The American playboy arrested for organising the notorious "Butt Squad" picture of stunning naked models taken on a balcony in Dubai has finally been freed from custody.
Vitaliy Grechin, 41, flew out of the United Arab Emirates on Friday, May 7, following his release.
It came after he spent 22 days in jail and 15 days in Covid-19 isolation after he allegedly tested positive while in detention.
Grechin was pictured with his passport in hand as he boarded a plane leaving Dubai.
He had invited 20 models – mostly Ukrainian – to Dubai on the trip where most of them appeared naked on a balcony in an elite penthouse apartment.
Images of the scene went viral and led to the arrest by Dubai of a dozen of the models as well as Grechin and a Russian IT businessman who owned the apartment.
They were incarcerated in a jail "hell" – but Grechin always denied forcing the naked models onto the balcony, and insisted he had committed no crime.
Today in his first comment he said his release was "the best moment of my life".
He went on: "The greatest pleasure for me is the ending of the suffering and uncertainty."
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Grechin said he had been uncertain until the end whether he would be freed or condemned to many more weeks or months in custody.
"Until the last minute in the airport, it was up in the air," he said.
"What an adventure."
On the rearview balcony image, he had insisted while in custody that "it is not porn.
"Everywhere else in the world it would be considered normal," he said.
"In magazines, it would be considered art…it was a unique shot."
He claimed he had paid for around 20 women – "friends" – to travel to Dubai on an all-expenses-paid fun trip to escape lockdown, at a total cost of around $10,000 (£7k).
The US tycoon based in Kyiv said: "I choose to surround myself with the people I feel comfortable with.
"Everybody I know personally.
"It’s the equivalent of going out to a club or for dinner. There was no escorting, selling, buying, none of that."
They were a "closed group of friends".
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Hitting back at rumours about the women, he insisted: "They are not models, escorts, or anything else."
Grechin was born in Soviet Ukraine and raised in the US where he became a donor to President Barack Obama and was pictured with former first lady and secretary of state Hillary Clinton.
On the naked shoot: "I should never probably have allowed something like this.
"The girls had the mindset that they were on private property behind closed doors.
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"Even if they went on the balcony for 15 seconds it was still something enclosed.
"There was no intent to create or distribute anything like this.
"It was spur of the moment.
"Of course, I regret it. I lost a month of my life.
"The women spend ten days in jail, with no food or decent water, no hygiene supplies, no sheets, and with a metal bunk to sleep on.
"I feel responsible for this.
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"And you can’t imagine the lawyer fees I have to pay."
They run well into six figures, he said. "It makes me want to cry."
Other members of his group were released without charge – but he remained in custody after a negative Covid-19 test despite showing no symptoms.
He was freed after a test by the prison authorities showed he was clear of coronavirus. He denied he had been banned from returning to Dubai – as many of the models were.
“I can return tomorrow," he added.
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