Italian police have arrested four individuals and seized €1.2 million (£1 million) after uncovering a prostitution ring allegedly used by over 70 footballers and a Formula 1 driver. The ring operated under the guise of an event planning company in Milan's most fashionable neighbourhoods.
Players from top Serie A clubs including Inter Milan, AC Milan and Juventus are said to have paid over €194,000 (£168,000) to the company via bank transfers. However, their names have been redacted from the warrant and they are not under criminal investigation.
An unnamed F1 driver is also alleged to have used the agency. Wiretapped conversations revealed an associate asking: 'I have a friend who is a Formula 1 driver and he wants a paid girlfriend. Can we find her?'
Further wiretaps indicated that nitrous oxide, known as laughing gas, was requested by clients at parties. In one conversation, a woman told an agency worker she was pregnant three weeks after spending an evening with a 'well-known footballer'.
The owners of the events company, a man and a woman, and two employees have been placed under house arrest. They face charges of exploitation, aiding and abetting prostitution, and money laundering.
Prosecutors stated that the suspects 'had focused their business on recruiting women willing to participate in the events organised and ready to also provide sexual services, subsequently remunerated, for a particularly wealthy clientele willing to spend large sums'.
