lol And right now it's still technically illegal to drive a car on Main Street in the town I live in. The law was passed in the early 1900s when horses were the primary means of travel. The law was never repealed.
ABC News: Spitzer, Not the Prostitution Ring, Was the Subject of Investigation
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ABC News reports New York Governor Eliot Spitzer was the initial subject of the Justice Department investigation and it was his suspicious money transfers that led to their discovery of the prostitution ring. ABC says the feds are likely to charge him with the crime of structuring financial transactions:
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More...
On the crime of structuring:
Structuring involves creating a series of financial movements designed to obscure the true purpose of the payments.
So this started as an IRS investigation into structuring and when it was determined it was the Governor, Justice brought in the the FBI's Public Corruption Squad?
How long was Gov. Spitzer doing business with the Escort service? According to the Affidavit for the Arrest and Search Warrants, the investigation commenced in October, 2007. Between then and last week, when they filed the complaint against the defendants, they got wiretaps, search warrants and examined 5,000 phone calls and text messages and 6,000 emails. They also got a confidential informant and undercover officers to infiltrate the group. The wiretap was obtained in January, 2008.
The search warrant for the e-mails was obtained on January 25, 2008. Before filing the Complaint against the defendants last week, they also examined the company's bank records for 2004 - 2008.
According to the affidavit, the Emporer's Club employees said most clients paid them either by wire transfer or direct deposit.
The criminal case against Emporer's Club was filed by information, not Indictment. There is no Indictment of anyone yet. Did they not use the grand jury? Why not?
Update: As I wrote in a comment below, could they be trying to squeeze Spitzer into pleading to an information charging structuring and threatening they will take it to a grand jury on the more serious Mann Act charge if he doesn't?
Update: From Peter G. in the comments on what it would take for a structuring convicton:
there was to be or would have been a transaction with the financial institution (deposit or withdrawal, especially) of more than $10,000, to be done with monetary instruments (cash, especially), but the transaction was intentionally broken up into smaller units of under $10,000 for the purpose of evading the bank's (known) reporting requirement under 31 USC 5313 and 31 CFR 103.22 or for the purpose of evading taxes. 31 CFR 103.11(gg), made criminal by 31 USC 5324.