Svetlana Zakharova Travis, the woman who accused Spitzer Equities head and former governor Eliot Spitzer of assaulting her at The Plaza Hotel over the weekend, was once a $5,000-a-night escort.
Travis, a Russian national – who divorced her ex-husband Michael in 2013, keeping his name – once penned an article under her maiden name titled “Sex is Sex, but Money is Money,” on her former career and stable of wealthy clients.
Her relationship with Spitzer began two years ago, while she was still working as an escort, the New York Post reported, citing an anonymous source.
Spitzer, who famously resigned as governor following a prostitution scandal, denied Monday that he was her boyfriend, the source told the Post.
Travis accused Spitzer of choking her in a Plaza suite on Saturday, but later changed her story and ceased cooperating with police.
She boarded a flight to Moscow Sunday evening, using a ticket she’d bought in advance, the Post reported, citing sources familiar with the situation.
“She said she just wanted to go back to Russia,” a police source told the Post. “She was lucid. She insisted on going … and there were no grounds for us to keep her here.”
The former governor’s attorney, Adam Kaufmann, released a “fact” sheet on Monday that alleged Travis made up the assault to avoid being sent to a mental treatment facility.
“In sum, the facts show that Ms. Travis was highly agitated, and feared that she would be kept for psychiatric treatment and consequently not be able to return to her family in Russia. Unsolicited, she has indicated that any allegations of assault were false,” Kaufmann wrote. [NYP] – Ariel Stulberg