Elliot Spitzer and his $5K - a- night hooker and $1K hotel room

Spitzer accuser was a $5K-a-night hooker who lives life of luxury

By Shawn Cohen, Jamie Schram, Larry Celona and Bruce Golding

February 16, 2016 | 2:28am

Modal Trigger

Travis divorced her husband, Michael, in 2013, but kept his last name. Photo: Instagram; Splash News

The Russian vixen who accused Eliot Spitzer of choking her at The Plaza hotel is a divorced, globe-trotting beauty who once bared all the dirty details of her life as a $5,000-a-night hooker, The Post has learned.

Cops believe that Svetlana Zakharova Travis, 25 — who dumped her husband, Michael, in 2013 but kept his name — used the byline “Svetlana Z” for an article titled “Sex is Sex, but Money is Money.”

The online piece reveals how she came to New York with $300 in her pocket and developed a stable of wealthy clients.

“I turned 24 in March and have managed to save $200,000, by f- -king for money,” reads the piece, which was posted on the site Medium.

Spitzer and Travis’ relationship began at least two years ago, while she was working as a high-priced call girl — and he was her “sugar daddy,” sources said.

“They met before this, and she was a prostitute at the time,” a police source said.

Modal Trigger

Travis told doctors that Spitzer pushed her and grabbed her by the neck, saying she was his former girlfriend.Photo: Instagram

In 2014, Travis posted a karaoke rendition of Christina Aguilera’s “Genie in a Bottle” on YouTube with the title “a song for mr. E.S.” — an obvious reference to the infamous, hooker-loving “Client 9.”

“If you wanna be with me, baby, there’s a price to pay. I’m a genie in a bottle. Gotta rub me the right way,” she sings in the clip.

Modal Trigger

Travis gave no hint at an occupation or means of support in her Instagram post. The superintendent at her last known address said she was evicted last month.Photo: Instagram

But on Saturday night, their relationship came to a grinding halt during a rendezvous in a $1,000-a-night room at The Plaza, where she told the former governor she was leaving him and returning to the Motherland.

Travis first leveled the bombshell assault accusations against Spitzer, 56, that night at Mount Sinai West Hospital, where she was treated for a superficial cut to her forearm from a broken wine glass, sources said.

Modal Trigger

It’s believed Travis wrote, “I turned 24 in March and have managed to save $200,000, by f- -king for money,” in an article posted on Medium.com.Photo: Instagram

She told doctors that Spitzer had pushed her and grabbed her by the neck, and she repeated those claims to the NYPD, describing herself as the former governor’s “girlfriend,” sources said.

But she later changed her account of the incident, became “totally uncooperative” and refused to speak with detectives, sources said. She declined to press charges.

Spitzer phoned her repeatedly after she was taken to the hospital, and he showed up there looking “like a burglar” to try to sneak in, a source said.

“He was all covered up, with a dark hat pulled down and a black jacket pulled up, trying to cover himself as much as possible so he wouldn’t be recognized,” the source said.

Sources said cops have seen surveillance video of him trying to sneak in.

On Sunday, Travis took a 7:30 p.m. flight from JFK Airport to Moscow, using a ticket she had bought in advance, sources said.

“She said she just wanted to go back to Russia,” a police source said.

“She was lucid. She insisted on going . . . and there were no grounds for us to keep her here.”

On Instagram, Travis flaunts her body and luxurious lifestyle in photos posted under the handle “szakharova25” — based on her maiden name — with the most recent shot a view of The Plaza that she took Saturday, hours before the alleged attack.

She also took photos of herself inside the seventh-floor restaurant at the Bergdorf Goodman department store across the street from the posh Midtown hotel.

In Russian, she wrote that she downed three martinis with lunch, with the last one, which was espresso-flavored, mixed for her on the house.

Modal Trigger

“She was sitting right here at the bar, having a good time. We talked about music for a little while. She was very nice,” the restaurant manager told The Post.

Despite her taste for the finer things in life, Travis gives no hint of any occupation or means of support, and the superintendent at her last known address said she was evicted late last month.

A photo she posted around that time shows the corner of a room with a sink in an alcove, an open closet and a mirror over a small shelf with a chair in front of it.

“This is how my $60/night hotel room looks like Midtown NYC, right in the heart of the city, I truly love it! #NYC #29/01/2016,” the caption reads, before adding in Russian, “There is even a safe in here :)”

Also, court records filed in Orange County, Calif., show a judgment filed against her over a 2015 lawsuit that said she skipped out on her $2,285-a-month rent for an apartment in Anaheim.

Yet on Instagram, she poses in a full-length fur coat, a floral-print sundress, a white string bikini and a bright-red, one-piece swimsuit with a plunging neckline.

In other shots, Travis lounges on a sofa in patent-leather Louboutin stiletto heels, tries on a sparkling tiara and shows off a set of flashy dangling earrings and a matching necklace.

Modal Trigger

Travis flew back to Moscow on a 7:30 p.m. flight out of JFK on Sunday night.Photo: Instagram

Just a week ago, she posted a shot of herself standing in front of a mirror in a room at the Lowell Hotel on the Upper East Side, wrapped in a plush bathrobe.

“We love staying at cool hotels!” she wrote.

Spitzer, meanwhile, denied on Monday that Travis was his girlfriend and announced his continued affections for former gal pal Lis Smith, a former spokeswoman for Mayor Bill de Blasio.

Modal Trigger

Spitzer’s lawyer issued a statement saying that Travis recanted the allegations in an “unsolicited email” once she landed in Russia.Photo: Instagram

Spitzer’s affair with the much younger Smith was the final straw for his long-suffering wife, Silda Wall, and both she and the former governor announced the end of their 26-year marriage on Christmas Eve 2013 — one day after The Post published exclusive photos of him and Smith together.

“The woman who initially made the allegation was not my girlfriend. Lis Smith was my girlfriend, and I had and have deep affection for Lis. She is the love of my life,” Spitzer said in a statement Monday.

Spitzer’s lawyer also issued a statement saying — without detail — that Travis “was someone whom Mr. Spitzer has known for a period of time,” and added that the ex-governor “agreed to meet her at a room previously booked for her at The Plaza hotel.”

Following a “brief and amicable conversation” there during the afternoon, Spitzer left, then returned at Travis’ request in the early evening and found her “highly emotional” and “threatening self-harm,” said the lawyer, Adam Kaufmann.

Kaufmann’s statement also says that Travis “recanted the allegations of assault” and conveniently sent an “unsolicited­ ­email” when she landed in Russia “which confirms that no assault occurred.”

“Mr. Spitzer acted appropriately at all times during this incident. He has been and intends to remain fully cooperative in the event there is any further inquiry by relevant authorities,” Kaufmann added.

Additional reporting by Sophia Rosenbaum, Reuven Fenton, Priscilla DeGregory and
Khristina Narizhnaya