Suspicious Bank Request Led to Spitzer's Downfall: Report

The disclosure eventually led to the toppling of Spitzer and a high-end call-girl ring known as the Emperors Club

A new document has come to light that details how former Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who stepped down in a prostitution scandal, contributed to his own downfall with a suspicious bank transaction.

According to The Albany Times Union, which obtained the highly-detailed five page report on the bank transaction, said  the request for a wire transfer was "routine" but was also an "unusual request." 

Spitzer had asked a Manhattan bank to remove his name and account information from a $5,000 wire transfer to a company called QAT Consulting Group, the newspaper said.

If granted, the request would have violated the Code of Federal Regulations. It also triggered a mandatory bank investigation and generated a suspicious activity report, or SAR, that has never been released by the government.

North Fork Bank also denied a request for anonymity by Spitzer's private banker, Adam Brenner.

"In response, Mr. Brenner pointed out that a prior transaction in the amount of $10,000 had previously been processed similarly on July 11, 2007, between these same parties," the newspaper quotes from the report filed by North Fork Bank. "The August 6th wire transfer was denied and later processed as an internal bank transfer between the two clients' accounts."

The request to remove his name triggered questions about the transaction, and the bank's report characterized the suspicious activity as money laundering or structuring, an unlawful practice in which monetary transactions are broken up to conceal their origin and purpose, The Times Union said.

The disclosure eventually led to the toppling of Spitzer and a high-end call-girl ring known as the Emperors Club.

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