IT was marketed as a luxury escort service, one which promised girls who had the academic and corporate portfolios to match their stunning looks.

As a provider of high-end call girls, Emperors Club VIP boasted an exclusive and international clientele of high-flying CEOs, powerful politicians and wealthy businessmen.

The New York-based outfit seemed to be the Fortune 500 equivalent of online brothels. But based on evidence gathered during an FBI sting, it seems Emperors was experiencing all the teething problems of a typical startup.

While trying to keep clients happy, the club's management had to juggle staffing problems. These included rookies who demanded sky-high fees, girls who left clients early to see to their children, and escorts behaving strangely due to drug addiction.

Emperors' management woes came to light when the FBI recently released a 55-page affidavit detailing its investigations into the club.

Earlier this week, New York governor Eliot Spitzer was forced to resign after it was revealed that he had been one of Emperors' clients.

In a copy of the affidavit obtained by The New Paper on Sunday, it is clear that the club was struggling to make good on the promises it made on its website.

FBI documents show the club was run by Mark Brener, an Israeli who knew how to market his services to the right people.

On the welcome page of the club's website, which has since been taken down, he marketed Emperors as 'the most preferred international club for those accustomed to excellence'.

Emperors added a twist to the sex business, as it was run like a high-end country club. It offered 'concierge' services along with 'investment services' to its well-heeled clients.

For art collectors, it offered 'access to some of the most captivating, authentic contemporary art available' through its extensive links to 'internationally acclaimed artists'.

To assure high-profile clients' anonymity, Emperors set up a shell company called QAT Consulting to receive payments, allowing clients to explain away suspicious charges on their credit cards as 'business expenses'.

If clients showed themselves to be particularly loyal, they were offered membership to the exclusive Icon Club - which allowed them access to restricted areas of the website where they could schedule appointments with Emperors' highest-ranked escorts.

International patrons were warmly welcomed with rates quoted in pound sterling and euros for their convenience, and a promise to accept payment via most major credit cards or cashier's cheques.

Emperors would fly its girls out to clients in cities like London, Vienna and Paris if the money was right.

The club even sold gift certificates for its services.

DIAMOND RATING

As expected, the club demanded a premium for its 'world-class service', with prices starting at around US$1,000 ($1,380) per hour.

The club rated its 'models' using an arbitrary diamond system - the higher the diamond rating, the higher the rates.

For example, it cost about US$1,000 to spend an hour with an escort named Alana (three diamonds), described in her online profile as a 'an accomplished University student' with a 'winning personality'.

At the other end of the menu, an hour with Maya, a seven-diamond girl described as a winner of 'multiple international beauty contests' who had 'conquered the fashion and entertainment industry', would set you back around US$3,100 an hour, according to the rates quoted on the club's website.

Emperors explained on its website that diamonds are 'awarded according to individual education, sophistication, and ambiance created by each of our models'.

There were at least 50 prostitutes working for the ring when it was busted.

FBI reports revealed that the ring often received 'applications' via e-mail from various women hoping to join Emperors as prostitutes.

It seems Emperors also offered its staff a career ladder of sorts.

On its website, Emperors said that, based on experience, a girl could be promoted to higher diamond ratings depending on her 'character and the grace with which she handles public relations/interactions.'

But the lure was not always enough.

RATES TOO LOW

The FBI intercepted one e-mail from a prospective hire who complained that the offered rate of ?500 ($1,400) an hour was too low.

'This is the kind of money I make very easily in photoshoots and the reason I wanted to join your site (is) to make extra money,' said the girl.

'But to provide sex for ?500 an hour, I just thing (sic) this is not the price I would ever consider of doing it for.'

And it wasn't always smooth sailing with the girls who signed up.

Intercepted communications between members of the club's management showed that they had trouble dealing with certain prostitutes.

In one phone call, MrBrener and one of his schedulers, MsTemeka Rachelle Lewis, discussed dropping one prostitute from their roster because she had become a drug addict and was unstable.

'A lot of these girls deteriorate to this point,' MsLewis observed.

In another phone call, office manager Cecil Suwal complained to another scheduler, Ms Tanya Hollander, about how one escort named Madison left a client after just 40minutes to go pick up her children from school.

'As a general rule, the girls who have children tend to have... a little more baggage going on,' the manager said during the call.

Mr Suwal and Ms Lewis were also overheard complaining about how some of the prostitutes were clueless about how to obtain proper imprints of clients' credit cards for payment.

Other headaches included how to 'market' a certain prostitute who looked 'like a butcher', the possibility of 'advertising' in Los Angeles because business was slow, and the reluctance of some girls to put their pictures on Emperors' website to market themselves.

Despite all that, Emperors managed to rake in an estimated US$1 million over three years, by promising on its website that its services would make clients' lives 'more peaceful, balanced, beautiful and meaningful'.

Try telling that to Mr Spitzer.