BLOG REACTION
BELDAR: Spitzer's self-righteousness, egotism, and overweening ambition have earned him many enemies. Earlier today I heard legal pundit Greta Van Susteren on Fox News say something to the effect that Spitzer is "hated on Wall Street" because he's tried to "clean up the corruption there." But not all, nor even most, of Wall Street is involved in corruption, and Spitzer is hated by many who are themselves squeaky clean. He's been a class warrior, demonizing not just corrupt businessmen but businessmen and their businesses in general. Tonight, toasts will be drunk to his political demise, and cigars will be metaphorically lit from the bonfire of his career. It's hard for me to imagine that there are many fellows who are more deserving of that scorn and schadenfreude.
PATTERICO: Another Spitzer Post — If this Report is True, His Problems Are A Lot Bigger Than First Seemed the Case
By WLS
Posted by WLS:
According to this abcnews story, Spitzer’s involvement with this ring was not uncovered by virtue of some happenstance over-hear on a wiretap involving a prostitution ringh. Rather, the feds targeted Spitzer himself based on a suspicious activity report filed by his bank, which noticed him paying large amounts of money in ways that it thought were evidence of criminal conduct. This report says Spitzer is suspected of “structuring” which is the intentional structuring of financial transactions involving cash in amounts less than $10,000 for the purpose of avoiding the filing of “Currency Transaction Reports” with IRS and FBI. They indicted the prostitution ring based on what they uncovered in looking into Spitzer, but the facts suggest to me that Spitzer has received a target letter indicating that he is the target of a federal criminal investigation for his conduct. |
