John Gapper finds the business angle in the Spitzer story: reading the official complaint, he concludes that "even this sort of business is just that – a business." My favorite bit is this:
During the call, SUWAL and LEWIS discussed the fact that
some of the Emperors Club prostitutes were not properly taking
imprints of the clients’ American Express cards. SUWAL told
LEWIS to ask the prostitutes to fax the imprints, or if that did
not work to scan them and e-mail the imprints, and then send the
originals in the event of a dispute with the clients about the
charge, or if American Express inquired. MARK BRENER, a/k/a"Michael," the defendant, commented in the background that he
thought one of the prostitutes ignored him when he told her how
to fill out the credit card slips.
I’d love to know what normally ends up happening when a client disputes a prostitution-related Amex charge.