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vincemichaels

Detroit

Police bust prostitution ring catering to Wall Street
By Bernd Debusmann Jr. | Reuters NEW YORK (Reuters) - A high-end prostitution ring catering to Wall Street clients who often would spend over $10,000 for a night bingeing on sex and cocaine has been busted and 17 people indicted, authorities said on Wednesday.

"The business of high-end prostitution is enormously profitable," Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes told a news conference, adding that the ring earned more than $7 million over three years.

Hynes said clients often spent in excess of $10,000 in a single night. He said they were "all high-end customers coming from the financial markets. People with nothing but money."

The prostitution service, named High Class NY, was run 24 hours a day out of an office in Brooklyn and charged from $400 to $3,600 an hour for its services, according to the 144-count indictment. It also provided customers with cocaine and other narcotics, the indictment said.

Police said the sophisticated business ran several escort websites and used dummy corporations with misleading names and codes during business-related phone calls.

Among those websites were discreteclub.com, cupiddirect.com and angelofyourchoice.com. Many of the websites were still online on Wednesday afternoon.

The prostitution and drug service also advertised its wares on popular social networking websites such as Craigslist and backpage.com, said Jonah Bruno, a spokesman for the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office.

Bruno added that many of the clients could possibly be forced to pay fines of up to $250 in addition to attending a one-night multiple hour educational program for "Johns," or customers of prostitutes.

High Class NY even had a law firm draw up employment contracts for its prostitutes, who described themselves as models and fraudulently agreed to refrain from sexual contact with clients, police said.

"They were on the high-end of sophistication," said Vice Detective Joe Panico.

Indicted were High Class NY owner, Mikhail Yampolsky and his wife, Bronislava, who allegedly used the proceeds from their business to finance expensive trips to Atlantic City and luxury car purchases, Hynes said.

Also indicted were Yampolsky's son Alexander, stepson Jonathan, 11 managers and supervisors and two investors, Efim Gorelik and Yakov Maystrovich, he said.

Each of the investors had put $700,000 into High Class NY and were being paid back with interest, he said.

Each of those indicted faces the possibility of 25 years in prison if convicted. Two prostitutes face separate indictments on prostitution and drug charges.