Former Briarcliff resident Mark Brener admitted in Manhattan federal court last Thursday that he headed the prostitution ring that ultimately led to the downfall of former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer.

The 62-year-old Brener pleaded guilty to running the Emperors Club, an Internet call-girl business, from the 12th floor of the Cliffside Park condominium complex on Gorge Road. He also said that he attempted to launder money made through the prostitution service using two fraudulent companies, QAT Consulting and QAT International.

Under an agreement reached between Brener and the United States Attorney’s Office, Brener faces up to 30 months in prison. Brener is being held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York and will be sentenced in September.

Cecil Suwal, Brener’s girlfriend and the money manager behind Emperors Club, entered into a plea bargain earlier this month and will serve between 21 and 27 month in prison, previously published reports indicated.

Suwal, 23, lived with Brener at the Briarcliff for approximately three years. All operations, prosecutors claim, were based out of the high-rise building. There, they arranged dates between wealthy clients and call girls in New York, Washington and Miami, as well as overseas locations such as London and Paris. Some customers paid more than $5,000 an hour for a call girl.

Federal investigators arrested Brener and Suwal at their Cliffside Park condo in early March. Less than a week later, authorities learned that one of Emperors Club’s clients was Spitzer, who was involved in several trysts with a prostitute named "Kristen." Reports indicate that Spitzer had paid nearly $4,300 for the hooker, later learned to be Monmouth County native and aspiring singer Ashley Alexandra Dupree.

Neither Spitzer nor the 22-year-old Dupre have been charged, but Spitzer resigned from the Empire State’s gubernatorial post on March 12.

The Cliffside Park unit that Brener and Suwal occupied has since been cleared of their belongings.