Inside The Emperors Club

Washington Post: Court Documents Provide Tales Of Rookie Hookers, Overstressed Managers And Client No. 9

(Washingtonpost.com)  This story was written by Eli Saslow.

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Temeka Rachelle Lewis dialed her boss in late January, fed up with the headaches of small-time business. She had spent more than three years coordinating prostitution appointments across the globe for the Emperors Club, and the job often kept her on the phone solving problems until after 11 p.m. There were rookie hookers who expected $5,000 an hour, mothers who left clients early to fetch their children, high-priced call girls who were clueless about how to imprint a credit card.

Now, Lewis called her Emperors Club boss Mark Brener with the latest tale of employee incompetence. On Jan. 29, she explained, one of the club's regular prostitutes had missed an appointment and sent "crazy text" messages. Lewis surmised that the prostitute was probably using drugs.

"A lot of these girls deteriorate to this point," Lewis observed.

The Emperors Club was riddled with problems long before charges were filed early this week and New York Gov. Eliot L. Spitzer -- aka client No. 9 -- resigned from office after an encounter with "Kristen," a 22-year-old woman now identified as a would-be singer from South Jersey. In a 55-page affidavit detailing the FBI's investigation of 5,000 Emperors Club telephone calls and 6,000 e-mails, the business sometimes sounds less like a sophisticated sex ring than an overstressed start-up.

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Meet N.Y. Gov.'s 22-Year-Old Call Girl

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The FBI investigation utilized undercover agents, parking-lot surveillance and the full power of wiretaps to compile a uniquely complete portrait of modern prostitution. Emperors Club made more than $1 million over three years and paid about $400,000 to more than 50 prostitutes. On its Web site, it promised clients that Emperors Club services would make life "more peaceful, balanced, beautiful and meaningful."

The four business coordinators -- Brener, office manager Cecil Suwal, and schedulers Lewis and Tanya Hollander -- dealt with a litany of everyday problems in catering to wealthy men around the world. They complained of lackluster advertising in Los Angeles, nervous new employees who preferred to "just model," Internet outages and trouble wiring money into two bank accounts.

The brain trust at the Emperors Club often cursed both their supply and their demand: One of their prostitutes looked "like a butcher," Brener said. Meanwhile, Lewis said, Client 9 put off prostitutes by asking "you to do things that, like, you might not think were safe."

When the four defendants launched the Emperors Club in December 2004, they carefully dressed their company with the accouterments of legitimate business. They opened a bank account in the name of QAT Consulting Group Inc. and, later, QAT International Inc. They created three phone numbers, with a pleasant female voice on the answering machine. They built a fancy Web site with a home page featuring a naked woman throwing back her brown, curly hair and a slogan, "Every client is an emperor."

In bold letters, the club listed a disclaimer:

"Money exchanged is only for our providers time, total relaxation message [sic], entertainment purposes, modeling or private dancing. Under no condition will our escorts ever accept money for services which are considered indecent."

In meetings, Brener, Lewis, Suwal and Hollander assigned each prostitute a rating between one and seven diamonds and priced them accordingly. Bargain prostitutes started at $1,000 an hour. Seven-diamond women cost $3,100 an hour. In recruiting employees, the Emperors Club also offered the possibility that women could become an "Icon" -- an elite prostitute available to the most loyal clients for a minimum of $5,500 an hour.

Trouble was, some prostitutes wanted to be Icons right away. On Jan. 18, Lewis worked to coordinate an appointment for a new prostitute in Los Angeles. The rookie, "Felana," complained of nervousness, requested extra money and asked that her picture not be placed on the Web site for fear that a family member might recognize her. Lewis, convinced Felana was "clueless," called the Los Angeles client and warned that he was getting a first-timer.

"Sounds great to me," the client said.

"What your expectations are might not be fulfilled," Lewis said, "just because this is her first appointment ever."

[tbweb]

Exactly. It''s almost as if being a high priced call girl makes it okay but, for the $20 gutter ho''''s, full prosecution.

Posted by olebd at 04:25 AM : Mar 15, 2008,,,

Ashley Dupre a.k.a. "Kristen" has now been given full immunity from prosecution in return for her testimony! No Jail time for her! Ms. Dupre has made over $200,000.00 since this scandal broke selling her songs on the only web site where you can buy them at:

http://amiestreet.com/ashleyalexandradupre

Ms. Dupre has also been offered $1 Million Dollars to pose nude for Hustler Magazine and other offers are pouring in! Kristen has just added a new song titled "Move ya Body" selling at $.98 and with over 300,000 downloads for her songs is making more money than she did hooking and tricking. Not exactly the traditional way to launch and market your career but make no mistake about it many other females have done the same, not exactly following Ms. Dupre''s recipe and maybe not so publicly but females know how to use their bodies to get ahead, make no mistake about that!
lol

[fibonacci_]

Wow, Americans really value true talent, don''t they? LMAO. What a joke of a society.

[olebd]

The girl should still do some jail time for what she did, its wrong. If she does''''nt go then you are tellng us women that its ok to sell our bodies to get money to make ends meet instead of working hard. Ashley should get jail time not fame!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted by jms102073 at 03:34 AM : Mar 15, 2008

Exactly. It''s almost as if being a high priced call girl makes it okay but, for the $20 gutter ho''s, full prosecution.

[jms102073]

The girl should still do some jail time for what she did, its wrong. If she does''nt go then you are tellng us women that its ok to sell our bodies to get money to make ends meet instead of working hard. Ashley should get jail time not fame!!!!!!!!!!!!

[tbweb]

maybe she''''ll get her big break, but isn''t all this against the law? are the police doing anything about her involvement? letting her off isn''t a good example if this is criminal behavior

Posted by geena5 at 02:21 AM : Mar 15, 2008,,,

If it comes down to sending Police after her just make sure the right Police are sent, with her skills it would be easy for her to bribe a weak male Police Officer, make him an offer he can''t refuse, like a free hour or something!:) We can''t have any of that! I can picture the Police lining up volunteering to arrest her now, searching her, making sure she is not hiding any weapons anywhere, really making sure! lol

[brianbwb-2009]

Big Break? I hope that, since they call her a musician, that she has real musical talent, and the smarts to handle it, she surely has a story to tell.

By the way, a musician is generally thought of as a person who plays a musical instrument, a vocalist is thought of as one who sings. Is she a musician? If so what musical instrument does she play? If a singer, does she write her own material? If both, can I produce her next album?

[guest173]

maybe she''ll get her big break, but isn''t all this against the law? are the police doing anything about her involvement? letting her off isn''t a good example if this is criminal behavior

[billpl-2009]

WHAT A JOKE.....LETS CALL HER WHAT SHE IS.....NOTHING BUT A ***. THE WAY THE MEDIA HAS DESCRIBED HER IS BEYOND BELIEF. THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HER AND SOME CRACK HO ON THE STRRET....YET WE MAKE HER SOUND LIKE SOME POOR MISGUIDED CHILD. SHE KNEW EXACTLY WHAT SHE WAS DOING..SELLING HER BODY FOR MONEY. IN NO WAY NO I APPROVE OF SPITZERS BEHAVIOR BUT THE WAY THIS *** IS .....TOTALLY SHOCKS ME. SHE SHOULD BE JAILED LIKE OTHER ******
Posted by wag11man

...erra are you saying ****** aren''t people too? ****** don''t have rights?....Besides, who the F___ are you to make this claim?

....jerk

[billpl-2009]

I say.. better Ashley Dupre than Ashlee Simpson.

...a least Ashley Dupre has a REAL talent (even if she can''t sing either)

[rushlimpdrug]

Hello somebody please tell me why isn''''t Ashley getting into trouble? She broke the law just as much as he did. Come on State Police do something about this !!!!!!!!!!
Posted by jms102073 at 11:13 PM

She isn''t in trouble because it was a political incident.

Realize that in other cases, madames and prostitutes are busted.

In this case the money trail started with a transaction leading to a house full of whoores.
The politikos were after the gov.

In the frenzy everyone lost sight of what was important.
That''s ok though, because we''re all in trouble.

[rushlimpdrug]

"Will Scandal Give Call Girl Her Big Break?"

Don''t know about her big break.

It can give her a big openning.

[jms102073]

Hello somebody please tell me why isn''t Ashley getting into trouble? She broke the law just as much as he did. Come on State Police do something about this !!!!!!!!!!

Let''s assume, for argument''s sake, that the filthy little *** is our sister.
Also, lets assume:
George Bush is our brother, we know he has "daddy problems", but we indulge him, with money and lives.
Carl Icahn is a brother, too. Predatory capitalist, very successful.
We got a tobacco farmer brother,too. Sells his products to children in third world countries. Not rich, but he makes a livin''.
Larry Craig''s also a brother, sort of the embarrassment of the family.
D. Cheney, another one. Environmentalist of the bunch.
John Hagee. Prominent brother. Daddy''s favorite. Can''t stand our sister. Thunders against her. It won''t be pretty when he no longer can maintain his denial about projecting his se x ual dark side on her. But, this is a pretty common thing among brothers.
Carl Rove, another Bro''. Pride of the family. Incredibly effective at "achieving his goals".
Jerry Falwell. He actually communicates with our sister, in a patronizing way. Every time he indulges his need to feel superior to the rest of us. He''s funny that way.
All in all, it''s an all American family. Brothers get along well, play golf.

Now, which one would you invite over for Thanksgiving dinner? I know which one I would.
Something terribly screwed up in this country..

[greeneyes222]

If the media makes this girl a star, they deserve to be punished. She broke the law as much as he did.

What''s wrong with this culture. Ratings trump the law, I guess.

[jms102073]

Why is it that this call girl Ashley is not getting into troube? Like everyone is saying prostitution is not legal so why is she getting a big break when she should be getting into trouble also. We all had trouble growing up, but we knew right from wrong so we worked hard to get thru hard time so are you telling us that we can take the easy way out?

[wag11man]

WHAT A JOKE.....LETS CALL HER WHAT SHE IS.....NOTHING BUT A ***. THE WAY THE MEDIA HAS DESCRIBED HER IS BEYOND BELIEF. THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HER AND SOME CRACK HO ON THE STRRET....YET WE MAKE HER SOUND LIKE SOME POOR MISGUIDED CHILD. SHE KNEW EXACTLY WHAT SHE WAS DOING..SELLING HER BODY FOR MONEY. IN NO WAY NO I APPROVE OF SPITZERS BEHAVIOR BUT THE WAY THIS *** IS .....TOTALLY SHOCKS ME. SHE SHOULD BE JAILED LIKE OTHER ******.

[keithle1]

Once a woman''s looks are gone, how many men still want to fall in love with her?

[keithle1]

You better be the most beautiful woman in the world for that kind of money.

Other than s e x, what do most young women have to offer men?

How many men want to listen to young women talk all evening? Maybe if they''re masochists.

[kaylag04]

A beautiful woman uses her looks and talents to make money? Powerful men fall for her? No way! Stop the presses! This is news!

[cyberdjs4]

Opportunity has knocked for this girl.
It''s up to her to turn this huge break into success.

Record deals.
Story rights.
Talk-show circuits.

It''s her''s to lose. Let''s see what happens