Bergen Record: Israeli pimp brought down the Jewish New York Governor

Apparently, according to the Bergen Record, an Israeli pimp brought down the Jewish governor of New York State Eliot Spitzer.

Bergen odd couple ran high-priced hooker ring
BY GIOVANNA FABIANO, JASON TSAI AND SAMANTHA HENRY

Cecil Suwal grew up in an upscale New York State hamlet and attended one of the most exclusive boarding schools in New Jersey, surrounded by an elite group of classmates who went off to Ivy League colleges.

But authorities say "Ceci" chose a far different path, becoming the 23-year-old madam of an international prostitution ring run by her boyfriend, a 62-year- old Israeli widower named Mark "Michael" Brener.

How they ended up running the Emperors Club VIP call-girl service from a Cliffside Park high-rise remains unclear, but neighbors said Tuesday that they made an unlikely pair. Suwal and Brener lived together at the Briarcliff for at least three years, catching the attention of the building's many older residents who disapproved of their obvious age difference, a doorman said.

One neighbor called the police on the couple in September 2005 after hearing a female voice crying, "Daddy, please don't hit me anymore, please daddy, don't," according to the police report obtained by The Record. Cliffside Park police responded to the apartment, but left after they were confident that the cries actually came during sex, a police source said.

New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who was allegedly caught on an FBI wiretap arranging a $4,300 meeting with a call girl, spent Tuesday holed up in his Fifth Avenue apartment in Manhattan as pressure mounted on him to resign. Investigators said the governor was a repeat customer of the high-end service, spending as much as $80,000 over an extended period.

Prosecutors said in court papers that some of the money was spent on a tryst with a prostitute named Kristen on the night before Valentine's Day.

But prosecutors have not said how Suwal, a 2002 graduate of the Blair Academy in Blairstown, came to meet Brener, who immigrated to the United States 20 years ago and lived a seemingly normal life in Central Jersey caring for his wife, Eleonore, now deceased.

Suwal's childhood in an idyllic enclave in upstate New York seemed worlds away from her life as the alleged madam in a prostitution ring that catered to wealthy men worldwide.

The home of her father, Fred Suwal, in the upscale Little Switzerland neighborhood of Hopewell Junction in Dutchess County, N.Y., has languished for seven to eight months since he and his second wife, Naidu, split up, neighbors said.

Halfway up a hill and at a fork in the road, the three-story A-frame has a sprawling view of Hopewell Junction below and, beyond, the Catskill Mountains.

On Tuesday, a baby blue Porsche sat in a two-car garage and a pool tarp sagged under the weight of leaves and rainwater.

Neighbors said Suwal was an affable man who fed ducks in the yard and always waved. He spoke rarely of his daughter, whom a neighbor said he believed he would see poolside in the summers.

"Now, it's just hired help I see around here cleaning up their yard periodically," said a next-door neighbor who declined to be named.

Another neighbor said the Suwals were regular attendees of a neighborhood holiday party that draws hundreds of residents, but did not show up this year and have not been seen in months.

One of Suwal's Blair Academy classmates described her as a friendly, outgoing girl who "didn't fit in with the typical mold of the school, which was very preppy."

"She certainly wasn't mainstream," the classmate said. "She was a little rougher, artistic, alternative, but articulate and nice. ... I'm not sure what happened to her after high school."

Jim Frick, headmaster of finance and operations at Blair Academy, declined to comment on Suwal's activities or academic record, but said she lived there for three years, starting in 1999. Tuition with boarding was $39,200 last year, he said.

Suwal lived in the Annie Hall dormitory at the school, where she hung around with a more "alternative" crowd, according to the classmate. She ran track, but wasn't involved in many other activities. She adhered to Blair's strict dress code and rules during the week, but displayed a more creative style and smoked cigarettes on weekends. She wasn't an outsider, but she wasn't part of the "in" crowd.

Back at the Briarcliff, Brener, a short, polite man who wore glasses and spoke English with a heavy accent, and Suwal, described as a "beautiful" young woman with light skin and dark curly hair, went everywhere together, the doorman said. They left each day for several hours and usually returned each afternoon before 4 p.m., and were rarely, if ever, seen apart.

"Definitely a couple," he said. "I've been here long enough, and I just know. Plus, we have elevator cameras."

Other workers at Briarcliff described the pair as friendly and unassuming. A doorman said the pair never wore flashy jewelry and they drove a silver Honda minivan. He said the only packages they received were occasional deliveries from the QVC shopping channel and that Brener was always gracious and a good tipper.

From December 2004 to January 2008, Brener and Suwal netted more than $1 million and laundered it in bank accounts with the names QAT Consulting Group and QAT International Inc., prosecutors said. Brener was the top decision maker at the Emperors Club, according to a federal affidavit filed last week.

Suwal was named as the day-to-day organizer of the ring's operations.

She controlled its bank accounts, supervised its booking agents and reviewed applications from prospective prostitutes.

Spitzer also has an indirect link to the Briarcliff. The 312-unit building's owners have been locked in an internal battle for years about whether it should convert from co-ops to condos.

In 2006, the board hired Jack Boyajian of Bloomfield real estate firm ROA Hutton, which specializes in co-op-to-condo conversions, to consult on the issue. Later that same year, Spitzer, the New York attorney general at the time, filed suit against Boyajian and three debt-collection agencies registered to Boyajian's name: Boyajian Law Offices P.C. of Rutherford, and JBC Legal Group P.C. and JBC & Associates, both with offices in Bloomfield.

A copy of a 2006 New York Post story about the Spitzer suit hung in a room behind the lobby desk of the Briarcliff on Tuesday afternoon.

This story contains material from The Associated Press. E-mail: fabiano@northjersey.com

Cecil Suwal grew up in an upscale New York State hamlet and attended one of the most exclusive boarding schools in New Jersey, surrounded by an elite group of classmates who went off to Ivy League colleges.

But authorities say "Ceci" chose a far different path, becoming the 23-year-old madam of an international prostitution ring run by her boyfriend, a 62-year- old Israeli widower named Mark "Michael" Brener.