Spitzer had a reputation as a ruthless prosecutor, banks and Wall Street feared him. With that in mind, can you imagine what was going through the bankers mind when Eliot Spitzer called and wanted to make some changes on his own account:
Spitzer wired more than $10,000 from a Manhattan bank account to a front company for the Emperors Club VIP
in an apparent effort to evade federal regulations requiring that transactions involving $10,000 or more be disclosed to the government, Spitzer broke up the money into a series of smaller transfers on numerous occasions over at least a year
At this point, it is fairly safe to say that had he left well enough alone, he never would have been caught by the Feds.
Spitzer got worried that he could be tied to the transfers and asked the bank to remove his name from the transactions. The bank reportedly refused, not only because of regulations, but also because the money had already gone out.
bank then notified the Internal Revenue Service, as required by law, that Spitzer had sent more than $10,000 in a way that appeared designed to avoid disclosure requirements
Here is a guy that went after the very industry that he asked to break the law on his behalf. No one set up Spitzer, he brought himself down.
