<nettime> More irresoluble contradictions of late, transition capitalism...

[Patrice Riemens <patrice@xs4all.nl>]

Courchevel is an upmarket ski resort in the French Northern Alps. Closest 
thing in France to Aspen, though it's not as glamorous as Gstaad or st 
Moritz in Zwitserland. It's somewhat doughty glitz has been revived of 
late by the arrival of a commercially attractive, but socially somewhat 
tricky clientele: Russian ploutocrats.

Le Monde annouced the arrest, friday, of Mikhail Prokhorov, 41, CEO of 
Norilsk Nickel, the world leader in nickel and palladium. Reason: 
aggravated 'proxenetism' (pimping). 14 other people have been hauled up 
to, some might be formerly charged, even though the evidence is hard to 
come by.

Seven beautiful blondes, however, have been released. These escorts 
(Russians, but recruited by an Austrian go-between) had arrived with 
"impressive quantities of preservatives" in their luggage (at least they 
can't be accused of not playing safe!). They all pretended to be 
'students' or 'models' (they probably were ;-)

The police is in a bit of a quandary, since Prokhorov recognised lavishing 
the women with expensive 'presents' (furs and jewelry), but besides giving 
them 7000 Euros for their daily expenses (skying doesn't come cheap), he 
denied paying them. "We are facing a totally hermetic system" said the 
chief prosecutor in Lyon.

The business community in Courchevel is pissed. Mr Prokhorov (ranking 89 
on Forbes world's wealthiests list) & friends are spending upwards of 20 
million Euros during the holiday season. A sojourn in jail generates much 
less revenue...

cheers, wishing a happy new year (Russian - that was yesterday!) to all!
patrizio and Diiiinooos!
 

#  distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission
#  <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism,
#  collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
#  more info: majordomo@bbs.thing.net and "info nettime-l" in the msg body
#  archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net