THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
LONDON — Yes, he paid five prostitutes for sex. No, the orgy did not involve Nazi role-playing.
That is the tenuous position of Max Mosley, the embattled head of auto racing’s world governing body. Mosley is clinging to the presidency of Federation Internationale de l’Automobile despite a clamour for his resignation because of a scandal involving a sadomasochistic session with prostitutes.
Mosley’s status near the top of the auto racing world has been in jeopardy since The News of the World tabloid reported March 30 that he engaged in sex acts with five prostitutes in a scenario that involved Nazi role-playing.
Mosley, 67, acknowledged participating in the five-hour sex session, reported to have cost him US$5,000, but he has denied that the sex acts had Nazi overtones. He said the Nazi reports were “pure fabrication” designed to embarrass him because of his family history and started legal proceedings against the newspaper.
He maintains that his sex session was a private matter and that he would be vindicated when the case against the newspaper comes to trial.
The issue is particularly sensitive to Mosley. He is the son of Sir Oswald Mosley, a disgraced British politician who founded the British Union of Fascists and had close ties to the Nazi leadership in Germany.
Mosley said he was the victim of a “disgusting conspiracy.”
In response, the newspaper’s editors said Sunday that they would send videotapes of the sex session to motorsport officials looking into the scandal, which has led to Mosley being condemned by leading racing teams and motoring organizations. The video was posted on the newspaper’s website when the scandal first broke, but has been withdrawn.
The video showed a man said to be Mosley speaking German and repeatedly whipped on the backside after he was tied down.
“We absolutely refute and challenge his assertion that we have invented any elements of his depravity,” the paper said.
The newspaper said it plans to send copies of the alleged video evidence to the FIA, adding that motorsport guidelines provide for the possible removal of anyone who inflicts “moral injury” on the racing association.
The News of the World reported Sunday that one of the prostitutes said he paid them to dress in German military outfits and give him orders in German while he was whipped. The woman — who the paper did not name — said Mosley filmed the entire session with a video camera so he could watch it repeatedly, the newspaper reported.
Whether or not there were Nazi elements to the sex session, which is reported to have taken place in a basement in the affluent Chelsea neighbourhood of London, Mosley’s involvement with the prostitutes has led to complaints from the car racing world.
He has been denounced by many of the major players, with statements expressing disappointment issued by Toyota, Honda, BMW and Mercedes-Benz. The automakers, all with large commitments to motor racing, stopped short of calling for Mosley to step down.
The statement from Toyota, for example, stated that the company would be particularly aggrieved if Mosley were found to have taken part in “racist” or “anti-Semitic” behaviour.
Former Formula One champions Jackie Stewart and Jody Scheckter have called on Mosley to step down before his mandate ends in October 2009.
The American Automobile Association called for Mosley to step down, stating that his behaviour was “very distressing and embarrassing.” Other motorist associations have taken a similar stance.
Mosley has asked for a meeting in Paris so he can present his version of events to the motoring world.