Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Spitzer's Hooker - A Five Foot Five, 105 Pound Brunette


Eliot Spitzer resigns over sex scandal

ELIOT Spitzer who rose to power proclaiming the need for ethics and integrity in public life and who harbored an ambition to be America's first Jewish president has quit as New York Governor over the scandal surrounding his use of prostitutes.

The resignation of the former Wall Street crime fighter came 48 tumultuous hours after reports that federal investigators had Mr Spitzer on a phone tap arranging a rendezvous with a $US1000-an-hour hooker named Kristen at a luxury Washington DC hotel on the evening of February 13.

It has since emerged that Mr Spitzer was a regular client of the prostitution ring, known as Emperors Club VIP, and may have spent as much as $US80,000 there over the last eight months.

Mr Spitzer has been identified as “Client 9” in a federal affidavit outlining the case against four Emperors Club principals.

With his tragically forlorn wife Silda at his side sharing the public humiliation, Mr Spitzer read a prepared statement to a packed press conference in New York, saying he had failed to meet the standards expected by his family and the community.

“I have been given much: the love of my family, the faith and trust of the people of New York, and the chance to lead this state,” Mr Spitzer said.

“I am deeply sorry that I did not live up to what was expected of me. To every New Yorker, and to all those who believed in what I tried to stand for, I sincerely apologise.

“I cannot allow my private failings to disrupt the people’s work. Over the course of my public life, I have insisted, I believe correctly, that people, regardless of their position or power, take responsibility for their conduct.

“I can and will ask no less of myself. For this reason, I am resigning from the office of governor.”

The resignation is effective from next Monday when Lieutenant Governor David Paterson will be sworn in.

Mr Paterson will be the first blind man to lead a US state. He will also be New York’s first African American governor.

Speculation that Mr Spitzer’s resignation was part of a plea bargain deal with prosecutors was dismissed when the US Attorney’s Office put out a statement saying no deal had been discussed.

“There is no agreement between this office and Governor Eliot Spitzer, relating to his resignation or any other matter,” US Attorney Michael Garcia said.

Mr Spitzer’s resignation followed two days of angry calls for him to step aside and threats by Republican leaders of impeachment proceedings if he didn’t.

Ironically, Mr Spitzer seems to have been caught out by changes to banking regulations that he helped implement that were aimed at increasing the surveillance of suspicious money transfers in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Mr Spitzer came under notice when the North Fork bank noticed frequent cash transfers from several accounts into a shell company linked to the prostitution ring.

A suspicious activity report was filed with the Internal Revenue Service and wiretaps were initiated.

Mr Spitzer was caught red-handed negotiating for the services of Kristen, described as an attractive five-foot-five, 105-pound brunette.

Mr Spitzer is yet to be charged but he appears to be in breach of the Mann Act which makes transportation of someone across a state line for the purposes of prostitution a federal crime.

The act is rarely used to prosecute the clients of prostitutes, known in US slang as “johns”. However notable exceptions include silent film era actor-comedian Charlie Chaplin and mass murderer Charles Manson.

Mr Spitzer may also face federal charges of structuring, a financial offence that makes it illegal to break up a sum of money into smaller amounts in an effort to disguise where it is sent.

A key man in deciding whether charges are filed is US Attorney Jeffrey Taylor, the head prosecutor for federal and local law in the District of Columbia.

Mr Spitzer was elected governor 18 months ago in a landslide where he won 70 per cent of the vote.

Prior to that Mr Spitzer was New York’s corruption-busting Attorney General, waging war on behalf of small investors against the shady practices of some of Wall Street’s biggest firms.

It earned him several nicknames including ‘Sheriff of Wall Street’ and the ‘Eliot Ness of the 21st century’.

But Mr Spitzer said his remorse “will always be with me”.

“I look at my time as governor with a sense of what might have been,” he said.

“I go forward with the belief, as others have said, that as human beings, our greatest glory consists not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.

“As I leave public life, I will first do what I need to do to help and heal myself and my family.

“Then I will try once again, outside of politics, to serve the common good and to move toward the ideals and solutions which I believe can build a future of hope and opportunity for us and for our children.”

Source: David Nason, New York correspondent of The Australian Business
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