Talk about champagne wishes and carnal dreams!
A small Sheepshead Bay office above a Coney Island Avenue tile store was the epicenter of a multi-million dollar “high class” prostitution and cocaine ring that catered to Wall Street fat cats and deep-pocketed hedge fund operators — says District Attorney Charles Hynes, who brought the hammer down on the prostitution network last Wednesday, arresting 17 people allegedly behind “High Class NY.”
Investigators say Mikhail Yampolsky and his tight-knit family ran “High Class NY” — an online escort service that investigators say was a front for the prostitution ring where hookers had sex and sold cocaine — which they called “champagne” — to clients, charging them anywhere between $400 and $3,600 an hour.
“Most customers would pay $10,000 a night that the prostitute would then share with Yampolsky,” Hynes explained. “Cash would be split 50-50 while credit cards would be split 60-40. One customer paid $170,000, but God knows for what.”
Prosecutors say Yampolsky, working with his wife and step-son, oversaw a crew of office managers who monitored more than five online dating and escort services advertising “models” available for dates and other forms of companionship.
But everyone knew the secret behind the websites — which had names like “New York Adult Dating,” “The Discrete Club,” “Cupid Direct,” and “Angels of the Evening” — the “escorts” were call girls who would sell sex and drugs at the customer’s request.
And all of the websites and the phone numbers attached to them were managed at one central hub — the office on Coney Island Avenue at Avenue T, according to Hynes.
“Calls went to their Coney Island Avenue office, where people were managing the phones in shifts,” Hynes explained. “The prostitutes would then be dispatched to hotels where they would be paid for sex.”
Adding cocaine to the mix upped the price, Hynes said.
Prosecutors said Yampolsky enlisted 25 “models” — more than 15 of which would be on call each night. None of the women were underage or victims of sex trafficking, but none were over 30.
According to its website, High Class NY advertised itself as “one of the top companionship services for those who expect the best out of life.” The website also posted photos of young women described as “fashion models, pageant winners, exquisite students, graduates and women of successful careers to gentlemen with exceptional standards.”
The website also promises that all dates are “individually designed to accommodate the needs of your specific occasion.”
“Our high standards of beauty, intelligence and charm ensure that you always encounter the quality you expect in a woman,” the website says.
But the website also posts a disclaimer, indicating that the company doesn’t have any “knowledge of illegal activity.”
“The exchange of money is only for time and discreet companionship,” the website indicates. “Anything other than this is by personal choice between adults of legal age and not allowed by anyone through High Class NY.”
The number attached to the website was disconnected last Wednesday.
Prosecutors say Yampolsky only pretended to be legitimate business. To promote the charade, he demanded that his call girls sign bogus employment contracts indicating that they were to sell customers “their time and companionship only.”
The Johns, of course, knew otherwise, but won’t be testifying.
A DA spokesman said that none of them will be called to the stand because it “wasn’t necessary.”
“The Johns could only testify about the hookers,” the spokesman said. “The real question at the heart of this case is what [Yampolsky] knew and what he knew the Johns wanted when they asked for champagne. If we had a John testify that he had sex with a model doesn’t mean that Yampolsky knew it was going on.”
Prosecutors said the prostitution ring earned $7 million between 2007 and 2010. Yampolsky blew most of the profits on expensive cars and trips to Atlantic City, Hynes said.
Yampolsky, his wife, step-son and managers all face 25 years in prison for organizing and maintaining the prostitution ring. Two prostitutes were also indicted after being caught in undercover sting operations with police.
Prosecutors said Yampolsky, a resident of Brighton Fourth Street, was arrested on a weapons possession charge in 1992 and had been sentenced to five years probation.
Repeated calls to Albert Dayan, Yampolsky’s attorney, were not returned.
