Print

Mail

wiki links

Development agency head resigns amid sex scandal

The head of the Agency for International Development, Randall Tobias, resigned abruptly on Friday for what he said were "personal reasons," but an administration official said Tobias' name had come up in an investigation of a suspected Washington prostitution ring.

On Friday night, ABC News said Tobias had confirmed on Thursday that he was a customer of an escort service.

A woman from Vallejo, California, Deborah Palfrey, has pleaded not guilty to charges that she operated a call-girl service in Washington, and has threatened on her Web site to sell her client list to raise money for her defense. ABC News reported that Palfrey had given the network thousands of phone numbers of clients.

In court papers filed on April 11 in US District Court here, Palfrey identified an adviser to the Pentagon as "one of the regular customers" of her service. She posted the man's photo from his own Web site and tax records on a house he owns in Washington.

On her Web site, Palfrey asserted that her service, doing business as Pamela Martin and Associates, "functioned as a high-end adult fantasy firm which offered legal sexual and erotic services across the spectrum of adult sexual behavior."

Tobias told ABC that he used the service for massages, not sex, according to the network's Web site.

The State Department referred all questions to Tobias' personal office in Indianapolis. There was no reply to a message left there on Friday night. At his Washington apartment building, the concierge said Tobias was not in.

Tobias, 65, is a former chairman and chief executive of Eli Lilly & Co and of AT&T International. He served as the chairman of the board of Duke University from 1997 to 2000. He was also a major donor to various Republican campaigns.

He held two federal titles. President Bush nominated him in July 2003 to lead a US$15 billion program to fight AIDS worldwide. As director of US Foreign Assistance, he held the rank of ambassador.

Dana Perino, a White House spokeswoman, said the president expressed "sadness and disappointment" that Tobias was resigning and "wished his family well in the future."
This story has been viewed 1519 times.