Woman interviewed about scandal

WASHINGTON – Nearly four weeks after the Secret Service prostitution scandal erupted, U.S. government investigators on Thursday interviewed the Colombian prostitute at the center of the affair, which cost eight officers and supervisors their jobs and became an election-year embarrassment for the Obama administration.

Dania Londono Suarez voluntarily met with investigators at the U.S. Embassy in Madrid, agency spokesman Edwin Donovan said. He said the Secret Service investigation was nearly complete. More than 200 people have been interviewed.

Londono mysteriously disappeared days after the incident and couldn’t be reached by investigators.

In a radio and television interview from Madrid on May 4, Londono said she works as a prostitute in Colombia, catering to foreigners. She said after leaving Colombia, she spent some time in Dubai before going to Madrid.

Prostitution is legal in Colombia.

Londono left Colombia a few days after the incident and she said last week she had not been contacted by the Secret Service or anyone from the U.S. government. She described the officers involved as “fools” and said the whole situation could have been avoided if the man she spent the night with had just paid her.

“There wouldn’t have been a problem if he had paid me money,” Londono said.