Suit: Fleiss fleeced by friend

RETIRED madam Heidi Fleiss paid a former local TV reporter to invest in bitcoin as a way to fund her parrot sanctuary. Somehow, the plan went wrong.

According to court papers, famed “Hollywood Madam” Fleiss let pal Elizabeth Keatinge — a former NY1 reporter whom Fleiss says she’d known for some 16 years — handle Fleiss’ cryptocurrency trades on her behalf, sinking some $1 million that she inherited from her father into the market.

Now, Fleiss is suing Keatinge for $4 million — the original investment, plus the profit — claiming that Keatinge stopped returning her calls and disappeared with the dough.

Heartbroken Fleiss says that she was try- ing to raise money to run her Nevada sanctuary for down-on-their-luck macaws, a particularly large breed of parrot that are often abandoned by owners once they reach their full size. She told Page Six that she’s struggling to feed herself and the birds.

Fleiss called it her “best move and worst move all in one, financially,” because she bought bitcoin when it was at $600 per coin, and it rose to $20,000 per coin.

She told us that she “sank everything I had into bitcoin,” but when she asked for the money in November 2017, Keatinge ducked her calls and locked her out of the accounts.

“To steal from these birds, who really need help — it’s despicable,” Fleiss said.

She told us that this is the second time in her life she’s been financially ruined. She ran a very profitable sex-work ring in Los Angeles in the early 1990s, but she told us that after she was arrested for “pandering” (or pimping) — and eventually jailed for tax evasion in 1996 — she left prison “without socks.”

She told us that she works with the Parrots First organization, and has a YouTube channel about her work with the birds.

Her attorney, Robert Hantman, told us, “I’ll be seeking justice for Heidi and her macaw parrots. Anyone crossing Heidi and expecting to get away with it will pay a steep price.”