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April 08, 2008
Lack of health insurance forces man to become rich, famous pimp
By Michael Millenson
OK, that wasn't the title on an article in the metro section of the April 7 New York Times. But there, buried
in the fine print of a story about Emperor's Club VIP -- the high-priced international prostitution service that serviced ex-NY Governor Elliot Spitzer -- was this explanation of the financial distress that first motivated its founder.
"Its boss was Mark Brener, 62. He dealt with a stack of medical bills
for his late wife by starting the escort service, an idea that dawned
on him several years ago as he surveyed sex-related advertisements in
the weekly newspaper The Village Voice, an associate of Mr. Brener’s
said. The venture reinvigorated Mr. Brener. He dyed his hair black, donned a leather jacket and recruited three women to help him."
Brener, the article continued, "a 5-foot-5 tax man with thinning gray hair and crooked teeth, had never fit anyone’s image of a pimp." But after his wife contracted cancer, and eventually died, Brener found himself "broke and facing court judgments for unpaid medical bills." That's when the ads for the escort services caught his eye.
Who says that private sector entrepreneurs can't help the uninsured?
April 8, 2008 | Permalink
Comments
Who says it's "Hard Out There For A Pimp". Sex for a show and dinner - legal, sex for cash - illegal. Now would sex in exchange for healthcare be legal or illegal? Hard ethical questions.
Posted by: Peter | Apr 8, 2008 4:50:37 AM
How is it that the New York Times printed the photographs of the assistant managers of the Emperor's Club, but failed to print the photo of the actual boss...the pimp...the head guy...the money maker...the criminal mastermind, Mark Brener? I guess that would require some actual investigative journalism. Why bother when you can just ride the wanker wave and focus and the chicks.
The media keeps treating this like a sex story - showing us pictures of girls. It's a story about organized crime, corruption, and blackmail. Wake up.
Posted by: RichardL | Apr 8, 2008 12:03:57 PM
Well I guess the prostituion business is organized just like any other business, but where was the corruption and blackmail? Unless Spitzer used state funds to pay. I think this story is about political hypocrisy. It usually looks better on righteous Republicans though. Especially the gay ones.
Posted by: Peter | Apr 8, 2008 1:04:09 PM
gotta love that new category tag!!!
Posted by: anonymouse | Apr 8, 2008 1:11:41 PM
It's funny, my mom has often said that given my rare disease and no access to relevant health care, she wishes she'd taught my sister and I to value money above all else. She doesn't quite mean it and I don't quite agree, but some days, almost.
Posted by: Paul Maurice Martin | Apr 8, 2008 2:18:26 PM
"she wishes she'd taught my sister and I to value money above all else."
Like those pillars of ethical standards on Wall Street? No thanks, that's why we're in such a mess now. It's also the reason you can't get insured and live in fear of financial ruin because of a condition you were born with. I wonder what condition Republicans were born with that makes them value money above all else?
Posted by: Peter | Apr 9, 2008 4:35:50 AM
The question in my mind is whether his employees have health coverage...
Posted by: Neimon | Apr 9, 2008 7:17:17 AM
Well if they did they don't now as they're unemployed. I wonder how they feel about now having to get a low wage legal job with no health insurance as opposed to being able to afford health insurance as a prostitute with a 6 figure income? Of course earning a 6 figure income on Wall Street passing off liar loans rated as AAA to investors is legal. It all depends on who's f'ing who.
Posted by: Peter | Apr 9, 2008 7:35:51 AM
At least this is one issue that we in the UK don't have to worry about. While our health service may be drowning in middle management, at least it's free.
Posted by: Graham | Apr 12, 2008 1:22:09 AM
Peter is right about the liar loans, it is Organized Crime corruption on Wall Street. But we didn't see Eliot Spitzer do anything about the rampant "sub-prime" corruption on Wall Street when he was Attorney General, instead we saw Spitzer carefully pick and chose who to investigate and threaten prosecution. There should be no surprise that Eliot Spitzer did not prosecute any of the prostitution rings he was associated with, and only an idiot would believe that Spitzer was not obliged to protect the business ventures of the organized crime families which held this dirt on him. Could the $500 Million dollar Spitzer family fortune (could be more, especially if you consider financial relatives) have something to do with the consistent main stream media spin which is portraying the Client 9 scandal as being "just about sex", when it is really about an official in charge of all organized crime prosecutions being associated with organised crime himself. Maybe, the prositution rings have dirt on the news editors as well. The more things change, the more they stay the same. If we want the truth, we'll need a Federal Special Prosecutor to examine the Spitzer crime family connections and Eliot's failures to prosecute criminal referrals. If we don't mind the huge invisible tax on society by these lawyers who do business with organized crime, then we should just continue to be satisfied with the mainstream news spin.
Posted by: Paul Revere | May 15, 2008 6:47:15 PM
The comments to this entry are closed.
OK, that wasn't the title on an article in the metro section of the April 7 New York Times. But there, buried
in the fine print of a story about Emperor's Club VIP -- the high-priced international prostitution service that serviced ex-NY Governor Elliot Spitzer -- was this explanation of the financial distress that first motivated its founder. 
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