A team of strippers drugged wealthy men and took them to strip clubs where they ran up huge charges on their credit cards, federal investigators said.
The four dancers, identified as alleged ringleader Samantha Barbash, Roselyn Keo, Karina Pascucci and Marsi Rosen, were arrested on Monday and Tuesday, prosecutors said.
Carmine Vitolo, a manager at Flushing strip club RoadHouse NYC, was arrested early Wednesday.
The women met their victims — a group of four that included a prominent heart doctor, a lawyer and two men who worked in finance — in upscale bars and restaurants. They exchanged phone numbers and set up future dates, prosecutors said.
When they met them again, the women slipped the men hallucinogenic drugs and took them to strip clubs Scores and The RoadHouse NYC, where tens of thousands of dollars were charged to their credit cards — a share of which went to the dancers, the sources said.
Prosecutors said signatures on the credit card bills were forged or the full amount was hidden from the men.
The men woke up having no memory of what had happened, prosecutors said. All four challenged the charges after discovering them on their statements, and allegedly received threatening text messages warning them not to contest them.
In some cases, the dancers snapped pictures of the victims in compromising positions and threatened to post them online if they didn't pay, law enforcement sources said.
The four victims were scammed of more than $200,000, according to the legal papers.
Charges against the women and the club manager included grand larceny, forgery, assault and tampering with physical evidence.
The arrests followed an eight-month investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration and the NYPD.
Calls for comment to both strip clubs were not immediately returned Wednesday.
source: huffingtonpost.com By Murray Weiss and Trevor Kapp
Carmine Vitolo, a manager at Flushing strip club RoadHouse NYC, was arrested early Wednesday.
The women met their victims — a group of four that included a prominent heart doctor, a lawyer and two men who worked in finance — in upscale bars and restaurants. They exchanged phone numbers and set up future dates, prosecutors said.
When they met them again, the women slipped the men hallucinogenic drugs and took them to strip clubs Scores and The RoadHouse NYC, where tens of thousands of dollars were charged to their credit cards — a share of which went to the dancers, the sources said.
Prosecutors said signatures on the credit card bills were forged or the full amount was hidden from the men.
The men woke up having no memory of what had happened, prosecutors said. All four challenged the charges after discovering them on their statements, and allegedly received threatening text messages warning them not to contest them.
In some cases, the dancers snapped pictures of the victims in compromising positions and threatened to post them online if they didn't pay, law enforcement sources said.
The four victims were scammed of more than $200,000, according to the legal papers.
Charges against the women and the club manager included grand larceny, forgery, assault and tampering with physical evidence.
The arrests followed an eight-month investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration and the NYPD.
Calls for comment to both strip clubs were not immediately returned Wednesday.
source: huffingtonpost.com By Murray Weiss and Trevor Kapp
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