From Ken Silverstein at Harper Magazine:
I posted a note from a reader wondering why Eliot Spitzer’s name leaked out of the Justice Department so quickly, while Senator David Vitter’s didn’t leak after the arrest of the D.C. Madam.
Today, another reader emailed with what sounds like a very good explanation:
The main reason Vitter’s name didn’t leak–nor did anyone else’s–is that investigators were going after the madam, not the johns, and never had a ‘black book,’ never apparently tapped phones, or did anything else that would have put the identity of the clients under their noses. The names didn’t leak because the agents never had the names–and didn’t do anything to try to get them.”
But it still seems curious how quickly word leaked about Spitzer’s involvement. The New York Times has reported that it “began investigating Spitzer’s possible involvement with a prostitution ring on Friday, the day after the prosecutors arrested the four people on charges of helping run the Emperor’s Club. After inquiries from the Times, the governor on Monday canceled his public schedule.”
So how did the Times hear about Spitzer’s involvement?
Of course, even if the leak was political, Spitzer is entirely responsible for his self-immolation. Hiring a prostitute shouldn’t be a crime, but it’s criminally and pathologically stupid to do so when, as is the case with Spitzer, you’re a moralizing prig, have numerous bitter enemies, have made political capital out of breaking up hooker rings in the past.
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2008/03/hbc-90002596
And of course, in Palfrey's case, the Justice Department's target was Palfrey and not her clients. In Spitzer's case, it was vice versa...
More on the QAT consulting group:
I posted a note from a reader wondering why Eliot Spitzer’s name leaked out of the Justice Department so quickly, while Senator David Vitter’s didn’t leak after the arrest of the D.C. Madam.
Today, another reader emailed with what sounds like a very good explanation:
The main reason Vitter’s name didn’t leak–nor did anyone else’s–is that investigators were going after the madam, not the johns, and never had a ‘black book,’ never apparently tapped phones, or did anything else that would have put the identity of the clients under their noses. The names didn’t leak because the agents never had the names–and didn’t do anything to try to get them.”
But it still seems curious how quickly word leaked about Spitzer’s involvement. The New York Times has reported that it “began investigating Spitzer’s possible involvement with a prostitution ring on Friday, the day after the prosecutors arrested the four people on charges of helping run the Emperor’s Club. After inquiries from the Times, the governor on Monday canceled his public schedule.”
So how did the Times hear about Spitzer’s involvement?
Of course, even if the leak was political, Spitzer is entirely responsible for his self-immolation. Hiring a prostitute shouldn’t be a crime, but it’s criminally and pathologically stupid to do so when, as is the case with Spitzer, you’re a moralizing prig, have numerous bitter enemies, have made political capital out of breaking up hooker rings in the past.
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2008/03/hbc-90002596
And of course, in Palfrey's case, the Justice Department's target was Palfrey and not her clients. In Spitzer's case, it was vice versa...
More on the QAT consulting group:
Cecil Suwal, whom federal prosecutors have charged with violating anti-prostitution laws, also operates a New Jersey-based business services firm called QAT Consulting Group that offers outsourced Web design and online marketing services.
According to its Web site, QAT Consulting provides "online advertising and promotion services," including strategic planning, concept development, design and copyrighting and "results analysis." Unlike the Web site for Suwal's Emperor's Club escort service, QAT Consulting's site was still online as of Tuesday morning.
An Internet record shows that the site is registered in Suwal's name and was created in March of 2005. The record also lists Suwal's Cliffside Park, N.J., apartment as the business address for QAT Consulting.
In addition to the Internet services, QAT also offers a number of financial services, including one that helps foreign corporations establish a business presence in the U.S.
Prosecutors allege that QAT Consulting provided a front through which payments to the Emperors Club's $5,000 per hour hookers were funneled.
Emperors Club clients were told they should not be concerned about wiring money to the service "because the wire would be sent to 'QAT Consulting' so it would 'show up like as a business transaction'," prosecutors in a criminal complaint quote one of the Emperors Club defendants as saying.
Emperors Club clients were told they should not be concerned about wiring money to the service "because the wire would be sent to 'QAT Consulting' so it would 'show up like as a business transaction'," prosecutors in a criminal complaint quote one of the Emperors Club defendants as saying.
And I wonder if the QAT Consulting Group and QAT International Inc. will be fully investigated and money transactions from those two companies in relation to the Emperor VIP Club. And are the federal prosecutors going identify Clients one through eight and ten?
2 comments:
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