International madam sentenced and fined

A French court on Thursday convicted a British woman of running an international ring of high-priced call girls and sentenced her to four years in prison. The Paris court also ordered Margaret MacDonald to pay a $175,500 fine. MacDonald`s lawyer, Emmanuel Marsigny, said he would file an appeal. MacDonald, 44, was convicted of ``aggravated procuring.`` The crime carries a maximum 10-year prison sentence. The prosecutor had sought six years. She was arrested in May 2002 at a hotel near the Champs-Elysйes, and has been jailed since then - time that goes toward the four-year sentence. ``Only those who set up relationships are taken to court. That is the hypocrisy ...,`` Marsigny said after the verdict. ``The girls are still working`` while MacDonald ``is paying for everybody.`` The court convicted and sentenced three others in the case. Laura Schleich, a 23-year-old German who tipped off police and fled to her homeland, was convicted in absentia. She was a former employee of MacDonald who started her own escort service. The court sentenced Schleich to three years in prison and fined her $117,000. Pierre Braun, 69, and Danielle Berthy, 53, who ran a hotel used for the call girls` work, were fined $70,200 and $23,400, respectively. During the trial, MacDonald, who studied business at universities in France and Britain, described herself as an ``excellent businesswoman`` who ran a legitimate escort service. She testified that she had at most 20 escorts and never forced them to have sex with the clients. The prosecution, however, contended that MacDonald ran a ring of some 500 call girls and 50 male prostitutes in Europe, Israel and the United States, and charged clients about $1,170 an hour. MacDonald acknowledged during the trial that some of her escorts may have slept with customers. ``When people like each other, they want to move beyond the dinner table,`` MacDonald said, speaking French. MacDonald, who divided her time between Athens, Greece; Milan, Italy; and Paris, pocketed roughly 40 percent of the prostitutes` earnings and made about $23,400 a month, according to prosecutors. She speaks French, Italian, Spanish and Greek fluently. Investigators said she is also proficient in Arabic and Japanese.