NEW YORK (AP)  -- An international prostitution ring that charged wealthy clients in Europe and the United States up to $5,500 an hour for the body of their choice was stripped of its high-class veneer with the arrest of four organizers, prosecutors announced Thursday.

Charges were unsealed in Manhattan accusing the four of participating in a prostitution ring that called itself Emperors Club VIP from at least December 2004, U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia said.

On its Web site, the company displays photographs of the prostitutes' bodies, with their faces hidden, along with hourly rates depending on whether the prostitutes were rated with one diamond, the lowest ranking, or seven diamonds, the highest.

A three-diamond prostitute would cost $1,000 per hour while a seven-diamond prostitute would charge $3,100, prosecutors said. The Icon Club allowed access to the most highly ranked prostitutes at $5,500 an hour, they said.

Authorities said the defendants arranged connections between wealthy men and more than 50 prostitutes in New York, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Miami, London and Paris.

The defendants were charged with conspiracy to violate federal prostitution laws. Two of those charged also were accused of conspiring to launder more than $1 million in illicit proceeds from the prostitution crimes.

All four were arrested Thursday morning.

In a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, FBI agent Kenneth Hosey said clients were told they could pay with a wire transfer to the Emperors Club because it would show up on records as QAT Consulting to make it appear to be a business transaction.

Much of the complaint traced how law enforcement authorities learned about the business through tape-recorded telephone calls and text messages.

For instance, two of the defendants discussed on Feb. 7 that an Emperors Club client had complained that one of their prostitutes was ``more sex than sexy,'' the document said.

Four days later, two of those charged exchanged text messages noting that the three-day rates for two prostitutes were $50,000 and $35,000, respectively, Hosey said.

In an affidavit submitted as part of a search warrant application, Hosey asked for permission to raid a Brooklyn location as part of a probe of the Emperors Club that began in October.

Hosey said the defendants had earned more than $1 million illegally through the business.

The agent said evidence during the probe included statements from a confidential source and an undercover officer, a review of more than 5,000 telephone calls and text messages and more than 6,000 e-mails along with bank records, travel and hotel records and surveillance.

Those arrested were identified as Mark Brener, 62, and Cecil Suwal, 23, who live together in Cliffside Park, N.J.; Temeka Rachelle Lewis, 32, of Brooklyn; and Tanya Hollander, 36, of Rhinebeck, N.Y.

Late Thursday, all four made an initial appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael H. Dolinger. No pleas were entered.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Dan Stein said he believed the business will have been shut down by the arrests.

He said a search of Brener's apartment produced $600,000 in cash and an Israeli passport. He asked that Brener be held without bail.

Brener's lawyer, Jennifer Brown, said her client was a U.S. citizen who had lived in the United States for 20 years. The judge ordered him detained without bail.

Hollander and Lewis were released on $250,000 bail each. Lewis's lawyer, Daniel Gordon, declined to comment.

Suwal was not immediately able to post her $500,000 bail. Her lawyer, Daniel Parker, said she denies the charges.

``We're going to conduct a thorough investigation into the charges,'' he said. ``At the end of the day, we think she'll be completely vindicated.''

Hollander's lawyer, Mary Mulligan, did not immediately return a telephone message for comment.