Agency owners sentenced

[Guest JT]

FYI.

 

 

Sex-business 'parasites' sentenced

 

Lucrative Winnipeg prostitution agency had lawyers, doctors, priest as customers

 

By KRISTA FOSS, The Globe and Mail

 

 

Wednesday, October 2, 2002 – Print Edition, Page A7

 

 

WINNIPEG -- For a few fast-living years, Scott Hrabchak and Renata Fernandes were Winnipeg's crown prince and princess of pleasure.

 

The slightly frumpy couple, who were sentenced yesterday, ran a multimillion-dollar prostitution business, where "outcall workers" signed out sex toys and bondage gear to pander to the whims of regular customers, including lawyers, doctors, police officers, professors, a priest, an entertainer and a person inducted into the Order of Canada.

 

Court heard that many repeat customers were authorized to pay for their sexual gratification, which ranged from strip-o-grams to orgies, using personal and corporate credit cards and their wives' credit cards.

 

The payments were processed through the couple's shell companies. "It was the largest such business in Manitoba; . . . there was no precedent in the province for it," said Jay Prober, lawyer for Mr. Hrabchak.

 

Calling both defendants "parasites," Mr. Justice Nathan Nurgitz of Manitoba Court of Queen's Bench sentenced Mr. Hrabchak to 30 months in jail yesterday.

 

Judge Nurgitz sentenced Ms. Fernandes to an 18-month conditional term that will allow her to work, attend college and take their seven-year-old daughter to swimming lessons and Brownies.

 

A 13-page list of names of agency credit-card transactions, protected by a publication ban imposed this summer when the couple agreed to a plea bargain, include employees who used the corporate cards of Hudson's Bay Co., Canada Post and Royal Doulton. The names of the agency's employees are protected, as well.

 

"There were no complaints from the customers. There were no complaints from the public. . . . This is as close to a victimless crime as you can get," Mr. Prober said.

 

Not so, Judge Nurgitz said. He told the court that the nearly 75 prostitutes who worked for the couple may have done so voluntarily, but as single mothers, university students and drug abusers, they were nonetheless "economic prisoners" involved in a degrading and dehumanizing business.

 

That business made the couple a lot richer than their employees.

 

According to Crown lawyers, the credit-card transactions constituted only a portion of the couple's largely cash-oriented services, which ran under the names Corporate Entertainment, Awesome Assets, Uptown Office Services and Hrab Transport.

 

A forensic accountant estimated that the couple's records show they earned as much as $3.8-million on the recorded transactions alone.

 

"No one knows for sure [how much they made]," Crown prosecutor Christina Kopynsky said.

 

Certainly, from 1994 to 1998, Mr. Hrabchak, 51, and Ms. Fernandes, 32, had a plush lifestyle that included two large homes, one with an indoor pool, matching Lexus cars and a taste for gambling at local casinos, where, evidently, most of their riches were squandered.

 

Court was told that in their office, however, the couple demonstrated a corporate discipline in marketing and meeting the desires of thousands of callers.

 

Would-be employees of Corporate Entertainment had to disclose their measurements and their sexual specialties and be photographed clothed and nude. Prostitutes had pagers and were fined for not responding quickly enough or booking enough calls.

 

A chart posted on an office bulletin board detailed the menstrual cycle of each employee, forestalling such excuses not to work.

 

Introductory administrative fees were deducted from the $75 the prostitutes earned for each $150- to $200-an-hour.

[CT Dick]

Tsk tsk tsk. It's going to be a long, cold winter in Winnepeg.:'(

 

Dick

[Guest elwood]

I don't consider the owners of this prostitution agency much different morallly from the bosses at Enron etc....maybe just a bit more honest.There is such a thing as a legitimate sex business.....but it is all tied up with the convoluted nature of sex ..religion...morality(definately different from religion)hyposcrisy.As a "john" I am often confronted with the issue of exploitation.... who is the exploted and who is the exploiter? It very much depends because it goes both ways.I try to avoid the very young...but does any prostitute do this totally willingly? Some could make a living but are finding that it is easier to sell themelves.As you get older or even if you are young but not attractive..no one would pay you...but you would pay for someone attractive to have sex with you.We need some intimcay.... and sexual pleasure is something we all like (though not all will admit this)

So there have been times I have hired and felt I was exploiting the guy and ended up feeling like a piece of shit. There have also been times I have hired and felt that I was exploited and ended up feeling like a piece of shit. There have also been many times when I felt neither sensation...but had a great time and felt fabulous in all ways.I never intentionally hurt anyone.Never stiffed anyone fiancially or did any physical harm. If I was part of exploiting someone..that I regret. I am not a believer in organized religon...I do,however, have some moral or ethical scruples, and would not intentionally exploit another person.I do believe the escort/client relationship to be ambivalent.There can be exploitation both ways..and there can be no exploitation...just a satisfactory transaction for both sides.As you might see...I am trying to work this out for myself...and still have not found any final answers....

except treat people as people and with respect and honesty...but don't be too naive...always try to learn more about yourself and your motivations..don't exploit anyone intentionally. But sometimes even though you may not want to think about it that way...hiring involves at least some element of exploitation...not ALWAYS but quite often.And sometimes as the client..YOU are exploited and demeaned.

[guyinsf]

It may be a tired argument, but aren't the counter workers at McDonald's exploited? After all, they stand on their feet all day, work in a hot and greasy environment (hey, not so different than escorts!), perform repetitive and monotonous tasks, and get paid around minimum wage. I know that escorting is a potentially more dangerous line of work, but the pay rate is at least 30 times greater.

 

Quite honestly I think that most business owners exploit labor; it's the nature of capitalism. This holds true for escort agencies as well. I suppose that there are some escorts who actually value the service provided by an agency so much that they believe it is reasonable to give them a sizable percentage of their fee. It seems to me, however, that agency owners -- at least the successful ones -- make a very good living, better than any of the "contractors" they work with. Someone making a lavish living for handling the phones and billing for a number of people having sex seems to be pretty sleazy and exploitative to me, but I'll admit that that is just my emotional reaction. If an escort has no other option but to work with the agency, that certainly is certainly exploitation. Unless we're talking about sex workers on the street or those held in captivity and forced to work by their captors, however, I think it's possible for an escort tho choose to be a "sole proprietor." Sites like this make it especially easy for *professionals* to be independent.

 

I have to laugh at the idea that anyone who is "older" won't get paid for sex or has to pay for it. I'm not sure what was meant by "older," but there certainly are guys who are over 40 and still doing well renting themselves out for pleasure, sometimes to clients younger than themselves. As articulated by numerous escorts on this board (not necessarily all over 40 but certainly no longer "twinks"), not only are they still desirable but they are doing this because they want to -- not because they feel they have no choice. Of course, even a young escort can be quite comfortable with what he is doing and not feel exploited.