The data system that nailed Spitzer and prostitution ring
Over at ZDNet, Larry Dignan has an interesting piece up today about an information-sharing network that exposed New York governor (presumably soon-to-be ex-governor) Eliot Spitzer's alleged ties to a prostitution ring:
On the surface, Spitzer’s downfall is a New York tabloid’s dream. Headlines like “Ho No!” scream on the New York Post. Wall Street is downright gleeful about Spitzer’s downfall (although Henry Blodget has shown an amazing amount of restraint).Link (thanks, Paul Boutin!)[W]hat really snared Spitzer was a money laundering investigation that was flagged by suspicious activity reports (SARs) that banks have to file with the Treasury to surface everything from money laundering to terrorist activity. This network has been around for a while, but its importance escalated following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. According to the FBI’s charges the prostitution ring that counted Spitzer as a customer was investigated due to some shady bank accounts, checks and wire transfers with big totals ($39,000, $400,000 and others).
the latest
latest episodes
"You see, a pimp's love is not like the love of a square."
Gray Davis - Siegelman - Spitzer
This is EXACTLY why the Bush administration wanted to be able to conduct surveillance without warrants.
Glen Greenwald "Who cares if Eliot Spitzer hires prostitutes?"
Jane Hamsher's questions:
1. Why would the bank tell the IRS and not Spitzer himself if there was a suspicious transfer?
2. What is a USA doing prosecuting a prostitution case?
3. Mike Garcia is a Chertoff crony.
4. How did Spitzer's name get leaked to the media, and who did it? Didn't happen to Dave Vitter.
5. Why did Mike Bloomberg suddenly start talking about running for governor recently?
6. The Mann Act? Are you kidding?
7. Spitzer's been in the line of fire of the GOP hit squad for a while. Roger Stone, Roger Stone, Roger Stone.
"Spitzer Springs A Leak" on Emptywheel
Here is a link to a PDF of the criminal complaint in the prostitution case.
309 investigations:
Democrats: 262
Republicans: 37
Independents: 10
It's hard to feel sorry for him; he was always tough on other people, he knew what he was doing was a crime!
while it is hypocritical in context of some of his soundbites in the past, as all illegal behavior by people in positions of authority obviously is, it is still quite common for men to hire prostitutes - check out the back pages of any alternaweekly - and it seems weird that they would demand his resignation from this.
Oh brother, here we go... anti-Bush conspiracy theories rehashed. Boring...
Anyway... These software programs (according to NPR) are also designed to track the money movement of PEPs (politically exposed persons) as an added layer of security.
More interesting is this Boston Globe article on how hookers elude detection.
http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2008/03/11/prostitution_advances_in_a_wired_world/
dumbass should've just gone to newyork.craigslist.org/ers/ like everyone else does.
Funny thing is Atty General Eliot Spitzer was the one who was so insistent on implementing the software that was used to detect his "suspicious activities." (according to NPR)
But really, who cares if Eliot Spitzer hires prostitutes. How does his sexual pleasure have any effect on how he governs? I'd say he'd probably do a better job if anything... stress reliever anyone?
why do the wives of the caught stand on stage in public with them? Can't a big boy look after himself?
why do the wives of the caught stand on stage in public with them?
That's the first thing that I thought. Given the focus on monogamy in the straight world, why wouldn't she have his nuts in a jar? Do political wives know that their husbands are straying? Is she running for president in 2016?
I was thinking more in terms of respectable husbands accepting death before hurting their wives.
The system that he was caught with utilizes form 8300 from the IRS, "Report of Cash Payments over $10,000." It's pretty simple, any payment you make of $10,000 in cash or a cash equivalent requires the receive institution to file a form. The receiving institution collects the necessary information from you, including your TIN/SSN, birth date, and verification of your identity by an ID. If you refuse to give them this information the form is flagged as a suspicious transaction. The form was originally implemented to locate drug dealers and drug traffickers, not terrorists.
Try searching the IRS website for more information.
Ssquach
You know, I am torn between my own (sadly) now-worldly view of "It was just a hooker, America, Grow Up!" and my spousal/health field worker outrage that he not only chose to risk his family's emotional welfare to get laid, but that he actually was known as being a "difficult customer" because he got petulant about using condoms.
So being governor gave him magical STD immunity?
I am also amazed at his wife's sense of duty in standing up there with him during the press conference. (and wonder if she knew about the condoms issue yet?? Poor thing, she probably called her best friend, her lawyer and her ob-gyn in that order.). If my husband pulled that in public office, I already told him he'd be standing up there alone....in a sparkly pink tutu and my highest stilettos (because I'd have hidden all his clothes and credit cards and locked him out of the house).
As far as the "#1" question there, the bank reported the transfers to the IRS because they constituted structuring. Structuring is when you deliberately manipulate deposits and withdrawals to avoid the $10,000 currency transfer reporting requirement, and is a reliable indicator that the person doing the structuring is engaged in illegal activity (usually money laundering or tax evasion). This is an utterly, perfectly routine referral by the bank to the IRS. It is especially routine in this case because the person engaged in structuring was a public official, and structuring by public officials normally is evidence of public corruption.
By the way, one of the two major candidates in the 2004 election wrote the enhanced financial reporting rules that were enacted as part of the Patriot Act, and ran in 2004 with a promise to make them even more strict. Which one? The one who served in Vietnam, not the one who skipped out on finishing his National Guard duty.
Perhaps his wife got like most women once they had kids? Boring in bed.
Please. I'm a fag and even I know which partner implodes first in straight marriages. It's not the wife.
@ #14: By the looks of that stunningly hot past-their-freshness-date couple, it was probably mutually boring.
And that BB headline title is made of win and awesome. XD
Total Information Awareness. This is what it means. Spying, leaking, destroying - selectively. Didn't the White House press secretary McClellen get a gay hooker press credentials? Wasn't that hooker in the WH vistor log dozens of times -- before the log went missing?
No warrant means fishing on spec. Fishing for tidbits. Tidbits that can be useful. J. Edgar Hoover used to invite people to listen to Martin Luther King sex recordings he had had made. Great fun.
It doesn't take a "conspiracy" to troll for sex crimes. A whistleblower recently swears that Carl Rove asked her to find evidence of sexual hanky-panky of one of the RNC's targets. These a-holes now have exclusive access to the biggest internal spying system in the history of mankind, and they are using it to further their party.
Why is Congress so reticent about impeachment? How about six years of having their every call, every bank transaction, every move on the internet tracked and recorded for eagle-eyed RNC operatives to find weaknesses? EVERYone has a secret. Hear the crickets in the halls of Congress..
And oh yeah - leaking this information about a case going to trial is a criminal offense. Not that anyone cares. Crime is only committed by the citizenry, never the government. Who's gonna charge them? Bush? The Justice Department?
And what the HELL is the FBI doing going after call girls and their customers?
Yaknow, I absolutely don't condone what Spitzer did, especially in light of his campaign platform.
But - why is this story always "Spitzer's has ties to a prostitution ring" rather than "Spitzer caught hiring a prostitute"? I honestly believed for the first 20 minutes or so after I was (half) watching a news report that Spitzer was acting as a pimp or something. The reporting on this has been awful: veiled references that imply much more than I now understand actually happened.
#20: I totally had the same reaction!! I was like what? Does Spitzer run a prostitution ring? Then the next rumor was that the prostitution ring had to do something with his campaign finance - did he use the campaign money itself for buying hookers? It doesn't seem that way, just that his personal finances were under suspicion as a politician, and the amount of money he was paying out to said prostitute was the same kind of amount that flags for money laundering.
So all he did wrong was hire a prostitute. Which comes down to moral sensibilities. It sucks, but not worthy of his resignation, I don't think. Plus probably influenced by watching too much of the Wire, i smell conspiraacccyyy.
Superficial, I know, since I know nothing else about the man, but I am totally excited by the possibility my home state could soon be sporting a blind [and first new york, fourth ever american] black governor.
God what a phony Spitzer way. Good riddance. He had a clever shtick though. He only cared about his own power--nothing he did was for the people even if it did occasionally benefit The People. He should have known better than to be so careless given the very powerful enemies he created. What an idiot. Couldn't control his lust for power, couldn't control his lust either.
I love when hypocrits fall. I'm not sure if this is just another example of the evil govenment violating Spitzer's PRIVACY. But, he's a public servant and, AND the government is busting him.