A French court Tuesday sentenced a Lebanese businessman in absentia to eight years in prison over a high-end prostitution ring operating at the Cannes Film Festival that had ties to a slain son of Moammar Gadhafi. The judge also slapped a 50,000 euro ($64,000) fine on Elie Nahas, a Lebanese who claimed to run a modeling agency employing young women recruited in South America, France and eastern Europe. [Link]
The prostitution ring was first discovered in 2007 and according to investigators, dozens of prostitutes had been recruited from the U.S., France, Lebanon and Venezuela, and the ranks included a Lebanese beauty queen and several successful American models.
Anyone has a clue who that ex-Miss Lebanon might be? Here’s a list of the winners of Miss Lebanon from 1995 till 2005:
1995 Dina Azar
1996 Nisrine Sami Nasr
1997 Joëlle Behlock
1998 Clémence Achkar
1999 Norma Elias Naoum
2000 Sandra Rizk
2001 Christina Sawaya
2003 Marie-José Hnein
2004 Nadine Nassib Njeim
2005 Gabrielle Bou Rached
Update: Answer is Lamitta Frangieh, who was crowned 1st Runner-up at Miss Lebanon 2004 but participated in the Miss World 2005 pageant. Read more [Here]. Thank you Rami!
On a last note, The French authorities might want to consider hiring Liam Neeson to capture Elie.