Bay Area Cat wrote:I had read something along those lines in terms of them at first thinking that he was hiding bribes or something, but I never did piece together how simply moving his own money around was illegal. I need to do more reading on it.

tampa_griz wrote:

Bay Area Cat wrote:I have only caught bits and pieces of articles so far. Was the money he was using "dirty?" Was he avoiding paying taxes on it? Just moving money around to pay whores isn't illegal on its own, is it?

It would be kind of a shame for any pol to go down for a crime as pointless as prostitution, but I've never really been a Spitzer fan, so I could live with it. I had kind of assumed that there must be a lot more to it than just hookers, though ... like a way he can afford to spend $80K on hookers without it being obvious to others in the family (meaning other sources of incomes that were dirty).

One article I skimmed said that that was exactly how he was caught. I could be wrong, but I thought the investigation started because a red flag was raised about a lot of cash being moved......by a public official.....and led to the prostitution charge. If he would've stayed with a $500 escort he might have been all right as far as a gov't sting goes. But any time a public official moves that kind of money......or someone's the recipient of that much cash regularly, the gov't's gonna come to get their take.

Hillary Rhodes for the AP wrote:Emperors Club VIP, the high-end prostitution organization Spitzer allegedly was involved with, was brought down when banks noticed frequent cash transfers from several accounts and filed suspicious-activity reports with the Internal Revenue Service, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press.

tampa_griz wrote:Gov. Spitzeris resigning. Apparently he was a repeat customer who may have spent as much as $80,000.

Bill Maher, writing for The Huffington Post wrote:Spitzer's Trysts: Stop Over-Thinking This

I'm going to throw the remote through the TV if one more news twink says something on the order of "When we come back, we'll look into what drives a successful man like Eliot Spitzer to risk it all..."

Oh yes, let's convene a panel of experts for that. Let me help you: because he wants to get his nut off! Stop with all the analysis! It never ends, I hear all these people talking about how powerful people think they can get away with anything, so its a thrill, or that its for this psychological reason or this one -- please, he wanted to CUM WITH SOMEONE! Stop overthinking this: people need sex, and married people generally aren't getting it. Studies show (OK, I'm making that up, but its true nonetheless) that people married 20 years only have sex on Valentine's Day, their anniversary, and their birthdays. You can hate me as the messenger, but its true -- how can anyone be expected to still want to score with someone you've been having sex with for a score? Mr. Spitzer simply wanted what humans desire, to feel that sensational sensation when you're hot for someone, to touch and hug and bump and grind -- this is really not that complicated! If you're ascribing more to it than that, its probably really more about your own fear that your spouse wants to do the same thing.

Or is doing it. Married people are often starved for sex, touch, affection, not to mention the kinky stuff that wifey definitely won't do. So if you find yourself at such a place in life -- and this is most certainly wives as well -- where you're dieing like this, you can do one of three things: get divorced, cheat, or continue to live a life with little or no passion, sex, etc. Its easy to point fingers, but how about some recognition that society's rules are so at odds with human nature that there are actually no good options for an Eliot Spitzer, and the ZILLIONS OF PEOPLE JUST LIKE HIM, many of who are tut-tut-ing today. I guess a guy is a hero who sticks it out and leads a life of quiet desperation. I'm not so sure it's heroic to make him.

Bay Area Cat wrote:This is just too funny to not share ... O'Reilly is once again citing message board posts as a way to characterize the "far left" as suggesting for his apparently internet-retarded audience that these people are actually connected to Huffington.

www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,337073,00.html

Oh what fun we could have if we surfed message boards and pulled posts and claimed that they represented the organizations on whose message boards they are posting?

I guess that means that Drew's racist rants represents the "Far Griz" element in Montana? Absurd.

Grizbacker1 wrote:

Bay Area Cat wrote:This is just too funny to not share ... O'Reilly is once again citing message board posts as a way to characterize the "far left" as suggesting for his apparently internet-retarded audience that these people are actually connected to Huffington.

www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,337073,00.html

Oh what fun we could have if we surfed message boards and pulled posts and claimed that they represented the organizations on whose message boards they are posting?

I guess that means that Drew's racist rants represents the "Far Griz" element in Montana? Absurd.

How can you stand to listen to that blowhard? Far Griz, not that is funny!

RAY NAGIN, MAYOR OF NEW ORLEANS: I was absolutely blown away at how awesome this work is. I mean, she is doing God's work. So I stand before you, a vagina-friendly mayor. I am in.

Bronco wrote:NY Post says this is the gal he was seeing.

You'd think making $5,500 an hour that she could find some clothes that fit.

Grizbacker1 wrote:Personally, I think he overpaid.

PlayerRep wrote:The crime of moving smaller amounts of cash out of accounts to avoid detection is called "structuring". I gave a better description in one of the earlier posts above. I'm glad he screwed himself, but I don't think an indictment for structuring (in this situation) or Mann Act violations would be appropriate.

Hank Scorpio wrote:Spitzer is considered a PEP (Politically Exposed Person), a term used for a person who may be or recently acted in the political arena of a country or has held such a position in the recent past. Such individuals must be tracked by financial institutions as they present potential risk to the institution and possibly the country where the account is domiciled. Heavy fines have been imposed on financial institutions that have conducted business with PEPs without following adequate know your customer procedures and enhanced due diligence processes. The focus of such legislation is the link between corrupt politicians to money laundering and financing of terrorism. Since September 11, 2001 more than 100 countries have changed their laws related to financial services, making the fight against political corruption a core piece of the new legislation.

Every electronic transaction you make is run through software looking for ties to corruption, terrorism, etc. thanks to the Patriot Act. As such, his monetary transactions are scrutinized more than the rest of us because he is a PEP.

The funny thing is that his transactions led to the uncovering of the prostitution ring and not the other way around.

Hells bells wrote:

Grizbacker1 wrote:Personally, I think he overpaid.

you 2

Grizbacker1 wrote:

Hells bells wrote:

Grizbacker1 wrote:Personally, I think he overpaid.

you 2

Uhhh, errrr, uh, that isn't my boat I swear, just one that looks like it, I swear. No, I will not take a polygraph, they are not reliable.

"Hey honey, let's get you tucked and lifted and new t!ts and new veneers for your teeth and a new nose and...

then we are going to have a whole lotta fun."

PlayerRep wrote:Backer, is this the real Kristen, or whatever name she used?

PlayerRep wrote:I now see all of her MySpace quotes. This story is going to linger, as the gov't appears to be leaking alot of info from what they intercepted and the (presumably big) names of the other clients are going to get exposed.

Look (in the articles) at where some of the people who ran the operation went to school. A college grad or two. Someone who went to U Va. for some time. Someone from a hotshot prep school in NJ.

Grizbacker1 wrote:

PlayerRep wrote:I now see all of her MySpace quotes. This story is going to linger, as the gov't appears to be leaking alot of info from what they intercepted and the (presumably big) names of the other clients are going to get exposed.

Look (in the articles) at where some of the people who ran the operation went to school. A college grad or two. Someone who went to U Va. for some time. Someone from a hotshot prep school in NJ.

This just proves that sex sells, in any form.