Investigation: Republican Phone Sex Sugar Daddy Goes Belly Up

George Allen, Roy Blunt, Joe Lieberman Beneficiaries of Phone Sex Largesse

Jeffrey Prosser, a long-time GOP donor who made his fortune in the international phone sex business, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the Virgin Islands on August 1. For the 2006 election cycle, Prosser and his wife Dawn donated $8,400 to Senator George Allen's reelection campaign and $10,000 to Rep. Roy Blunt's "Rely on Your Beliefs" PAC. They have also made large contributions to Jim Talent, Saxby Chambliss, Jerry Weller, Mitch McConnell, Dan Burton, Michael Oxley, Fred Upton, Lee Terry, Joe Barton, Christopher Bond, Frank Lucas, Kenny Hulshof, Dave Camp, Emmanuel Cleaver, Ted Stevens and Gordon Smith.

Prosser made his fortune with partner Cornelius "Neil" Prior in the 1990s, after FCC regulations banned obscene telephone conversations in the U.S. Their company, Atlantic Tele-Network (ATN), purchased the Guyana state telephone company, GT&T, and began routing phone sex traffic to the South American nation, where they were free of FCC regulations. Phone sex advertisements for Guyana often carry a 011-592 phone number, instead of a 1-900 number. Interent searches for Guyana phone sex turn up phrases such as "hot sexy gay men," "college coeds chat line," "kinky sex," "enforced feminization," and many others. A 1995 FCC document listed Guyana as one of the world's worst offenders of "dial-a-porn" services.

Following a breakup of their partnership, Prior, another Republican donor, retained ATN and its lucrative phone sex business, while Prosser assumed ownership of the Virgin Islands phone company, Vitelco, under the aegis of another Prosser company, Innovative Communication Co., LLC. Prosser was forced into bankruptcy after ICC shareholders sued him for diverting cash from the sale of ICC stock, without their consent, to purchase the Belizean telephone company, BTL. A shareholder suit alleges that "defendant ICC's conduct was outrageous, demonstrated fraudulent and evil motive and was in such conscious disregard of the rights of [the shareholders] to be deemed willful and wanton." Prosser's personal debts are estimated at $200 million, and his companies are conservatively estimated to have debts of $400 million.

For the 2006 election, Cornelius Prior, who is still the owner of ATN and GT&T's sex business, has donated $2000 each to Senators Mike Crapo and Craig Thomas, and $1400 to Senator Orrin Hatch. He donated $2000 to Senator Joe Lieberman's presidential campaign in 2003.