Official: Cash triggered Spitzer probe

[Demeter]

Source: AP via Yahoo

By AMY WESTFELDT, Associated Press Writer
31 minutes ago



NEW YORK - Gov. Eliot Spitzer's role in a prostitution scandal grew out of a public corruption inquiry triggered by his movement of large amounts of cash from several bank accounts to one that operated by a call-girl ring, a law enforcement official said Tuesday.

Spitzer was the initial target of the investigation and was tracked using court-ordered wiretaps that appear to have recorded him arranging for a prostitute to meet him at a Washington hotel in mid-February, the official said...The case started when banks noticed the frequent transfers from several accounts and filed suspicious activity reports with the Internal Revenue Service, the official said. The accounts were traced back to Spitzer, prompting public corruption investigators to open an inquiry.

Attorney General Michael Mukasey was made aware of the investigation because it involved a high-ranking political official...Charges against Spitzer have not been decided and it depends mostly on "how aggressive the U.S. attorney wants to be," the law enforcement official said. Charges could including anything from Mann act violations to banking violations to possibly wire fraud.


Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080311/ap_on_re_us/spitzer_prostitution_70

[acmavm]

1. Moving large amounts of cash from private bank accounts to

one operated by a call girl ring??? Oh what a rocket scientist.

[Winterblues]

10. What is considered a "large" amount of cash?

Just how much did these "call girls" cost? I was under the impression that anything over ten thousand dollars had to be reported but I can't imagine him spending that at any one time...:shrug:

[acmavm]

13. Well if they're looking at money going from a guy who's supposed

have been tough on prostitution an drugs into a bank account belonging to a high-price establishment that provides said hookers, I imagine it don't take much.

It's the stupidity of it all that should be the real crime.

[BadgerLaw2010]

14. $10K+, or multiple thousands repeatedly, as was apparently the case here.

Particularly the latter, as that almost always means you are trying to evade the CTR reporting requirement on $10K+. That reeks of money laundering, especially when money is going offshore to companies with names like QAT Consulting and other obvious shell crap.

[onehandle]

2. He'd better resign today. We need these headlines buried. nt

[sui generis]

11. I hope he doesn't resign.

Prostitution is legal in Nevada. We are such fucking simpering prudes.

Money laundering involves recharacterizing your source of income from illegal to legal. If he paid taxes on the money he transferred, it ain't money laundering.

Where is the warrant for his phone tap?

Good grief. Of all the people that need to "get over it" I say we start with us.

[rox63]

3. As a former AG, he should have known better

Sorry Governor Spitzer, you need to step down.

[Magleetis]

4. What a bonehead n/t

[chelsea0011]

5. Case closed. Amen. Resign now.No more conspiracy threads.

[KittyWampus]

7. you are a busy little bee on these threads, like it's your mission to make DU'ers think Spitzer has

no right to defend himself.

[chelsea0011]

18. I would like to get back to the primary and George Bush and his war crimes

and drop Spitzer and his pants problems....soon. And conspiracy threads don't do much for me.

[trthnd4jstc]

6. For the Sake of the Party, Govener Spitzer, Please Resign. nt

[YankmeCrankme]

8. Aren't rich people transfering large amount of money a common occurance?

The story doesn't say exactly the amount, but $5,500 has been mentioned and is that really considered a large amount of cash? Are banks routinely filing suspicious money transfers with the IRS every time $5,000 or more is moved in a bank account? That would amount to millions of filings a day, I would suspect.

This really sounds like it has to do with that whole lawyer firing fiasco that has never been resolved satisfactorily because the DOJ won't pursue the contempt charges against WH staff. Wasn't that whole thing about the Republicans putting party loyalists in as DOJ lawyers to investigate, pursue and charge Democrats with any illegal activity to the exclusion of anything else? Not that I don't think that illegal surveillance targeting enemies of the administration isn't part of it either.

[Mojorabbit]

9. I read a NYT article

that says they started this investigation over a year ago. I am guessing since we only have the transcripts that said he met the hooker in Feb that it was not the first time if he was doing transfers for over a year. Plus if they only started looking into it a year ago there would have had to be suspicious transactions before that. So a one time transaction should not have triggered an investigation but multiple transactions would.

[Demeter]

12. The Only Suspicious Transactions Were Going After Wall Street Fraudsters

They went on a fishing expedition, and Spitzer took the bait.

[BadgerLaw2010]

15. Yes it is common, and yes, they flag every time. It's a flat rule.

Once something flags, it is evaluated. Here, you have a governor who is sending money repeatedly out of the country to very shady shell companies in the British Commonwealth.

[YankmeCrankme]

17. But, that isn't what they got him on. They got him for spending it on a prostitute.

Still seems suspicious and the fact that it was a long term investigation makes it even more so.

I live in Vegas and you can't tell me that rich guys who come here and gamble a lot of money don't make large cash transactions with their banks and spend money on prostitutes/escorts. I haven't read or heard of one of them being investigated and charged.

With their stated goal of targeting Democrats with the DOJ and the firing of lawyers who wouldn't play ball with that it seems to me that this is what its all about. The fact that Spitzer had a tryst with a prostitute is one thing and frankly using the archaic Mann act smacks of desperation and hypocrisy.

The DOJ will vigorously pursue this, but not the contempt charges against WH staff is all I need to know.

[PSPS]

16. In other words, they weren't investigating a crime but, rather, a person.

What a change bush has brought upon us with his politicized "justice department." They were out to "get" Spitzer and were watching everything he did, hoping to find something. And they did.

Apparently, Wall Street blogs were jumping for joy at this news. They were literally popping the corks on champaign bottles on some trading floors.

[snooper2]

19. Wow...

to sum it up...

He's fucked...he should hang it up now....

[SayitAintSo]

20. Dan Seigalman ring a bell ? n/t