NY Governor Spitzer Linked to Prostitution Ring

[Penguin]

JackRiddler:
Seems Kroll is the leading data recovery company now..
They have acquired quite a few European companies. No info on them obtaining Convar thou - unless its happened thru obtaining a majority share in some other company that would control Convar. No such data.

But here are some other links of Kroll and data recovery acquisitions:

http://www.allbusiness.com/company-acti ... 237-1.html
"Kroll Ontrack Completes Acquisition of Norway's Ibas Holdings; Deal Further Strengthens.."

http://www.ontrackdatarecovery.co.uk/da ... elease=301
"Kroll Inc., (NASDAQ: KROL), the global risk consulting company, announced today that it has acquired Oyez Legal Technologies Limited (OLT), the U.K market leader in litigation support and legal information management services, from the OyezStraker Group Limited." (litigation support includes various services, one of them data recovery = discovery / disclosure)

http://www.ibas.com/press/articles/IBAS-2005-04-11
"Ibas acquires European competitor Vogon
Computer security specialist Ibas is acquiring UK-based Vogon International Ltd, making it European market leader for data recovery and computer forensics"

http://www.ontrackdatarecovery.com/data ... ease=34057
"Kroll Ontrack Completes Acquisition of Norway’s Ibas Holdings
-- Deal Further Strengthens Leadership Position Worldwide in Data Recovery and Computer Forensics Marketplace --"

http://www.politicalfriendster.com/show ... name=Kroll

http://www.politicalfriendster.com/show ... ce-Spitzer

http://www.politicalfriendster.com/show ... anies-(MMC)

(Political Friendster also has the blurb of Kroll/Convar, but no proof and just a link to Libertyforum as reference ) Also says Kroll would have been the one to beef up security at WTC after 1993 bombing. Backed by Wikipedia article -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kroll_Inc.

"The Heroin Trail case

In 1987, in the prominent First Amendment case over The Heroin Trail stories in New York Newsday, attorney Floyd Abrams enlisted Kroll's help to find an eyewitness: "But was it conceivable that we could come up with an eyewitness who could be of help? I called Jules Kroll, the CEO of Kroll Associates, the nation's most acclaimed investigative firm, to ask him if he could inquire, through the extensive range of former law enforcement officials employed by him, whether Karaduman was known to be a drug trafficker in Istanbul."[1] Kroll came through: two weeks into the trial the firm produced Faraculah Arras, who was prepared to testify he was involved in one of Karaduman's drug deals. "I was stunned," recalled Abrams.

Abrams used Kroll again in 1998 to investigate claims by CNN's Newstand documentary that sarin nerve gas had been used in Vietnam in 1970 as part of Operation Tailwind.[2]

[edit] WTC & Sears Tower security

Kroll were responsible for revamping security at the World Trade Center after the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.[3] They also took on responsibility for security at Chicago's Sears Tower following the September 11, 2001 attacks.[4]"

http://www.politicalfriendster.com/show ... -Greenberg

[JackRiddler]

JackRiddler: thanks for correcting! Appreciated...
Neverthless, the data isnt publicly released, and theres been no significant news of the recovery process.

Nor do we even know who the Convar clients were for WTC data recovery.

But AIG did buy Kroll. http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/na ... /42403.htm

I dont think this changes the intrigue level of these connections too much..?

Sure. AIG might be using Kroll to get blackmail leverage on everyone in the government and guarantee its particularly outrageous series of bailouts. Or that might not be necessary, since AIG at center of credit-default swap mess and thus World's Biggest Domino. Or whatever.

Intrigue level always high.

And we are left perpetually with the Americans' Curse:

"May you be free to believe anything, and to know nothing."

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[Penguin]

Yea.
Happily Im neither american nor believe, Im just a happy freewheelin internet leech.

Just like the scene in Ghost in the Shell, where Major Kusanagi enters an online chatroom discussing the Laughing Man case. She goes there to hear out the versions different conspiracy hobbyists have come up with, and one seems to hit close to home...

[JackRiddler]

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Reviewed this. No one seems to have thrown in the Feb. 14, 2008 Wash Post column by Spitzer that almost certainly precipitated his downfall four weeks later. So here goes:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 83_pf.html

Predatory Lenders' Partner in Crime
How the Bush Administration Stopped the States From Stepping In to Help Consumers

By Eliot Spitzer
Thursday, February 14, 2008; A25


Several years ago, state attorneys general and others involved in consumer protection began to notice a marked increase in a range of predatory lending practices by mortgage lenders. Some were misrepresenting the terms of loans, making loans without regard to consumers' ability to repay, making loans with deceptive "teaser" rates that later ballooned astronomically, packing loans with undisclosed charges and fees, or even paying illegal kickbacks. These and other practices, we noticed, were having a devastating effect on home buyers. In addition, the widespread nature of these practices, if left unchecked, threatened our financial markets.

Even though predatory lending was becoming a national problem, the Bush administration looked the other way and did nothing to protect American homeowners. In fact, the government chose instead to align itself with the banks that were victimizing consumers.

Predatory lending was widely understood to present a looming national crisis. This threat was so clear that as New York attorney general, I joined with colleagues in the other 49 states in attempting to fill the void left by the federal government. Individually, and together, state attorneys general of both parties brought litigation or entered into settlements with many subprime lenders that were engaged in predatory lending practices. Several state legislatures, including New York's, enacted laws aimed at curbing such practices.

What did the Bush administration do in response? Did it reverse course and decide to take action to halt this burgeoning scourge? As Americans are now painfully aware, with hundreds of thousands of homeowners facing foreclosure and our markets reeling, the answer is a resounding no.

Not only did the Bush administration do nothing to protect consumers, it embarked on an aggressive and unprecedented campaign to prevent states from protecting their residents from the very problems to which the federal government was turning a blind eye.

Let me explain: The administration accomplished this feat through an obscure federal agency called the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). The OCC has been in existence since the Civil War. Its mission is to ensure the fiscal soundness of national banks. For 140 years, the OCC examined the books of national banks to make sure they were balanced, an important but uncontroversial function. But a few years ago, for the first time in its history, the OCC was used as a tool against consumers.

In 2003, during the height of the predatory lending crisis, the OCC invoked a clause from the 1863 National Bank Act to issue formal opinions preempting all state predatory lending laws, thereby rendering them inoperative. The OCC also promulgated new rules that prevented states from enforcing any of their own consumer protection laws against national banks. The federal government's actions were so egregious and so unprecedented that all 50 state attorneys general, and all 50 state banking superintendents, actively fought the new rules.

But the unanimous opposition of the 50 states did not deter, or even slow, the Bush administration in its goal of protecting the banks. In fact, when my office opened an investigation of possible discrimination in mortgage lending by a number of banks, the OCC filed a federal lawsuit to stop the investigation.

Throughout our battles with the OCC and the banks, the mantra of the banks and their defenders was that efforts to curb predatory lending would deny access to credit to the very consumers the states were trying to protect. But the curbs we sought on predatory and unfair lending would have in no way jeopardized access to the legitimate credit market for appropriately priced loans. Instead, they would have stopped the scourge of predatory lending practices that have resulted in countless thousands of consumers losing their homes and put our economy in a precarious position.

When history tells the story of the subprime lending crisis and recounts its devastating effects on the lives of so many innocent homeowners, the Bush administration will not be judged favorably. The tale is still unfolding, but when the dust settles, it will be judged as a willing accomplice to the lenders who went to any lengths in their quest for profits. So willing, in fact, that it used the power of the federal government in an unprecedented assault on state legislatures, as well as on state attorneys general and anyone else on the side of consumers.

The writer is governor of New York.


© 2008 The Washington Post Company

[brainpanhandler]

Wire Records on Spitzer to Be Opened

By WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM
Published: February 19, 2009

A federal judge on Thursday ordered the federal prosecutors whose investigation exposed former Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s involvement with a prostitute to unseal court records that may shed some light on the origins of the case, which led to his resignation in March 2008.

The judge, Jed S. Rakoff of Federal District Court in Manhattan, ordered federal prosecutors to provide the records — sworn affidavits that were part of wiretap applications in the case — to The New York Times, which in December filed a motion to have the material unsealed.

Prosecutors argued that the documents should not be released, citing the privacy concerns of the more than 60 apparent clients of the prostitution ring who were intercepted and the need for confidentiality of law enforcement investigations.

But The Times agreed to the redaction of the names of the people who were apparently clients, and Judge Rakoff said there was no longer a need for confidentiality concerning the investigation, which has concluded with charges against four people involved in the ring. Mr. Spitzer was never charged with a crime.

The judge, in ruling for The Times, wrote that “there is obvious interest in obtaining information about the origins of an investigation that led, ultimately, to the resignation of the governor.”

Such documents generally detail the early stages of an inquiry and describe the investigative steps taken as part of the request that a judge sign a wiretap order. In this case, the government was seeking to tap the cellphones of two people involved in the escort service, Emperor’s Club V.I.P.

The documents were not immediately released; Judge Rakoff ordered prosecutors to make the redactions and release them next week.

According to the briefs filed by both sides, no federal judge has ordered the unsealing of such documents at the request of a news organization. A spokeswoman for the office of the prosecutor, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, would not say whether an appeal was planned.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/20/nyreg ... itzer.html


Judge orders release of Spitzer wiretap documents

By TOM HAYS – 4 days ago

NEW YORK (AP) — The government must release sealed documents that could reveal new details about the origins and scope of the prostitution investigation that brought down former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, a judge ordered Thursday.

U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff wrote in federal court in Manhattan that the documents, which were FBI applications for wiretaps, should be unsealed "given the strong and obvious public interest in disclosure." He ordered them released by Tuesday.

Prosecutors, who can appeal the decision, had no immediate comment.

The New York Times sued late last year to get access to the documents, which name the 67 people besides Spitzer who were clients of Emperor's Club VIP, a high-end prostitute service. The Times has agreed to allow the government to withhold the names of the customers in the documents.

None of those customers except Spitzer has ever been identified and no client was ever charged. Four people who operated the ring were charged with prostitution and money laundering and have pleaded guilty.

The government has voluntarily unsealed a search warrant application for Emperor's e-mail account, but it withheld applications for wiretaps on cell phones, including one used by a woman who booked appointments with prostitutes.

Prosecutors had argued the release of the documents would violate the privacy of callers and reveal sensitive investigative techniques.

But Rakoff found that "any threats to privacy are eliminated by the redactions (of names) previously agreed to" by prosecutors and the Times.

Spitzer resigned last year after details were revealed of a tryst with one of the ring's prostitutes in a Washington hotel. Investigators had been looking into the governor's affairs after noticing unusual activity — later shown to be payments to prostitutes — in his bank accounts.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/art ... wD96ET4K80

[JackRiddler]

.

Tuesday. That's today. The stories have the right lead for once: what matters is the origins and scope of the investigation (as opposed to salacious details of the affair itself in the tabloid vein).

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[Penguin]

Prosecutors had argued the release of the documents would violate the privacy of callers and reveal sensitive investigative techniques.

Yeah, Theyre always so fucking concerned about privacy when its THEIR privacy.

Just yesterday an asshole negotiator for Business Interests union here complained loudly about an email of his being leaked. An email where he pressured unions (workers unions!) to accept Lex Nokia, that would allow employers to - YES - SPY ON EMAIL HEADERS. Fucknuts. Woo-hoo.

[JackRiddler]

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Tell us about Lex Nokia. All I know is that porn picture.

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[Penguin]

I will...

First some history...2 finnish corporations have so far been caught breaking the law. What they did was look (without permit, against law) into the email headers (and I bet the emails too), and in Soneras case, also phone records since its a phone / ISP company...Trying to find leaks - in Nokias case leaks to competitor Huawei, and in Soneras case a leaker who leaked data concerning Soneras adventures abroad buying 3G network permits in Germany years ahead of anyone using 3G - in the end losing them almost 5 billion euros, which the gov then bailed out. Neither company reported the stuff to the police who could have done that, given proper search warrants by courts, but they did not. Then they got caught and a police investigation was done, and the companies found guilty.

Nokia did this TWICE.

After the second one in (2005 I think) they started lobbying for a law change that would make such practice (spying on employees without a warrant) legal. It would also make such spying legal for ANYone operating ANY network - namely - flat buildings running HomePNA, universities, libraries, every and any company, so on. Even the police does not have such rights without a warrant. And this would all be legal for them to do, based on any suspicion.

This would also require changing the constitution, based on opinions of I think at least 5 or more constitutional law experts - which means that two consecutive parliaments would need to pass the law with 2/3 majority - since the passage that way would be very unlikely, the parliament just ignored the experts opinions and decided to change the law in normal proceedings. Today was the last discussion, next week I think is the final vote. It is opposed fiercely by leftist parties and most of the greens, EXCEPT the green Justice minister! Pfftt.. And another minister claimed that employers could strip search employees too to find out if theyre trying to smuggle USB sticks out - also clearly illegal, now and in the future even if the law would pass, and later she claimed it was a bloody joke. Nobodys laughing thou.

Whats more, several people involved told that Nokia has exerted pressure on the legislature, as well as business unions - the leaked email I referred to was a business unions rep urging / threatening workers unions to publicly support the law.

Nokia threatened (behind stages and circuitously of course) to move their head office out of Finland unless the law passes...They deny this of course..In such a small country Nokia and its subcontractors are a large employer, around 15000 people I think for Nokia proper, and more for subcontractors.

http://www.edri.org/edri-gram/number6.2 ... d-snooping
http://omglog.com/tag/lex-nokia

BTW, dont buy Nokia products. Ever.
http://www.hs.fi/english/article/Nokia% ... 5234386924

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php? ... a&aid=9983
NokiaSiemens surveillance all-in-one automatic solution - in use in over 60 law abiding countries...Another product of theirs.

[AlicetheKurious]

Thanks for the info, Penguin. Nokia is by far the best-selling brand of mobile phones in Egypt.

[Penguin]

I bet Egypt has bought those surveillance systems as well...
(Considering they do business with Turkmenistan, and they've told they've sold those systems to "over 60 countries" but refuse to tell which - 60 countries some time ago...I bet its more now. And law-abiding doesnt count for much if they dont abide the law themselves, in even the country their HQ is in )

[AlicetheKurious]

Duh. You think?

[brainpanhandler]

March 2, 2009, 5:50 pm

Prosecutors Fight Release of Spitzer Records
By William K. Rashbaum

Prosecutors of the prostitution case that exposed Eliot Spitzer as a client while he was governor are appealing a court order directing them to unseal records that may shed light on the origins of the investigation. The case led to Mr. Spitzer’s resignation as governor of New York in March 2008.

The Feb. 19 ruling by Jed S. Rakoff of United States District Court in Manhattan ordered the federal prosecutors to provide the records — including sworn affidavits that were part of wiretap applications in the case — to The New York Times, which in December filed a motion to unseal the material.

The prosecutors, from the United States attorney’s office in Manhattan, filed a notice in court on Monday saying that they would appeal Judge Rakoff’s ruling to the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, a decision that was made by senior Justice Department officials in Washington.

Documents like the affidavits sought by The Times generally detail the early stages of an inquiry and describe the investigative steps taken as part of the request to the judge for a wiretap order. In this instance, the government was seeking to tap the cellphones of two people involved in the prostitution ring, the Emperor’s Club V.I.P.

The Times, in arguing for the release of the documents, had cited suspicions raised on liberal blogs — and even among some Republicans — that the prostitution case, which began with an investigation of Mr. Spitzer, was a politically motivated attack. Mr. Spitzer, a zealous pursuer of Wall Street wrongdoing as state attorney general before he became governor, had been mentioned as a prospect for higher office.

No federal judge has previously ordered the unsealing of such documents at the request of a news organization, according to briefs filed in the case by The Times and the prosecutors.

A spokeswoman for the United States Attorney’s office would not say why the decision was made to appeal.

Judge Rakoff, in his ruling, wrote that “there is obvious interest in obtaining information about the origins of an investigation that led, ultimately, to the resignation of the governor of New York.”

Before the judge made his decision, prosecutors had argued that the documents should not be released because of privacy concerns of clients and prostitutes whose conversations were intercepted and the need for confidentiality of law enforcement investigations.

But The Times had agreed to the redaction of the names of the apparent clients. Judge Rakoff concluded that there was no need for confidentiality because the inquiry had concluded, with charges against four people involved in the ring. Mr. Spitzer was never charged with a crime.

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/ ... r-records/

[brainpanhandler]

Law Blog
WSJ on the notable cases, trends and personalities of interest to the business community.


March 5, 2009, 8:43 AM ET
Government Appeals Order to Unveil Spitzer Search Warrant

We all know that Eliot Spitzer got caught in a prostitution ring called the Emperor’s Club, ending his short tenure as New York governor and dashing–in the short-term anyway–any larger political aspirations. But do we know exactly how he got caught? Well, we know what the Southern District of New York has said — that the investigation arose from routine examinations of suspicious financial transactions by Spitzer that were reported to the IRS by participating banks.

But we in the media like to check out such explanations, especially since the government decided not to bring any charges against any clients, including Spitzer. The New York Times filed a motion to unseal materials associated with the wiretap and search warrant applications from the investigation. (Dow Jones, publisher of The Wall Street Journal, piggy-backed.)

On Feb. 19 U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff determined that redacted materials (the names of other Johns will be blacked out) should be made public. He wrote: “… there is obvious interest in obtaining information about the origins of an investigation that led, ultimately, to the resignation of the Governor of New York. Indeed, a Congressional Committee has even called for an examination of the reasons underlying the initial decision to undertake the investigation….” Here’s the NYT story on that order.

Hold on, though. The government informed the court Tuesday that it will appeal. So we won’t find out how Spitzer got caught with his pants down for a little longer. We’ll keep you posted.

http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2009/03/05/gov ... h-warrant/

[JackRiddler]

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Mildly exciting.

Has the potential to combine evidence of Bush regime crime with the cover-up of the Wall Street ultra-scam.

It's partly up to Spitzer: What if it does come out he was deposed by way of dirty tricks to eliminate a potential danger to the Wall Street CEOs in the middle of the century crash? Does he go out for revenge and become at least spiritually the banking Robespierre we so desperately need?

I wonder what his stance is on the bailouts. That would tell us instantly whether he might yet some do some good.

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