Former Scottsdale dancer: Some customers' champagne was spiked at strip club under investigation
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - We’re hearing from a former dancer who worked at one of three Arizona strip clubs being sued in a civil lawsuit.
Nearly 20 plaintiffs claim they were drugged and robbed only to discover extremely high credit card transactions.
The woman FOX 10 Investigates spoke with says she worked at Skin Cabaret in Scottsdale for several years.
Dancer accuses club, others of drugging customers
We have an exclusive follow-up on a story we first brought you in March, as FOX 10 Investigator Justin Lum spoke with a former exotic dancer who worked at one of the three strup clubs that are being sued in a civil lawsuit. Nearly 20 plaintiffs claim they were drugged and robbed, only to discover extremely high credit card transactions.
She says she’s not shocked at the allegations of customers passing out while their credit cards were charged excessively.
She says she witnessed it happen.
‘… disoriented and holding on to the walls …’
"Everybody started sending me the Fox News story," she said.
She wants to stay anonymous, so we'll call her "Bianca" in this report.
After seeing our report on a lawsuit against three strip clubs, she's coming forward. Those clubs are Skin Cabaret, Bones Cabaret and Dream Palace.
She worked at Skin Cabaret in Scottsdale, just down the street from the other two clubs.
Bianca says she witnessed men being drugged and robbed.
"It was people coming in for a drink, and then they’d just go to the bathroom, completely disoriented and holding on to the walls and falling asleep when they pay for the hour of dance," she said.
When FOX 10 asked how exactly this unfolded, Bianca said a hostess or manager would place a substance in glasses of champagne.
"I saw them putting things in the champagne and the drinks, or in the soda, or it could be in any drink really. You don’t taste it," Bianca said.
It’s unknown what exactly was allegedly put in the drinks, but Bianca says she remembers being warned by staff.
"They say, ‘Don’t drink the drink from this glass, I’m going to put your glass over here because that glass has roofie in it,’" Bianca explained.
You can learn more about the dangers of Rohypnol, commonly known as "roofie," by clicking here.
Lawsuit: 3 Arizona strip clubs drugged customers, charged credit cards for $1 million
Bones Cabaret, Skin Cabaret and Dream Palace. A lawsuit claims all three Scottsdale area strip clubs used an elaborate scheme to charge customers’ credit cards for excessively high amounts without authorization. Here's what we've learned about the allegations.
In the complaint filed against the three clubs, plaintiffs say they agreed to the first transaction for access to the VIP room and a private dance, but don’t remember signing for anything else after that.
The total amount of charges for the plaintiffs is over a million dollars.
A man says he's still recovering from being charged $180,000.
Plaintiffs FOX 10 talked to also say they were isolated from friends once they entered the VIP room, blacking out for the rest of the night.
"To steal from people, that kind of money, and destroy their lives, I was absolutely not OK with that," Bianca said. "It’s not normal. I worked in other clubs, and this is not normal at all."
READ MORE: 3 Arizona strip clubs drugged customers, charged credit cards for $1 million, lawsuit says
‘One of them was somebody I knew’
The owner of Skin Cabaret and Bones Cabaret is Todd Borowsky.
Bianca says she brought up her concerns about what she witnessed to Borowsky.
What did he say?
She says, "Sometimes he would text back, sometimes he wouldn’t. He would say, ‘I’ll check into it.’"
Borowsky is familiar with the Scottsdale Police Department.
In 2020, court documents say Borowsky attacked his girlfriend and threatened to shoot her with a rifle in a domestic violence incident. He was charged with aggravated assault, kidnapping and disorderly conduct before taking a plea agreement and being sentenced to more than a year of probation.
FOX 10 reached out to Borowsky’s lawyer, Dennis Wilenchik, for comment on what Bianca described.
He wanted to know who our source is. We are not disclosing her identity.
However, Wilenchik says he and his client don’t believe any of the allegations and told FOX 10 to take a look at new competitors in town who could be stirring up the situation.
Bianca says one of her former clients is a victim of the alleged scheme and stopped coming to Skin Cabaret.
"One of them was somebody I knew. I was like, ‘He comes to the club all the time, and he doesn’t wanna come anymore.’ That’s my money that I’m not making and money that y’all business is not making because he’s being treated this way. Every time he comes he’s blacked out. He doesn’t remember anything," she said.
Eventually, Bianca stopped working there.
"I was in that industry for a reason but not to cause this much burden on people’s lives," she said.
FOX 10 has reached out to Scottsdale Police for updates on the case, but officials remain tight-lipped on the active investigation.
Meanwhile, plaintiffs are suing for punitive damages, but a trial date is not set.