According to prosecutors, a group of strippers from New York City swindled men by drugging them and making charges on their credit cards. The New York Daily News said that the group including four strippers who conned their marks out of close to $200,000 in credit card charges.
The four women arrested are Samantha Barbash, 40, Roselyn Keo, 29, Marsi Rosen, 28, and Karina Pascucci, 26. Their arrests are the result of an eight-month investigation performed by the DEA and the NYPD.
Allegations were made that the women drugged men at two strip clubs in the city; Roadhouse NYC in Queens and Scores in Manhattan. According to prosecutors, the women would scope out bars in Long Island and Manhattan for ‘worthy targets.’ They would text the men and ask to meet. When the men would show up, the women would drug their drinks using molly, ketamine or other drugs.
The women would then bring the men to one of the two strip clubs mentioned and book a private room using their credit cards. For the most part, the men would not be able to remember a thing and would wake up in their cars, hotel rooms or their own beds.
When they saw the credit card charges and tried to challenge them, the men would be sent incriminating pictures that were taken when drugged.
The victims are a cardiologist, a real estate lawyer, a hedge fund manager and a broker.
The cardiologist has been identified as Zyad Younan, who lost $135,303 in credit card charges. He has the largest charges after four trips to Scores in November.
Earlier this year, Scores sued Younan because he refused to pay the bill. The lawyer for Younan, Michael Weinstein said, “We were always confident that law enforcement’s efforts would expose that my client was preyed upon by this ring and not responsible for charges to his credit card.”
Bridget Brennan is a Special Narcotics prosecutor. Brennan said, “The defendants were banking on the victims being too afraid to contact the police, but as the indictment and arrests show, they made a serious miscalculation.”
A Roadhouse manager ,Carmine Vitolo, was also charged in the case.
The lawyer for Keo, Samuel Gregory, said, “Guys get drunk and spend up all their money and then wake up the next day and realize they spent all their money foolishly, and all of a sudden, it’s a crime.” Prosecutors said the scam ran from September to December of 2013, but one member of the group might have been committing this scam as far back as 2011.