NYPD busts high-end prostitution ring

Five “corporations” and 17 people were indicted in Brooklyn on Wednesday for running a high-end prostitution and drug ring that catered to Wall Street clients who often spent more than $10,000 a night.

Lifestyle

New York police arrested 17 members of a high-end prostitution and drug ring that served Wall Street clients.

Bertrand Langlois

Five "corporations" and 17 people were indicted in Brooklyn on Wednesday for running a high-end prostitution and drug ring that catered to Wall Street clients who often spent more than $10,000 a night.

"The business of high-end prostitution is enormously profitable," Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes told a news conference, after revealing that the ring pulled in more than $7 million over three years, The Chicago Tribune reports.

"[Johns] were all high-end customers," Hynes said, according to the NY Daily News, which published mug shots of those arrested. "People with nothing but money who are willing to pay these enormous amounts for god knows what."

Rates for an escort from the Sheepshead Bay based service ranged from $600 to $3,400 an hour, according to websites visited by the Daily News, including nyadultdating.com and cupiddirect.com. The prostitutes would also reportedly provide clients with cocaine and other drugs.

The alleged owner, Mikhail Yampolsky, his wife Bronislava and their two sons were among those charged with enterprise corruption and other counts that can carry a 25-year sentence.

Escorts, called "models," had signed employment contracts prohibiting sexual contact with clients in an effort to mask the true nature of the business, the indictment says, CNN reports, while clients' credit cards statements did not show the exact services were rendered, the AP reports.

"There is no such thing as a high-class pimp, and as we do with all other pimps, my office will prosecute these defendants and seek the maximum sentences available under the law," Hynes reportedly said.