The IRS can do what?Follow

So when I first heard this thing with Governor Spitzer I pretty much ignored it. Northeast governor has sex with someone not his wife. Big deal. At least this time is was a woman. But I was watching hardball earlier waiting for actual election coverage and half listening to their commentary on Spitzer when I suddenly sat up and started to listen. I had thought he was just caught in some investigation through some secondary means. But no. How he was caught should be the story, now what he was doing.

They said that he was caught when his bank sent a routine notification to the IRS about a payment that looked suspicious. Apparantly banks send millions of these things every year. He paid an individual $5,500 and the bank thought that amount was suspicious so it sent it along to the IRS to investigate. Then some bored IRS employee who was looking through the day's submissions by all the local banks noticed Spitzer's name and decided this was juicy enough to follow up on. This led to the wire tap and this whole brew ha ha.

Shouldn't we be a little disturbed that the IRS is able to comb through random bank transactions looking for juicy tid bits that they can investigate? If I send a check to a friend in another country, am I now to expect the IRS or the FBI to open a file on me? How much have we lost our sense of privacy that this is not even looked at as an issue?

I could care less that some governer is porking a prostitute at his hotel room. But I do care that something as private as where and how we spend our money is regularly scrutinized by the government. Am I just crazy in thinking this?

As some would say tho. If you don't have anything to hide, you don't need to worry yourself that the gubbernment has decided its ok to spy on you via your bank account/internet usage/phone taps etc.

Its for your own good. You know, to protect you from the terrorists.



More than most would be willing to believe, would be the answer to that.

Good luck on turning the clock back tho.

Don't mess with my daughter. She has tackled mightier forces than you.

That's the outfit of a padawan of the Jedi Academy. Anyone can see that.

You have no sense of humor these days Alla...you forgot to take off your other hat.

Gypsy or padawan, she's still lookin' pretty cute.

Nexa

lol. That was sarcasm.

You can fight Vader at Hollywood Studios in Disney World of course.

We really need to have an Allakhazam staff picknic... I know, lets go there! Darkflame's buying!

FTFY FOOL

You can also get butt-checked by local Stormtroopers there as well, it seems.

In the aftermath of the attacks in 2001, the attorney general of NY asked for banks to have a close scrutiny of unusual transactions.
The AG was Spitzer.

Holy hell, I'm sure there's a dossier on me then. I sent my brother thousands of dollars last year. In TEXAS.

/waits for the knock at the door

This is my understanding as well. And it applies to any type of financial transaction. If you write a check for over $10,000, or do a withdrawal, or a transfer, it's flagged and looked at for potential criminal action. This isn't anything new. I've known several people who worked at banks and have heard this from one or another for at least 20 years.


And while I'm not sure, I don't think Spitzer's flag had anything to do with 9/11 or the Patriot Act. I believe that specific people are tracked for suspicious activity regardless of amount (the PEP list talked about on the article). Basically, the assumption is that CEOs and public officials are in the greatest position to be involved in money laundering and/or bribery, so they look a bit closer. If there are multiple transactions in a short amount of time, it could indicate that they're deliberately trying to avoid getting flagged for the 10k thing. So I pay you several 5k payments instead of one big one. Normal people will get away with this. If you're someone of interest, this will get flagged and looked at.

I believe this type of listing has been around for a long time. I know that the SEC pays closer attention to money transactions by those sorts of people and have for at least 15 years.


What's strange is that in his position he should have known about this. You almost have to wonder how he thought he'd get away with this?

Damn it, that's the last time I go sandwich store hopping!