The woman accused of being the primary booker for the prostitution ring patronized by Eliot Spitzer is expected to plead guilty this week to charges related to her role in the ring, people involved in the matter said Monday.

The woman, Temeka Rachelle Lewis, 32, is expected to plead guilty in federal District Court in Manhattan to charges of money laundering conspiracy and conspiracy to commit interstate travel in aid of racketeering, one of the people said. She would be the first of the four defendants charged in the ring’s operations to have her case adjudicated.

Lawyers for the three other defendants charged with operating the ring — which the authorities said arranged for wealthy men to meet women in fancy hotels across the United States and Europe — have been negotiating possible guilty pleas with Manhattan federal prosecutors, according to court papers filed last week.

Two of the three are expected to plead to charges soon, the people involved in the matter said.

Mr. Spitzer announced his resignation as governor on March 12, two days after reports that he was the man referred to as Client No. 9 in court papers filed in the case against the ring, the Emperor’s Club V.I.P. He could face criminal charges, possibly stemming from transactions to pay for at least half a dozen meetings with prostitutes.

Several former prosecutors and defense lawyers said the movement toward resolving the charges against Ms. Lewis and her codefendants suggested that prosecutors were nearing a decision on whether to prosecute Mr. Spitzer. The pleas do not indicate clearly what decision the government might reach, they said.

“It’s an indication — it’s not definitive” that a decision is near on Mr. Spitzer, said Patricia A. Pileggi, a criminal defense lawyer who served for 25 years as a federal prosecutor, five of them as the chief of the public corruption unit in the United States attorney’s office in Brooklyn.

Brandy Bergman, a spokeswoman for Mr. Spitzer, declined to comment, as did Rebekah Carmichael, a spokeswoman for the office of Michael J. Garcia, United States attorney in Manhattan, which is prosecuting the prostitution case.

Ms. Lewis did most of the booking for the ring, according to prosecutors, and a half-dozen of her conversations with Mr. Spitzer about arranging a Feb. 13 liaison with a prostitute in Washington were secretly recorded by the F.B.I. and were described in court papers.

Ms. Lewis’s lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, said he had no comment on whether she was cooperating with the government.

“However, I can say that I am privy to the contents of the audio tapes and other evidence,” he said. “There is substantial information independent of anything Ms. Lewis might say that shows that others are complicit in these offenses.”

Murray Richman, who represents Mark Brener, the 62-year-old Israeli émigré charged with running the ring, said that he was working toward reaching a plea agreement for his client, and that the matter could be resolved soon. Mr. Brener has been held without bail since his arrest on March 6. Like his codefendants, he was charged with violations of the Mann Act, money laundering conspiracy and conspiracy to commit interstate transportation in aid of racketeering.

A lawyer for Tanya Hollander, 36, a nutritionist who only worked part time for the ring, also said that her case could be resolved soon.

“We’ve been actively discussing this matter with the government, and believe we will be clarifying a possible resolution in the coming weeks,” said the lawyer, Michael C. Farkas.

A lawyer for the fourth defendant, Cecil Suwal, 23, who prosecutors said ran the ring’s day-to-day operations, did not return a call seeking comment.

Source: NY Times