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Three strip clubs in Arizona have been sued after allegedly drugging and scamming customers out of $1 million.
According to Daily Mail, 20 people have filed a lawsuit against three Arizona strip clubs. The clubs are called Bones Cabaret, Skin Cabaret, and Dream Palace. Additionally, the suit was reportedly filed in January.
The plaintiffs have reportedly shared similar allegations of being “drugged and swindled” out of their money in the clubs’ VIP rooms. The outlet notes that the plaintiffs have not met one another. However, they share similar alleged experiences.
According to the suit, an Air Force member using the alias of “Joe” alleges he was charged $72,000 at one of the locations. Prior to this, Joe visited one of the clubs’ VIP rooms and was allegedly greeted by “clouds of dusty perfume or makeup.”
“I remember walking through what I thought was a cloud of perfume or makeup or something like dusty from one of the kind of cracks of light that was coming through and that’s when I ended up in the VIP room and started to get these symptoms not alcohol-related, something else that made me acquiesce and go along to what they seemed to be pushing,” Joe reportedly explained per Newsweek. “I felt like I kind of didn’t have control of the situation and that was really the first instance that I knew.”
Other plaintiffs shared similar experiences to Joe. They added they were forced to sign legal documents and experienced memory loss after their visits. Additionally, they alleged they left the strip clubs with huge credit card charges.
Daily Mail reports that police reports included in the lawsuit state that attendees who entered a VIP room “were required to provide credit card, ID, a thumbprint.” Additionally, attendees were allegedly forced to photograph themselves “after negotiating a price.”
According to the outlet, the strip club’s owner, Todd Borowsky, has denied the allegations. Borowsky has reportedly called them “baseless.” Additionally, the owner’s attorney, Dennis Wilenchick, has said that the allegations are like “going to a casino and “asking for your money back.'”Okay thank
Wilenchick adds that the plaintiffs were not drugged. Additionally, the lawyer asserted that the strip clubs’ dancers involved were “independent contractors.”
“My client denies any wrongful conduct here… The company insists on signatures from customers for all services and photos which may indicate their condition when signing. All services were signed for. Amex reviewed and upheld the charges. Plaintiffs received what they sought and bargained for…” Wilenchick exclusively told Newsweek. “The suggestion that someone guided the Plaintiffs’ hands in signing for each service is simply ludicrous… No one was drugged to our knowledge and we know of no drug claimed. No one tested for any drugs, and we are not aware of what drugs these complainants came into the clubs with. In short, this is no different than going into a casino to gamble, losing money, and demanding its return, only worse. The Plaintiffs received what they bargained for and did not complain to our client about any of it while they were receiving the benefits of what they sought.”
The outlet adds that another plaintiff in the lawsuit was charged $181,000 at one of the strip clubs. The plaintiff goes by an alias of “Bobby” and was charged the highest out of all the plaintiffs, per Fox 10 Phoenix.
Bobby has reportedly called the experience “emotionally difficult” to bear.
“Couldn’t have an appetite to eat for days after this had occurred… strain on not only myself, a family, wife, had to get my parents involved. We had little children as well so just the impact emotionally was pretty difficult to bear,” Bobby explained, per Fox 10 Phoenix.
According to the outlet, some plaintiffs have been left “on the hook with the entire debt.”
Daily Mail reports that the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office and Scottsdale Police Department have been made aware of the accusations against the clubs. Additionally, the police departments are reportedly working with the Arizona Attorney General’s Office “on cases against the strip clubs.”
Fox 10 Phoenix adds that no trial date has been set for the cases against the Arizona strip clubs.
