Jail for British madam
A British woman has been found guilty of running an international vice ring.
Margaret MacDonald, who turned 44 on Thursday, was sentenced to four years in prison and a fine of 150,000 euros (£100,000) for “aggravated procuring” by a French court.
The call girls run by Margaret MacDonald charged their clients up to £500 an hour.
MacDonald told the Paris court that it was up to her employees whether or not they slept with clients, and nothing to do with her.
“When people like each other, they want to move beyond the dinner table,” she said in court.
She insisted that she was an “excellent businesswoman” and had always admitted running a legitimate escort agency.
MacDonald, who speaks eight languages and holds several business degrees, said her stable of escorts never exceeded 20.
However, the prosecution claimed that she ran hundreds of male and female prostitutes across Europe, Israel and the United States.
Investigators found she made around £14,000 a month, or about 40 per cent of the prostitutes’ earnings.
MacDonald, a former prostitute herself, was arrested in May 2002 in a Parisian hotel. She operated out of Paris, Athens and Milan, using numerous credit cards, multiple bank accounts and several false names.
