ProntoLeaks: Monte Friesner and sex trafficking

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[Updated below]

What are those who support Monte Friesner in fact supporting? One of Friesner's shady activities, as revealed in his own emails and documents, is that he and his wife Tatiana are "bringing in" sex workers from Colombia, Eastern Europe and Russia.

Let's start with a strip club in Panama called "Cristal Moon", right off Plaza 5 de Mayo. And let's quote Don Winner - who knows these type of places far better than we do - on what goes on there:

Is The Cristal Moon a Whorehouse? Nope. There are no rooms, and all areas of the bar are public. Customers go to the bar, watch the shows, and if they want to leave with one of the girls then what they do between consenting adults is up to them. The bar charges "bar fine" or a fee that allows the employee to leave early for the night. It's a wink and nod system and everyone knows what's going on, and no one cares.

Well, at one point, in 2007, the authorities did care, and the owner of Cristal Moon, Victor Panangiotis Politis, was convicted of sex trafficking. It appears an appeal was filed, but we don't know where that case stands now.

But this article is not about Panangiotis' legal troubles. Because, in September 2009, the inevitable Monte Friesner enters the scene, and writes to an acquaintance who had been visiting from New Jersey:

We look forward to seeing you soon in Panama. We have decided to invest in the Cristal Moon Cabaret and bring in entertainers from Russia and Eastern Europe.

Right about the same time, Friesner tries to get someone else interested in investing with him in Cristal Moon:

Hi Ron,

We are interested in purchasing this place with the casino also. We are turning it into a Cabaret Club with about 200 girls from Russia, Colombia, etc.

If interested please call me.

 Friesner is also friends with a gentleman called Carlos Gabriel Arango Alvarez. And in their exchanges, the issue of the Cristal Moon comes up more than once, especially where it comes to "bringing in" girls from Colombia. But here's what is truly amazing: Just six days after trying to get people interested because he plans to invest in Cristal Moon, he and his wife have already purchased 50% of the joint and are importing erotic entertainers on a bi-weekly basis:

Dear Carlos,

I hope this letter finds you in excellent health! Tatiana and I have purchased 50% in a major club in Panama called Cristal Moon and we are now importing Erotic Entertainers from Russia & Ukraine each 2 weeks. We have about 30 ladies working in the club now and would like another 30 more Ladies from your associates in Colombia. This is a very large club and we have a full house on most of the days of the week as you can see when you come to visit and be our guest.

Please respond as soon as possible.

Warm regards,

Dr. Monte Friesner, Ph.D., CD.C.

Carlos, clearly unaware of Friesner's warping of time and space, replies the same day:

dear Mr monte Im glad to hear from you.

of cuerce i can help you with that if you want i can send you pictures. just give me few days.

best regards mi friend.

mi fone here in colombia is xxx xxxxxxx

And immediately, there's Monte again:

My Dear Friend Carlos,

Thank you for your kind response! This is an excellent opportunity for both of us with as many people as possible. This will be a Cabaret with fantastic floor shows that we can also bring to Colombia and other clubs in Panama.

We don't know who this Carlos is exactly. A person by the exact same name used to be on the board of several companies, a number of them having to do with Pacific island business. National Tours, for example, operates a rickety fast ferry to Taboga. He might be related to the late Carlos Arango Duque, who was the owner of the Contadora Hotel until he crashed with his plane - which also ended a DEA investigation into his activities. Anyway, a week later, Friesner's Carlos reported back:

hi my friend how are you i hope ypu are doing well.

yesterday i went to my friend busines and he asked about the girls you were asking for he is realy interested on making busines with you so if you want i will go again this thursday at 7. my cell phone is xxx xxxxxxx or his mail is contactenos@flirtbogota.com.

please say hello to your wife and have a nice day.

 The flirtbogota.com domain does not carry a website and the registration details are shielded. Monte is all excited to hear that a source for the supply of Colombian erotic entertainers is being secured. But, read his response carefully:

I will call you on Thursday about 8 PM in Bogota. We start issuing MasterCard Value Cards on October 7 in Panama and then we will proceed in Colombia. I am most interested in working with your family and associates with the MasterCard and also in the Entertainment project. You need to see the Club that we have invested in and understand the concept.

Besides the girls we are bringing in Erotic Entertainment from Russia and Eastern Europe to our club and we can share them also with you in Colombia. No one has done this in Latin America and it is a fantastic entertainment for both men and women. Tatiana is working directly with the people in Russia who are related to her family.

If you like, I can fly to Bogota and meet with both of you at a date convenient for both of you. My Visa as a Diplomat is expiring and I need to leave Panama for 3 days anyways so it will be easier to come to Bogota and of course work.

Thank you for your kind thoughts my friend and I look forward to a very prosperous relationship as always with you.

His "visa as a diplomat"? A diplomat who is "bringing in" Russian sex workers and distributes them all over Latin America? Or maybe he trades Russians for Colombians, or what is the deal here?

One thing is sure, like, 200%, and that is that Friesner is not and never has been a diplomat and has never had a "diplomatic visa" in Panama. Just like, in case you didn't know, he is not a "Dr." nor a PhD nor anything else. We'd be surprised if he could produce a high school diploma that is not a fake or bought from a diploma mill - he can't even write coherent sentences.

In October 2009, Friesner drafts an email to be sent out by his wife Tatiana Nazarova (contrary to what the couple will have you believe, Friesner manages every aspect of all the businesses they run):

Monte Friesner <monte.friesner1@one­world­financial­solutions.com>
Reply­To: monte.friesner@one­world­financial­solutions.com
To: tatiana@swiss­hannover.com
Tue, Oct 27, 2009 at 12:16 PM

Dear Madame and/or Sir,

I would like to introduce myself as Tatiana Nazarova and I am Russian born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan and I have been living in Panama for several years where I have established several successful business enterprises; such as, www.panamasailingschool.com www.swiss­hannover.com www.bluedolphinyachting.com www.pronto­ cash.com www.carlyle­coutts.com www.erotic­sailing www.cristalmoon.com and several other companies. Pronto Cash has the Principal and Master License from MasterCard for a revolutionary and unique Financial Card that is being used around the world.

Cristal Moon in Panama is a fantastic Night Club and we are interested in promoting entertainment of an erotic nature in Panama and also in Colombia where Tatiana owns several night clubs. Kindly respond at your earliest convenience with direct telephone numbers so Tatiana can call you.

Best regards,

Tatiana  

Fascinating, how he loses track of the fact that he is first writing as Tatiana and then addresses her in the third person. She owns several nightclubs in Colombia? She has established several enterprises in Panama, among which Cristal Moon? Is Friesner even 50% owner of the Cristal Moon? We very much doubt that too. A bit later that year, late December, Friesner writes his friend Carlos again, but without any mention of importing Colombian girls:

Hi Carlos,

Here is our simple application form. We are now ready to issue to people in Colombia and we give them a Panama address. This is excellent for ladies working in Panama or anyone who wants to transfer money to Colombia from Panama or anywhere. We are meeting with many groups right now from Venezuela also.

Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year to your family and you.

Warm regards,

Dr. Monte Friesner, Ph.D., CD.C

The Pronto Sex Cash Card? Issuing cards in Colombia with a Panamanian address? That raises another whole bunch of red flags.

Whichever it is, a source of us inside Pronto Cash at the time ran into the Cristal Moon owner Victor Panangiotis Politis at Friesner's office, and Politis wondered if this Friesner guy was for real. "Politas told me that Monte told him he is bringing girls from Russia, Yugoslavia and Croatia.... sounds like a network of white slavery or something?"

So the question is, are Monte Friesner and Tatiana Nazarova indeed importing sex workers, or was this another one of Friesner's investment swindles where he could act out some morbid fantasy of being a slave trader?

Update: Friesner is getting hilariously upset about the ProntoLeaks and has turned himself once again into the proverbial gift that keeps on giving: He now writes that the Bananama Republic lawyer - whomever that is - wants $10k to have articles removed, and that he already paid $5k to have nude pictures of his wife Tatiana removed. You can go see the cheque at Friesner's office, he says. Except that there is no cheque - hey, Friesner, why don't you post that cheque on your site?

It does make us a bit sad though to see these numbers. Your reporter once turned down a €50k bribe from the importer of a famous German car brand, so why on earth would we accept a measly $5k to remove pictures that Friesner himself sent us?

6 thoughts on “ProntoLeaks: Monte Friesner and sex trafficking

  1. Crime
    From Porky’s to Panama Prison, Tony Galeota Reveals Miami’s Mob-Run Prostitution Industry

    In January, I wrote about an amazing high-tech submarine race to the bottom of the ocean. In the story, I mentioned how a Hialeah strip club called Porky’s had once been the staging ground for an incredible plot to smuggle Colombian cocaine to California in a Russian sub.

    Then, at the end of August, New Times received a crackly long-distance phone call from Panama. “You want to know the real story about Porky’s strip club?” a man said in a thick Long Island accent. His name was Tony Galeota, he said, and he had run Porky’s for 18 years before being locked up in Panama’s worst prison for a crime he didn’t commit.

    Also read:
    Tony Galeota: From Running Porky’s, Miami’s Most Notorious Strip Joint, to Rotting in a Panamanian Jail

    “This is real mafia shit,” Galeota says of his life pulling strings in Miami’s murderous, mob-fueled prostitution industry. “Real people, real families, real beatings, and real killings.”

  2. Whoever registered on this site as Tony Galeota, is NOT him. I am helping represent Tony Galeota on the outside. He is currently still incareated in La Joya Carcel. Tony Galeota, Moulin Rouge and Dollhoue (the two clubs raided) have and had nothing to do with Cristal Moon.

    Panama has without a doubt, become more difficult about its dirty little prostitution secret. So many girls are available, whether they are brought in from overseas, Panamanian, documented or just on visitor visas. This should not be a surprise.

    I would love for the webmaster of this site to contact me. As you may have been following this case, I don’t see anything on your site mentioning it. There is an innocent American in jail here in Panama. The inhumanity in the prison would make your head spin. Interested on your take and what you may know about this case, as you seem well informed on Panama.

    Thank You.

  3. @The REAL Tony Galeota
    Although I’m no prostifobe, as long as free will of both parties is guaranteed, it is kind of naive to enter this business in Panama without expecting trouble. There is a long list of names testifying to that. I can’t say whether Mr. Galeota’s incarceration is just or not, but it shouldn’t come as a big surprise. Panamanians don’t like foreigners, less when they make money, even less when the money comes from a (shady) business they themselves would prefer to exploit.
    There are few countries as hypocrite as Panama. It is and always was a country of pirates, it was good at it and because of that different from most countries. This was the basis if Panama’s original economic success. As long as nobody gets hurt and the situation is nationally accepted, I’m all for it actually. There is are too much so called decent countries anyway. Every success story has it’s USP (Unique Sales Point).

    The last few years Panama is getting over the top in becoming a “decent and respected” country, because of a lack of balls. As the majority still has its pirate roots, conflicts and scandals are popping up everywhere. With our beloved Martinelli leading the pack.
    As Panama basically is becoming a cheap copy of the US of A nowadays (nothing Dubai here), where prostitution generally is even less accepted, Mr. Galeota should have been warned.

    “Gringos” tend to have a misplaced sense of “the world is ours”. I feel that to some extend this is the basis for Mr.Galeota’s problem. When I read (on your web site) his children are not going to school, because there are no free English schools, I shake my head in disbelieve. I’m convinced that for the education of these children it would be more than beneficial to learn an additional language. English they can learn and speak at home.

    Notwithstanding my opinion, I feel for the man and even more for his family. It must be horror, I can’t even begin to imagine. I do wish you all the best in your efforts to help them.

  4. Something smells wrong with this whole tony galleta thing. A fake fat tony, then all of a sudden the real tony’s advisor chimes in? Hmmm, i suspect they are the same person and this is a ploy.
    So some fat gringo was slinging hookers and who knows what else and went to the slammer for it? Boo hoo.

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