A high-end hooker who worked for the Soccer Mom Madam says the prostitution ring’s roster of clients included elected officials, club owners, CEOs and even royalty.
The former call girl, a woman in her 20s who goes by the name “Lizzie,” gave the Daily News an exclusive look inside the big-money business that prosecutors say was run by Anna Gristina.
The ring, with its global ties, generated millions of dollars and featured women who could adapt to any social setting. But it didn’t include so-called “bunnies” — women with great figures and no brains.
I’m not a typical escort,” she said in a wide-ranging sitdown with The News. “I don’t have big implants, I don’t dress (like a prostitute). I don’t do drugs. I don’t even smoke.
I’m not that girl. That girl gets the one-timers.”
The clients all paid well: $25,000 for weekends in Europe and Asia, and a minimum of $800 an hour at the alleged upper East Side brothel.
Gristina reportedly ran a top-shelf operation, carefully choosing her stable of women and screening potential clients.
The only thing Lizzie recalled that was mildly low-rent was that Gristina’s hookers stored the cash they earned inside a microwave at the E. 78th St. love nest
Just landing a job with Gristina’s gorgeous stable of up to 50 women was an exacting process.
Anna is very selective about what girls she has working for her,” said the exceptionally beautiful Lizzie. “But (we) never saw Anna.”
Instead, an underling was dispatched to make sure the women looked enticing with their clothes off.
“My friend, she (was) rejected just because she was a little overweight — just 5 pounds,” Lizzie said. “You have to stay in really good shape when you work for Anna. I worked out.”
In return, the married mother of four took just a 40% cut of her employees’ billings during her 15 years in business — well below the industry standard 50-50 split with working girls, say sources.
The madam’s generosity was one of the things that Lizzie most appreciated from her 44-year-old boss.
How did I get into this?” she asked. “I needed a lot of money. Fast.”
And why did her clients — a roster of bold-faced names including royalty, state politicians, CEOs, club owners and members of the boards of city hospitals and art institutions — turn to Gristina’s girls?
You know what they say,” she said. “They pay you to go away.”
The customers were big tippers: Some would leave $1,200 after an $800 session.
Lizzie was no clock-watcher, and never complained if the stays stretched out to two or three hours.
“I’m the companion, the therapist,” she said. “I can hold a conversation. I’m the person to whom they go when they need a retreat, when they want to get away from their wife.
And they keep coming back.
Lizzie described a dizzying lifestyle of shopping sprees, private chefs and world travel. She entertained some men at hotels near their offices to accommodate their busy schedules.
“Did I travel first class?” she asked. “No, you don’t understand. These are men who have their own jets. They have collections of cars.”
One client would send Lizzie out for a brand-new wardrobe before every “date.”
I could go shopping and get whatever I wanted — dresses, shoes,” she said. “He would pay for it all. God, clothing. I have so much.”
On another occasion, she was sitting at home in her pajamas when Gristina called with an offer too tempting to turn down.
She asked if I wanted to go out to the Hamptons, and I said sure,” she recalled. “So I put on a great dress, transformed myself mentally and became ‘Hamptons Girl.’
Sometimes it was for a one-night stand; other times, Lizzie spent long weekends at stunning Long Island beach mansions.
On one international trip, she went mansion-shopping through Europe with a highflying client. After getting her approval, the well-heeled customer bought the place.
Lizzie said she slipped easily into her call girl alter ego.
Do I get scared or nervous? No,” she said. “When I first meet a man, I’m trying to understand what he needs from me. I know what men want. But what I want to know, what does he NEED from me?”
The sex was “different with everybody,” she said. “It’s not like with your boyfriend. But some are incredibly considerate.”
For others, the nights were about arm candy.
Some men just like having a pretty girl around,” Lizzie said. “We might go to parties together, or dinners with his friends. Nobody would tell the wives.”
Gristina made sure that she protected her girls against problematic clients.
If they are mean, I cut them off,” Lizzie explained. “Anna does, too. She would never have Eliot Spitzer as a client.”
That’s good news for the former governor, although there remains unbridled speculation about everyone else on the list of Gristina’s deep-pocketed clients.
Whoa!
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