Posted on 03/20/2008 9:24:35 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
When Congress passed the Patriot Act in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, law-enforcement agencies hailed it as a powerful tool to help track down the confederates of Osama bin Laden. No one expected it would end up helping to snag the likes of Eliot Spitzer. The odd connection between the antiterror law and Spitzer's trysts with call girls illustrates how laws enacted for one purpose often end up being used very differently once they're on the books.
The Patriot Act gave the FBI new powers to snoop on suspected terrorists. In the fine print were provisions that gave the Treasury Department authority to demand more information from banks about their customers' financial transactions. Congress wanted to help the Feds identify terrorist money launderers. But Treasury went further. It issued stringent new regulations that required banks themselves to look for unusual transactions (such as odd patterns of cash withdrawals or wire transfers) and submit SARs—Suspicious Activity Reports—to the government. Facing potentially stiff penalties if they didn't comply, banks and other financial institutions installed sophisticated software to detect anomalies among millions of daily transactions. They began ranking the risk levels of their customers—on a scale of zero to 100—based on complex formulas that included the credit rating, assets and profession of the account holder.
Another element of the formulas: whether an account holder was a "politically exposed person." At first focused on potentially crooked foreign officials, the PEP lists expanded to include many U.S. politicians and public officials who were conceivably vulnerable to corruption.
The new scrutiny resulted in an explosion of SARs, from 204,915 in 2001 to 1.23 million last year. The data, stored in an IRS computer in Detroit, are accessible by law-enforcement agencies nationwide. "Terrorism has virtually nothing to do with it," says Peter Djinis, a former top Treasury lawyer. "The vast majority of SARs filed today involve garden-variety forms of white-collar crime." Federal prosecutors around the country routinely scour the SARs for potential leads.
One of those leads led to Spitzer. Last summer New York's North Fork Bank, where Spitzer had an account, filed a SAR about unusual money transfers he had made, say law-enforcement and industry sources who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the probe. One of the sources tells NEWSWEEK that Spitzer wasn't flagged because of his public position. Instead, the governor called attention to himself by asking the bank to transfer money in someone else's name. (A North Fork spokesperson says the bank does not discuss its customers.) The SAR was not itself evidence that Spitzer had committed a crime. But it made the Feds curious enough to follow the money.
Yeah, bush got Spitzer in trouble.
You know, I think you just swerved into something!
This guy makes it sound like the only thing Spitzer did wrong was get caught using “call girls” (that sounds so much nicer than prositute, hooker or whore too).
What really bothers me is where was he getting the money. Skimming from the taxpayers? Mob? Or - perhaps even terrorists - although I hope that would be unlikely. (I know, I already said the mob, but....)
I was wondering when they’d get around to this.
Kinda. Under G HW Bush, FinCEN was created.
Then thank you President Bush. David Paterson is now a secret fan of the Patriot Act.
Isikoff probably wants to flush the Patriot Act down the toilet. /sarcasm
Well an ill wind certainly blew Spitzer’s way, and it filled Paterson’s sails.
Thanks. It genetic. But there some real masters around, one of them being The Spirit of Allegiance. I stand in awe of his pun power.
I don’t have a problem with the FBI looking for leads in unusual financial transactions, but the IRS should be OUT of it. Do you realize an “SAR” can be generated on you without your knowledge, regardless of your “private” relationship with your bank, just based on “an unusual pattern of activity”? So your Mom gives you $5000 as a present or to help you with your new home, and this registers as an unusual deposit and next thing you know the IRS is coming after you with an audit.
The IRS already has enough power without being further enabled by the Patriot Act. I recently opened a smallish CD at my bank, where I have been a customer for years, and have my checking and savings accounts. I do not in any way meet the profile of a terrorist, being a disabled middle aged white woman. The teller asked me the name, address and dates of my prior employer. He said the Patriot Act now required them to ask this for all NEW accounts. “But I’ve been a customer for years.” “Yes, but the CD is a new account.”
Doesn’t this seem a bit excessive?
To be honest...this global war on terror (GWOT) or the “Long War” (the new expression to use)....as long as it can continue...its a wonderful thing for the FBI and the various law enforcement groups. They don’t want Ossama caught...ever. And then you have to wonder if thats the reason why for almost seven years....Ossama still roams freely...with no massive US attempt to catch him. We actually put more manpower into catching Saddam and his two sons...than Ossama...which ought to make you think what the real problem is here.
Couldn't have said it better.
Stop raining on the Statist parade. FReepers won’t be happy until Hillaryama comes to town and can use these expanded powers!
The real problem is that call girls are owned and operated by the MOB.I’m sure the wise guys has some pics of the Gov and some conversations. He compromised his authority.They had him in their packets
He was a jerk off and an arrogant bastard as well.
If you ferret out the math in Michael's story, it's clear the SAR process didn't start with the Patriot Act, though I think he'd like you to believe it did. The act was signed the last week of October in 2001.
I am pretty sure Osama assumed room temperature years ago.
and we haven’t had planes fly into our buildings in awhile either.
Citizens,
The patriotic thing to do now is to turn yourselves over to the proper authorities and report your crimes against the Homeland.
"Doesn't this seem a bit excessive"?
It caught and destroyed Eliot Spitzer, a rotten-to-the-core democrat, so the sheeple in here are praising the new government snoop laws and cheering the demize of their own freedoms. But they won't be cheering when they get 'Spitzered' by some zealous banker for making "unusual" withdrawals.
After two major hits on the WTC in eight years, I should hope we'd become more vigilent. They kept striking those buildings until they succeeded in destroying them. Though we are more vigilent against terrorism now it seems to me that Osama has won a great victory over America. While he's on the run he's turning around every now and then and noticing that we are losing our freedoms to the terror he dumped on us on 9/11. The changes that bin Laden and his 19 devils foisted on the American way of life are stunning. Even more stunning is the fact that we are held in economic bondage by middle eastern oil sheiks, and places like Iran and Syria are not smoldering under nuclear dust particles yet. And what good is it doing America, in the long run, to crack down on terror by curtailing our freedoms while leaving our borders wide open for anyone and everyone to enter our land at will?
Mr. Spitzer triggered a SAR on his account because he was stupid and called his bank to request that his name be taken off external wire transfers to shell bank accounts.
That's suspicious. That's sketchy.
Now, remember, SARs and CTRs are not the same. SARs, or Suspicious Activity Reports, are filed if an employee of a financial institution observes "suspicious" activity. CTRs, or Currency Transaction Reports, are filed (mandatory) if aggregate cash transactions in a single business day exceed $10,000.00.
Mr. Spitzer trigger a SAR due to his arrogance and his stupidity. And, it has nothing to do with the PATRIOT Act.
How do you know that? Do you think we are told everytime they catch a terrorist?
Nice to know that the fine print works, well, just fine.
The ‘RAT Party is a criminal enterprise. The dregs of society (in low or high positions) must have their own political party or they wouldn’t be able to get legislation passed that covers their “activities”.
Does “Gorelick Wall” ring a bell? (If not - google it).
All the, “we care about the little guy” reasons they give for not wanting any Republicans elected to office, are smoke-screens.
They know that when a Republican (especially a “movement conservative” Republican) is elected to any office (from local dog catcher to US President) - the odds go up dramatically that they will suffer the consequences of their crimes and irresponsible citizenship.
“Obama has indicated willingness to end federal oversight of the Teamsters [& gets Hoffa endorsement]” ~ Robert Novak 2/23/08 [Crumbling Ohio Firewall]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1974928/posts
I'm very happy that Spitzer got his commupance, but he did get bagged due to the new, intrusive, freedom-shrinking laws enacted to combat terrorism. As soon as something like this happens to a likable Repub, folks will change their tune I suspect. If the government deems 'suspicious activity' as a multi-millionaire Governor of New York withdrawing several thousand dollars in cash every now & then for private purposes, then I say we are living in Russia, (as Russia was during the CCCP). Stuff like this seems wonderful when it happens to bad people, but it does not bode well for the future of America; these type of laws only tend to expand in intrusiveness over the years and never go away.
Osama can’t do a a lot he was able to do not too long ago. Tell me what big personal freedoms you have lost since 9/11 . Outside of taking my shoes off at the airport nothing radically has changed for me . Nothing that bothers me . I think you’re paranoid my friend.Again , Google knows as much as the feds do about you .I want my government listening in on the bad guys .
Did I say that I'm not on board with my government listening in on terrorists? But if you really, honestly believe that not much has changed in American politics, law and culture since 9/11, then you really didn't know America well from the start, or didn't appreciate what we had. I want my country to be safe from terrorism too, but as I already indicated, I believe that bin Laden has managed, along with only 19 fellow cultists, to radically change the way Americans live. This is especially discouraging because as we rush to enact laws that limit and restrict freedoms we also leave our borders wide open to anyone who desires to come here illegally and do whatever they desire. And the contradiction is pretty damn stupid, imo.
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