How Those Federal Banking Laws Brought Down Eliot Spitzer :: National News

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March 12, 2008

How Those Federal Banking Laws Brought Down Eliot Spitzer

Topics: National News

For all you readers rushing out to transfer money so that you too can spend a few hours with the likes of Spitzer's "escorts," you might want to be sure you don't duplicate the same mistakes Spitzer made.

Andrew Cochran explains at the Counterterrorism Blog:

Spitzer had the money broken down into several smaller amounts of under $10,000 each, apparently to avoid getting around federal regulations requiring the reporting of the transfer of $10,000 or more, the sources said. The regulations are aimed at helping spot possible illegal business activities, such as frauds or drug deals. Apparently, having second thoughts about even sending the total amount in this manner because it still might reveal what he was doing, Spitzer then asked that the bank to take his name off the wires, the sources said. Bank officials declined, however, saying that it was improper to do so and in any event, it was too late to do so, because the money already had been sent, the sources said. The bank then, as is required by law, filed an SAR, or Suspicious Activity Report, with the Internal Revenue Service, reporting the transfer of the money that exceeded $10,000, but had been broken down into smaller amounts, the sources said."

And so began the federal investigation that resulted in the resignation of the Governor of New York, Eliot Spitzer ...

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FYI - Spitzer's chicks may be expensive, but .....