particularly when it was clear that underage escorts were posting nude photographs of themselves on the site — child porn, essentially. When detectives would subpoena information about the person posting these advertisements, however, the information available was often of little use because everything was so easily made anonymous online. Now connecting the dots between an escort advertising online and an arrest will be much easier for the department. The vice section has yet to subpoena the newly available credit card information, but, Shannon said, it’s “coming to a courtroom near you.”

Again, you could hear his smile.

Thirty million ads are posted on Craigslist’s global classified ad sites every month, for such things as apartment rentals and rescue dogs. Buckmaster said he wasn’t aware of any study that broke out the number of erotic services ads, but it seems safe to assume that at $5 a pop, the new fee structure will generate a considerable amount of revenue. That money will be donated to charities that address human trafficking and child exploitation, Buckmaster said. But the charities haven’t been chosen. That was one reason Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum would not join his 40 colleagues in supporting the changes at Craigslist — it’s unclear where that money will go, and how it will be distributed.

Cortez Masto’s spokeswoman, when asked whether this was of any concern for the Nevada AG, said “we understand that the choice of charities is up to the company; the purpose of the use of a credit card is to create an identification trail for the advertiser.”

Of course, escorts are already coming up with payment techniques that make that identification trail harder to trace, one escort said. She wasn’t willing to explain the techniques because they seem to be working so far.

That’s the nature of the beast, Shannon, the vice sergeant, said. Every step forward may be followed by one or two steps back, as escorts look for another way to ply their trade. Many will join up with agencies, he said. The men snapping handbills on the Strip aren’t running out of little cards to pass out any time soon.

And it’s only a matter of time until someone, shielded by free speech protections, comes up with another free Web site for escorts to advertise on.

By GLENN COUNTS / NewsChannel 36
E-mail Glenn: GCounts@WCNC.com

Sally Saxon Interview on video

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Who is Sallie Saxon? The simple answer is that she is a criminal. But nothing was simple in the life of this very complicated woman.

“Your whole life is a lie. Everything is a lie,” Saxon said in an exclusive interview with NewsChannel 36.

On Aug. 27, the life that this south Charlotte mom knew changed forever.

“I made a lot of money, but I’m going to be honest with you, it’s not worth the money to have lived like that,” Saxon said.

Saxon was sent to federal prison for two years for running “Hush Hush,” the largest Internet-based prostitution ring in America.

“If I provided the list then it’s got the names of high profile people throughout the United States,” Saxon said.

Saxon’s business was high-end — wealthy men, expensive dinners, flowers and gifts. But her start more than 20 years ago was nothing like that. There was precious little glamour and a lot of danger when she worked as a call girl.

Her first husband was sent to Vietnam. When he returned from the war, Saxon said he had psychological issues and physically abused her and her son.

She was desperate when a prominent Charlotte businessman and his group of friends made her an indecent proposal.

“The food was getting low. It really was and they knew that I was in that situation,” Saxon said.

With just $25 to her name and two kids to support, she felt she had no choice but to sell her body.

“I felt terrible about myself when I did that. I did. I was nervous. I was afraid. I was upset,” Saxon said.

After she left that abusive marriage, Saxon says she got out of the business for a while and got a job in sales.

“I was not making enough money,” she said. “By then your children are getting older, then they need more.”

Sallie says she made the decision to return to the life of a call girl, but instead of working independently she found employment with a couple of escort services.

“That was terrible, absolutely terrible,” she said.

Saxon says the services only cared about one thing — money.

Extended Audio:
•  How Saxon started ‘Hush Hush’
•  Saxon on living a double life
•  The client list: Powerful, rich men
•  Saxon’s relationship advice and why men cheat

Blog:
•  My jailhouse interview with Sallie Saxon

Related Stories:
•  Part 1: Who is Sallie Saxon?
•  Part 2: Saxon’s powerful client

“If you did not give the client what he wanted, everything he wanted, then you had to pay a fine. So I ended up owing the agency more than I made because I had fines everywhere,” she said.

There was one night at a Charlotte motel that changed Saxon’s life. She ended up having to fight for her life.

“The gentleman opened the door and I walked in and I looked to my right, and I could see silhouettes behind the shower curtain, and I got out without my shoes, my blouse was torn, my pocketbook, I don’t know where it went,” Saxon said.

At that point, some women might have gotten out of the business for good, but not Saxon. It was at that moment that she decided to become a madam.

The money, the flowers, expensive dinners, fancy clothes and cars — Sallie Saxon enjoyed all the trapping of a successful, albeit illegal, business.

“I liked the way I was treated because people thought I had money,” Saxon said. “I liked the power it represented and the respect that it gave.”

Last November that life came to an end when FBI agents raided Saxon’s house on Coatbridge Lane and took her away in handcuffs. She pleaded guilty to money laundering charges and was sent to the federal medical center in Lexington, Ky., a minimum security prison for women.

“I started off very small,” Saxon said. “I worked with one lady or two ladies.”

That was more than 15 years ago. Saxon was one of the first madam’s to see the potential of the Internet.

“I was able to hide behind the Internet,” she said. “I was able to screen the clients. I was able to research the business and find out what mistakes other people made.”

By screening the clients Saxon was able to better protect her girls and generate lots of money. Her business took off.

“I decided that I wanted to be the best at whatever I did. I wanted to be very selective about the ladies I worked with,” Saxon said. “I also wanted clients that I considered gentlemen. Because of what I had been through in my life I was able to discern of who was and who was not a gentleman.”

These gentlemen had two things in common — money and power. Saxon says a lot of them would be nationally recognized.

“Washington politicians?” we asked.

“I’m just going to say that you would know them. You would know them. I’m not going to say yes or no, but the people I have affiliated with are people in high positions that make laws. They’re people that you watch on TV.”

Saxon’s clients were looking for more than just beauty. For every girl who applied, she says she only hired one out of 10.

“I wanted someone with a college degree. Someone who could carry on a conversation,” Saxon said. “I expected them to workout, to be in physically good shape, mentally, emotionally.”

When a gentleman would call or e-mail, Saxon’s first priority was to learn all that she could about him using Internet skills that could rival any computer hacker.

“I could find out anything I wanted,” she said. “I found out the names of their children, the mother, their neighbors, their work, how long they worked there, how much they paid for their house.”

If you made the cut as a client — and she says half the men did not — it would cost you $2,500 for a three-hour date, including dinner at an expensive restaurant. Saxon would always spring for a complimentary dessert. If a client wanted some out-of-town company, say to St. Thomas, Saxon would make sure they had an enjoyable time.

“I was the booking agency. I was a psychiatrist. I was a friend. I was a mother, and I was a babysitter,” Saxon said.

In case you’re wondering, it was the men who needed most of the babysitting. Saxon says their egos were limitless.

“Themselves are the main thing they are concerned about. They lose compassion for other people. They couldn’t understand why their wives didn’t want anything to do with them,” she said.

These men were so rich and powerful that even after the bust, they kept calling.

“I’d say, ‘Do you realize my phones are tapped?’ And these are the kinds of people, it just goes over their head. These are the kind of men if you say no to, they say, ‘Wow, that’s a challenge.’”

These were also the kind of men who enjoyed living on the edge, who flirted with being caught, and sometimes they were. Saxon blamed the men when their wives found out.

“When I would tell the client, ‘And by the way, your wife is on the phone, and she has something to say to you,’ I never heard from them again,” Saxon said.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Who is Sallie Saxon? It’s a complicated question. Her story began March 30, 1950. She was raised by her grandparents in their Myers Park home.

“Took dancing lessons, went to etiquette school and I felt like I had a very good family. I come from a good family,” Saxon said.

Saxon was one of the first students to walk through the doors of Quail Hollow Elementary School. She graduated from South Mecklenburg High and attended Queens College for a year.

Growing up, she says, she didn’t date much.

“I can’t say that I was a person that was going out and going to a lot of parties because wherever I went I was chaperoned, either by my father or my granddaddy and the granddaddy was the worst,” Saxon said.

Saxon says a bad marriage and a desperate financial situation transformed her from an innocent little girl into the biggest Internet madam in the country.

NewsChannel 36 talked to her at the Federal Medical Center in Lexington, Ky. It is a minimum security prison. There are only about 287 inmates here.

“I’m fine with this, and the food is good and the staff is respectful,” Saxon said. “I’ve felt all along that they really want to help me.”

It is a higher power that is helping Saxon adjust to her new life as a convicted felon.

“I was walking through the valley, and none of us come to the Lord Jesus Christ on top of the mountaintop when we’re doing great. That’s when we think we don’t need him,” Saxon said. “But I was in the valley and my life needed to change and my life changed.”

Saxon says her spiritual transformation began four months before FBI agents knocked on her door.

“I just could not get over the fact that I had asked God to get me out of the business and I felt that he had, and I didn’t care how I got out, I just knew I was done,” she said.

Saxon made a lot of money — $3 million according to the FBI’s count — but she says she was never free to enjoy it and she lied to everyone.

At a family gathering her father asked her, “So what do you really do?” And she says she handed him a bunch of fake invoices and claimed she was paid for Internet design.

“I think when he told me that he believed me that hurt me more than anything, because he believed a lie I had just told him,” Saxon said.

Because of her spiritual journey, Saxon says she can clearly see all the hurt that she has caused.

“Do I think it should be made legal? Personally, where I stand now with my faith and what I’ve been through, violating holy matrimony is wrong. It’s totally wrong,” Saxon said.

Because of her cooperation, the government was able to prosecute three Johns. Saxon would like to see more.

“I still feel that the client needs to be held accountable. I really do. It’s time. Otherwise it makes a whole mockery of the whole thing,” she said.

To this point, no girls have been prosecuted. Saxon went to bat for them.

“I have a softer spot in that area. One side of me wants to say no, because I know why many of them got into it,” she said.

Saxon acknowledges that she exploited them, but she hopes they benefited.

“I’m proud that I was able to make them the money that they could put themselves through school and educate their children, buy a home, get out of debt. I’m proud that I provided a safe situation for them,” she said.

What about the list? The 2,200 clients that were at Saxon’s fingertips — the rich, the powerful and the famous, will we ever know who they are?

“My husband and I prayed for a long time about what to do with the list, and I’m not out here to expose those people,” Saxon said. “That’s something they will have to live with. I’m here to serve my time and to pay mankind back for what I’ve done.”

In two years, Saxon will walk out of the doors of FMC Lexington. She says that she prepares for that day every day while she is in prison and she has faith that she will make it.

Charlotte businessman James Smith was sentenced Wednesday to 18 months probation for hiring prostitutes and writing them off as advertising expenses on his corporate income taxes.

Smith, owner of construction company Red Clay Aggregate, had pleaded guilty in August to tax fraud. He’d faced up to three years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. Nine of the 18 months probation are to be spent in home confinement. He declined comment Wednesday through his attorney.

Smith was the second john to plead guilty in the federal government’s investigation into “HushHush,” a lucrative prostitution ring in Charlotte.

Smith was accused of using the services of Soft Touch Promotions and SW Associates from 2002 through October 2007. Those were the shell companies used to operate the Internet-based escort service, according to court documents.

The madam of the high-priced call-girl service, Sallie Saxon, was sentenced to two years in prison. Prosecutors have said her service drew some 1,900 clients and employed hundreds of hookers over several years. Liaisons took place at hotels around SouthPark and uptown, as well as in Chicago and Las Vegas.

Prosecutors allege Smith reported income of about $455,935 on his 2006 tax return. But Smith, according to the federal charge, knew his income was substantially more. Prosecutors say Smith owed an additional $19,543.66 in taxes over a five-year period.

“In truth and fact, the expenses were personal in nature, and the false treatment on the tax return caused the understatement of income to defendant James Smith,” the charge alleges.