NY Governor Spitzer Linked to Prostitution Ring

[compared2what?]

However, as I also said, I can't tell whether FinCen deputized the IRS, or whether this fits into one of the categories they can investigate.

I need legal counsel, and will seek it tomorrow.

[worldsastage]

I was about to say it's not only SARs. They have to report a bunch of different transactions, which are usually called SARS, although technically some are CTRs or MILs.

Don't fuck with me on Internal Revenue Code issues! I turn dangerous!

Love ya C2W. We all should get dangerous when they're robbing us blind.
So do we dare say it regarding the Spitzer deal
whisper now.. c-o-n-s-p-i-r-a-c-y

[AlicetheKurious]

I didn't understand all that stuff you said, c2w, but I got a little frisson when I read this:

Don't fuck with me on Internal Revenue Code issues! I turn dangerous!

Ooooh.

[MASONIC PLOT]

He just resigned.

[compared2what?]

That was inevitable.

I am working on a purely speculative unifying theory based in statutory law....

But for the moment, wrt legality of IRS spilling guts to FBI, I think it depends on a nuanced understanding of Title 26, Subtitle F, Chapter 61, Subchapter B, Sec. 6103, Part (i)(1)(A).

This covers disclosure of information other than return information to DOJ and other federal agencies to the extent necessary for them to enforce federal criminal law.

And....I am awaiting word from someone who has said nuanced understanding. Because I, personally, don't.

But if the disclosure isn't covered thereunder, the potential penalty is up to five years in prison and/or $5,000 in fines.

AS IF anyone is going to enforce it. Nevertheless.

[MASONIC PLOT]

This fellow was most certainly Presidential material, likely the most popular up and coming democrat in the ring, what a waste. Not that he would have been any different than the rest, but he sure threw it all away in a hurry.

[JackRiddler]

Newsday columnist: Republican operator claims he knew in advance about Spitzer downfall.

http://www.newsday.com/news/columnists/ ... 252.column

GOP schemer predicts more shakeups ahead
Ellis Henican
March 12, 2008

First thing in the morning, I was on the Amtrak to Albany. I wanted to see with my own eyes how a whole city gloats.

It wasn't just that the Emperor had no clothes (unless you mean the Emperors Club VIP escort agency, where no clothes is kinda the point). It was that we've never had a politician alienate so many people so quickly and commit political suicide himself.

And it's hard to find anyone - besides the tortured Eliot Spitzer, his lovely family and a few close aides - even slightly mourning his demise.


Ellis Henican



Yesterday was beautiful, bright and crisp in Albany, with just the earliest hint of spring. But before I could even make my way to the Capitol to gather up a new pile of reaction statements, my cell phone was ringing from a place even nicer than this.

The call-back number said 202, for Washington. But the sunny voice on the other end could only be in Miami.

Yes, it was Roger Stone. And the exuberance in his voice made high-fiving Albanians sound almost morose.

"I didn't make him go to a prostitution ring," said the most famous and ruthless Republican dirty trickster who still walks the earth. "He did that all on his own."

Stone said that even before I asked if his hand was somehow in Spitzer's latest trouble. I figured, somehow or another, it had to be.

"No comment on that," Stone said. "I will say I knew it was coming. That's why I wasn't too upset about the results of the special election," where a Democrat grabbed a supposedly safe Republican State Senate seat, leaving Democrats just one vote shy of control.

Conversations with Stone often go like that. Always cocky. A little cryptic. Leaving you wondering about more.

With a guerrilla-politics resume that goes all the way back to Richard Nixon, Stone's fingers have been in some of the most dastardly Republican schemes of the past 40 years, up to and including the Florida 2000 presidential recount. He helped rich guy Tom Golisano make high-priced mischief in the previous governor's race. He returned to Albany last year on the dime of Senate boss Joe Bruno. Desperate to keep his tiny Republican majority in the Senate, Bruno figured Stone could help. And he helped, until he had to quit when a voice that sounded awfully like his turned up making threats on the governor's father's voice mail.

But Stone never really left.

He set up a 527 political-hit committee. He's been shopping anti-Spitzer stories for months. He's been warning darkly about some "really ugly" stuff to come.

Even though there's no evidence he sent the governor to a hooker or made the Bush Justice Department follow up on a banking tip, he's been energetically working to undermine the governor.

And he may not be done.

"Everything's about to change," Stone said.

Well, sure.

Of course it is. Spitzer, mortally wounded, will almost certainly have to resign. Standing ready to take his place and make double-big history, too, Lt. Gov. David Paterson would be the first black governor of New York - and the first nearly blind one.

That wasn't what Stone meant.

"My work isn't done there," he said.

"Just watch."

Is he just playing mind games? Is history about to go haywire again?

I'll just say this much, knowing Roger Stone.

Watch your back, David Paterson. Watch your back.


Copyright © 2008, Newsday Inc.

[cptmarginal]

Whoa! Good find, JackRiddler. That article is very unsettling to me.

[FourthBase]

Well, there you go.

Wouldn't that be called self-incrimination or something?
He's virtually taking responsibility for it.

[stickdog99]

You don't become Governor of New York without at least one politically damning peccadillo.

[compared2what?]

Very unsettling, indeed.

I am theorizing that the QAT/Khat thing suggested by Avalon is more-or-less on-target, and that there was....a halawa shakin' goin' on, as it were, beyond the escort business itself.

That would put it under IRS oversight. The only non-tax financial crimes that are definitely under their jurisdiction involve financial institutions other than banks. Such as halawas.

Plus, the Emperors Club looks like more than an escort service grossing a paltry $1 million in four years. Logo design by fancy Uruguayan firm. A sideline in art and photography dealership. And so forth.

That all looks like global trafficking of something. You don't need that many formal iterations of front company just for Not-So-Big Pimping.

I fully concede that this is the kind of theory that is premised on partial data. Or, to put it another way, I am supplementing the known but partial data with imaginary data to make a coherent full picture.

Or to put it yet another way:

Okay! I admit it! I am flat-out making some of it up! But I don't claim otherwise!

Anyway. It could be that, among many other potential imagined scenarios.

[JackRiddler]

IT GETS BETTER.

Brenner may have worked for the IRS ?!


http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/ ... om.02.html

I'm Wolf Blitzer. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.

Right now, we're getting some breaking news on the Eliot Spitzer sex scandal and the IRS connection. Drew Griffin of CNN's special investigations unit is joining us right now.

You've been working your sources Drew. What are you picking up?

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS UNIT CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, something that is very curious in the least. But certainly interesting at most and may explain why the IRS got on in this in the first place. Mark Brenner, he is the alleged ringleader of the Emperors Club, this prostitution ring that Eliot Spitzer, the governor, has been wrapped up in. We've just confirmed with the IRS that Mark Brenner, the supposed ringleader, was or is an enrolled agent with the IRS.

This is somebody who represents taxpayers in front of the IRS. That means he either studied IRS law and took the test or is possibly an ex-IRS agent with the tax company.

It certainly adds to the intrigue as to how the IRS actually began this investigation with money transfers and looking at how this money was going and eventually got to the point where they identified client number nine as being the governor of New York. But we are now confirming that Mark Brenner, the ringleader, is an enrolled agent with the IRS -- Wolf.

BLITZER: What an intriguing part of the story, Drew. Thank you very much. Drew is going to continue to work the story. I expect we're going to be learning a lot more about this investigation.

[JackRiddler]

the unsealed complaint online, as PDF

http://www.scribd.com/doc/2253740/NY-Go ... -Complaint

[JackRiddler]

.

"Large New York bank" identified as North Fork Bank
= CAPITAL ONE BANK as of March 10th

So it's North Fork and HSBC, apparently.

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.c ... ad_294.php

Today's Must Read
By Paul Kiel - March 12, 2008, 9:55AM

How exactly did the feds end up snagging Eliot Spitzer? We've been asking the question since the story broke on Monday. Reports from a number of news outlets have been providing more and more details so that now, with the help of the feds' filings, it's possible to piece together a reasonably detailed timeline of how the investigation went down. So, without any more ado, here it is:

7/07: North Fork Bank in New York sends a Suspicious Activity Report to the Treasury Department about transfers in Spitzer's personal accounts. The "bank's report was triggered by Spitzer's attempt to structure a $10,000 cash transaction into three parts." Spitzer also reportedly asked the bank to "take his name off the wires." Treasury Department officials forward the report to federal prosecutors in Manhattan.

Fall, 2007: Another bank (possibly HSBC) sends Suspicious Activity Reports to the Treasury Department. "They showed that Mr. Spitzer and others, including people overseas, collectively deposited hundreds of thousands of dollars into an account of a company called QAT International Inc., whose business involved foreign accounts and shell companies and appeared to be vaguely related to pornography Web sites."

10/07: The FBI and the IRS-Criminal Investigative Division launch an investigation "focusing on an organization suspected of conducting prostitution and money-laundering crimes in the United States and Europe" -- i.e. the Emperor's Club VIP.

1/8/08: Investigators begin wiretaps of Emperor's Club managers.

1/26/08: The FBI stakes out the Mayflower hotel in Washington, D.C. “after concluding from a wiretapped conversation that Spitzer might try to meet with a prostitute when he traveled to Washington to attend a black-tie dinner.”

(MORE AT LINK...)

[JackRiddler]

.
By the way, compared2what:

I need legal counsel, and will seek it tomorrow.

Why do you need it?

Are you... gasp... spuh... the governor?