It's known for its star-studded red carpet and award-winning film premieres, but the Cannes Film Festival hides something else behind all the glitz. A new investigation has revealed where the activity is home to a secret escort ring where girls are bought and sold via WhatsApp by billionaire Arab, Russian and American businessmen. Their agents are using this app to recruit models for their rich bosses, sometimes paying up to 50, euros a night.
BILD journalists found the opportunity to enter these WhatsApp groups where money is offered to girls to spend the night with rich festival attendees. These WhatsApp groups ask girls to send photos along with their age and weight. Many requests, often made by wealthy foreign businessmen, are for so-called 'image work', where models are asked to accompany guests to high-end dinners or parties.
These men allegedly pay for entire groups of women to spend the night at their star-studded parties. Girls get a bonus in exchange for sex with paying participants. These girls are often meeting their hosts for the first time and have very little information about their relationships. Unsurprisingly, the girls often have their passports confiscated and are banned from using mobile phones during their travels, an attempt to prevent the identities of these wealthy men from becoming public.
This also applies to a lot of black money, as there are no receipts. Young women are often offered 3, euros for a dinner, 10, euros for a party and 50, euros for a night. Last year, a Daily Mail investigation revealed that sex workers from across Europe, known as "putes de luxes" in France, flock to the annual festival to sell their bodies to luxury hotels and yachts. Models, aspiring actresses and some Instagram influencers are invited to parties or to stay aboard superyachts, sipping champagne.
But their expectation in some cases is that the so-called "yacht girls" will have to thank their hosts by having sex with them or other guests.
