Disgraced former governor Eliot Spitzer's prostitute, 25, covers her face and sobs in court as her bail for 'extorting $400,000 from him with threats to expose lurid details of their trysts' is set at $1m

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The $5,000-a-night Russian prostitute who accused Eliot Spitzer of choking her in a hotel room broke down in court as she was charged with trying to extort him for $400,000.

Model and escort Svetlana Zakharova Travis, 25, covered her face and cried on Tuesday as she was arraigned on charges of grand larceny by extortion in Manhattan Criminal Court. 

Her bail was set at $1 million after Judge Ushir Pandit ruled she was a severe flight risk, and that her native Russia has no extradition treaty with the United States. 

Prosecutors in court said she 'consistently threatened to expose intimate details of prior relationships with [Spitzer's] family as well as the media'.

Travis was led away from court and taken to Rikers Island for her first night in jail.  

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Svetlana Z. Travis covered her faced and cried Tuesday as she was arraigned on charges of grand larceny by extortion in Manhattan Criminal Court. The 25-year-old accused Eliot Spitzer of choking her, then tried to shake him down for $400,000

The model and escort sobbed into her hands as she was held on a $1,000,000 bail. After the hearing she was taken to Rikers Island 

She is expected back in court on Friday for her second hearing. 

Travis told detectives that ex-New York governor Spitzer, 57, had assaulted her during a heated row in a $1,000 suite at The Plaza Hotel in February after she revealed plans to return to Moscow.

The escort and model then went back to her native Russia, hindering the police investigation into the alleged attack. She was arrested Monday after returning to New York.

She also was charged with forgery in an unrelated case in which police said she used information from a 67-year-old New Jersey man to sign a lease agreement, which ended up costing him $18,000.

Travis was arrested in New York on a grand felony charge after allegedly extorting $400,000 out of Spitzer over two years

Spitzer said in a civil suit that Travis made him pay so she wouldn't tell about their trysts, and that she accused him of choking her in February as revenge for him cutting ties with her

Prosecutors said she allegedly extorted $400,000 out of Spitzer over two years, the Post reported.

Spitzer, who resigned as governor in 2008 after he was accused of wiring more than $10,000 to an elite escort service, had admitted to a 'relationship' with Travis in a lawsuit filed in July.

That suit said Spitzer had paid money to stop Travis from making their 'trysts' public, and that her claims of assault were made against him in revenge for him cutting ties with her.

Dropped: He dropped the lawsuit last month, but the NYPD arrested her when she landed in New York on Monday after flying in from Russia. She had fled there after making the choking claim in February

Spitzer's representatives told in September that he had withdrawn the claims, 'without prejudice and without costs to either party as against the other.'

But the closure of that civil suit apparently meant little to the NYPD, which picked up Travis and hit her with the charges. 

Spitzer's suit claimed that Travis had 'demanded' a meeting with him on February 13, during a stopover while travelling from her home in California to Russia.

It said that she 'became enraged when [he] told her that he did not wish to maintain any relationship with her, that he did not intend to give her more property, and that he intended to end all contact.'

Travis called police and told them she had cut herself and was having a breakdown, Spitzer's attorney, Adam Kaufmann, said in February. 

'Fraud': Travis was also arrested on a separate forgery charge after allegedly signing a lease that resulted in a New Jersey man being billed for $18,000

Spitzer was present while police arrived, Kaufmann said, and 'sought to keep her calm.'

When police arrived they noticed a cut on her arm and a broken glass, and took her to hospital. There she told staff that Spitzer had choked her and shoved her after she told him of her plan to return to Russia.

But she refused to co-operate with police and flew to Russia later that night.

Spitzer is no stranger to controversy. The multi-millionaire son of real-estate tycoon Bernard Spitzer, he made a name for himself as a lawyer focusing on corrupt financiers.

Spitzer, formerly a celebrated lawyer, spent just a year as governor of New York before quitting in 2008 after it emerged that he may have spent up to $80,000 on call girls

The one-time 'Sheriff of Wall Street' was even considered presidential material, and became 57th governor of New York in 2007.

But he was forced to quit the following year after it was reported that he had at least seven meetings with high-end prostitutes over a six-month period and may have spent up to $80,000 on call girls over many years.

Infamous as Client 9 of the Emperors Club VIP call-girl ring, he resigned at a public press conference along with his wife Silda, who chose to stand by him.

He then tried to rehabilitate his public image with a stint as a CNN presenter before returning to work for his father, who died last year, leaving him $16million.

An affair with spin doctor Lis Smith in December 2013 is believed to have been the cause of his marriage's collapse in 2014. 

Silda walked away with $7.5million, $240,000-a-year for life, and the couple's luxury Fifth Avenue apartment.

Businesswoman: Travis claims that she came to New York with just $300, but managed to make $200,000 by working as a prostitute

Travis wrote an article about her experience as a prostitute for Medium in October 2014 titled 'Sex is Sex. But Money is Money' in which she describes herself as a 'businesswoman'.

'I did what politicians in this country are always encouraging immigrants to do: work hard, seize opportunity, maximize your talents,' she said in the article, which is attributed to 'Svetlana Z.'

In the piece, she boasts that she arrived in New York with just $300, but became successful after building a stable of clients. 

'I turned 24 in March and have managed to save $200,000 by f***ing for money,' she wrote.