The Business Of High-End Prostitution Is Enormously Profitable-- Just Ask Your Garden Variety Congressman

Charles Ferguson's latest film, Inside Job, was probably last year's most important movie. I don't think it ever made it on the level of Toy Story 3, which grossed $415,004,880, or Iron Man 2, which grossed $312,433,331. In fact, Inside Job's worldwide gross was $7,883,873. I guess no one wants to see a film about investment banks... even the ones that have systematically impoverished the United States. Whether you saw it or not, watch the Charlie Rose interview with Ferguson. It's powerful.

I suppose the movie could have made more money if they marketed the hookers-and-coke aspect of the film. But it made a compelling case about something a lot more crucial to all of our lives. Didn't matter, of course; people were more interested in Toy Story 3... more than 50 times more interested, as it turns out. It also turns out that last week Reuters reported on a Wall Street prostitution ring. Needless to say, none of the clients were busted.

Seventeen people were indicted on Wednesday on charges of running a high-end prostitution ring that catered to Wall Street clients who often spent more than $10,000 in a night, authorities said.

The ring pulled in more than $7 million over three years, Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes said at a news conference.

"The business of high-end prostitution is enormously profitable," Hynes said.

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.

Hynes said clients often spent in excess of $10,000 in a single night.

They were "all high-end customers coming from the financial markets. People with nothing but money," he said.

Police said the business was extremely sophisticated, running several escort websites and using dummy corporations with misleading names and codes during business-related phone calls.

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.

Among those 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, step-son 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.

The prostitutes in this 15-minute segment of the film are far more important and far more interesting than the segment of the film about leggy hookers and cocaine users. It's a horrible indictment of the Obama Administration.