Reading the federal complaint against the prostitution ring in which Eliot Spitzer, the New York state governor, apparently became caught up is an insight into how even this sort of business is just that - a business.

The Emperors Club VIP was clearly at the top end of prostitution enterprises. It operated across borders - in Paris and London as well as in US cities - and it was very expensive. Clients had to pay between $1,000 and $5,500 per hour for its services.

Like other service businesses, it had a loyalty club for the most elite clients who paid even more than $5,500 per hour, known as the Icon Club. It allowed some clients to “buy out” their favourite prostitutes, permitting the men direct access to the women without going through the Emperors Club.

The 47-page complaint shows the Emperors Club also faced many operating challenges. The federal wiretaps of conversations show the organisers facing problems such as having too few prostitutes for the demand from clients in one city and having to hassle clients to pay bills.

One problem was to get the prostitutes to get correct imprints of the clients’ American Express cards. The complaint states that one of the organisers asked another:

To ask the prostitutes to fax the imprints, or if that did not work, to scan them and email the imprints and then send the originals in the event of a dispute with the clients about the charge, or if American Express inquired.

Meanwhile, the business was also suffering from childcare problems. One of the accused, speaking to another in a wiretapped conversation, said that a prostitute had stayed with one client only 40 minutes rather than the expected hour:

We’re thinking that there’s a chance that the reason she stayed 40 minutes ’cause we just found out from the other day that she has children and she went to pick them up from school immediately afterwards.

In short, leaving aside the fact that the four organisers face jail sentences of up to 25 years each for breaking federal prostitution and - in two cases - money laundering laws, it had a lot of commonplace operational difficulties.

That was, of course, before Mr Spitzer’s name emerged. There are presumably many other clients of the Emperors Club who are feeling a bit nervous at the moment. Given the high fees it charged, he may not be the only well-known name among them.

March 10, 2008 8:26pm in Entertainment | Comment