New York Governor and Anti Online Gambling Crusader Eliot Spitzer Tied to Prostitution Ring

New York Governor Eliot Spitzer has informed his administration he was entangled with a "prostitution ring".  The disgraced Governor held a news conference shortly after 2 pm EST Monday.

Spitzer, who is married with three children, made cleaning up the ethics of state government a priority when he was elected.

According to the New York Post, Feds last week busted a diamond-studded international call-girl ring that offered well-heeled johns "fashion models, pageant winners and exquisite students" for up to $5,500 an hour - after one of the prostitutes turned on her pimp. The Times reported that it was unclear whether this was the ring Spitzer was involved with.

Today's New York Sun reported that prosecutors specializing in government corruption cases were leading the investigation into that prostitution ring. Three of the assistant U.S. attorneys assigned to the case were part of the U.S. attorney's public corruption unit, the Sun reported. The unit investigates possible wrongdoing by government officials.

The johns paid as much as $50,000 for a weekend with a prostitute and had the option of purchasing a "buy out" of their favorite girls, which allowed them to book trysts directly with the hookers, Manhattan federal prosecutors said.

The Emperors Club, an upscale escort service, ranked its hookers on a seven-diamond scale on its Web site and then charged its wealthy clientele accordingly for "dates," court papers said.

Four people were charged with prostitution and tax crimes for allegedly raking in more than $1 million with a stable of 50 girls that serviced clients in New York, Washington, LA, San Francisco, Chicago, Miami, Las Vegas, London, Paris and Vienna.

Calling the issue "a private matter," Spitzer said his conduct during the press conference that it "violates my, or any, sense of right and wrong."

"I do not believe that politics in the long run is about individuals; it is about ideas, the public good and doing what is best for the state of New York."

The governor may have been linked to the ring through cell phone records, sources told NewsChannel 4.

His cases as state attorney general included a few criminal prosecutions of prostitution rings and into tourism involving prostitutes.

In 2004, he was part of an investigation of an escort service in New York City that resulted in the arrest of 18 people on charges of promoting

in 2002, Eliot Spitzer was among the first politicians to aggressively go after online gambling payment processors. 

Prior to merging with eBay in 2002, PayPal was investigated by Spitzer for processing payments for online gaming companies taking bets from New York citizens. In exchange for Spitzer's office dropping the investigation, PayPal ultimately agreed to pay a US$200,000 fine and to stop processing online gambling transactions involving consumers in New York

The company stopped processing online gambling transactions altogether (regardless of where the merchants and/or consumers were located) in November 2002 and held this policy until signing the deal with Betfair.

Spitzer was expected to resign shortly.

Filed Under Gambling News

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Christopher Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher CCostigan@CostiganMedia.com

Originally published March 10, 2008 3:05 pm EST