Morale Booster

If you’ve ever wondered who these people were who stroll around Central Park in the middle of the day or spend their afternoons shopping on Madison Avenue — if you’ve ever wondered who exactly it is who affords to live like they live in Manhattan — rest assured, they’re probably doing something illegal:

A Manhattan madam with a Mercedes and a posh Trump Palace pad has been busted for running a multimillion-dollar, high-priced call-girl ring with her hooker-booker sister, cops said yesterday.

Jenny Paulino, 46, was nabbed at older sister Elise’s home at 163 W. 80th St. on Friday evening after rushing back from the West Coast when she learned their ring had been busted in a sting, sources said.

The madam was charged with promoting prostitution and money laundering as the ringleader of American Beauties Escort Service — a pricey prostitution purveyor that catered to rich businessmen and out-of-towners willing to plunk down at least $1,000 an hour for steamy sex, cops said.

The sex business — which ran ads in publications like New York magazine — banked on Brazilian beauties and exotic Eastern European model-types to woo its well-heeled clients, authorities said.

The gig brought in an estimated $10 million a year, one source said.

The ring was betrayed by a regular john who agreed to cooperate with NYPD investigators after being squeezed on drug charges, a source said.

One of Jenny Paulino’s neighbors said the accused madam always told friends she was “in the insurance industry.”

“I’m in shock,” said Mary Dona, 24, adding that Jenny always dressed down and usually went out only to go to the gym or walk her two small, white dogs. “I didn’t know she was that type of person at all.”

In an odd twist, the 50-year-old Elise — who was charged with promoting prostitution — had once been at the center of a sensational murder case in Long Island. She had been used for an alibi by her then-boyfriend, Harvey Brown, who had been eyed in his parents’ 1997 deaths.

One of Elise’s neighbors last night said the woman and her tiny gray dog were beloved fixtures of the neighborhood.

“She’s the sweetest woman,” Jill Gilmartin said.

Elise was nabbed Thursday at American Beauties’ office on the third floor of 242 E. 60th St. — a floor above the reputed brothel.

Also arrested there for promoting prostitution were Donna Cohen, 49, of Bloomfield, N.J., and Monika Hajkoba, a 27-year-old Czech national, police said.

Busted at the cozy brothel were 34-year-old hooker Hatvig “Heidi” Kaeser and leggy 26-year-old blonde Martina Gavrieli, cops said.

The two-bedroom establishment was cluttered yesterday with cans of Diet Coke and Budweiser and bottles of Poland Spring water. A black Bible lay on top of the fridge, while a large sex toy had been tossed in the trash nearby.

Each bedroom boasted a fireplace and stash of condoms. On one bed was a tape of Victoria’s Secret’s London Symphony Orchestra rendition of “Pleasures and Passions.” A closet was stuffed with Britannica Classic books still in plastic.

One female neighbor shrugged off news of the brothel. “They were very discreet,” she said. “I never saw any men, just pretty, young women.”

The bust netted a total of more than $31,000 from the brothel, business and the Paulinos’ homes.

Jenny, who lives in a Trump Palace apartment at 205 E. 68th St., also has a home in Miami Beach.

I get the other stuff, but what’s with the bible? And the encyclopedias, for that matter?