I just love these stories. According to the New York Law Journal, Paul Bergrin, a former federal and New Jersey state prosecutor has been charged with a variety of crimes arising out of his operation of a Manhattan based escort service. The article doesn’t specify what all the charges are, but does identify the top charge in the indictment as money laundering (a nice catch all that prosecutors love to throw in whenever a money generating enterprise is involved, especially since it adds that aura of organized crime to the matter). One can assume that charges of promoting prostitution are also included. I always have to wonder – unless there are drug crimes involved, or these guys were using the escort service to launder dirty money from a drug business or some other truly nefariuos enterprise, why bother? If the only real crime involved (ie, other than derivative offenses such as laundering the money generated by the prostitution business) why bother? Why waste taxpayer money chasing down an escort service? I know, I know, prostitution is “against the law” and prosecutors have a duty to prosecute violations of the law, unless and until the legislature, or a court, says its not a crime. But really, why bother? Aren’t there any real criminals to chase (and no, I am NOT assuming that Mr. Bergrin is guilty of anything)?
Update: The New York Times’ coverage of the charges against Mr. Bergrin can be found here.
The real crime was hubris. Ny Confidential got too much attention in the media and Jason was becoming a celebrity. When he started boasting that he had city hall in his pocket, it was an invitation to bust the loft. The invitation was not refused.