Hamsher on Spitzer – some good comments, one ‘huh’ one

Jane Hamsher at Firedog Lake has some interesting questions about the apparent politicization of the case.

Besides the Mukasey/DOJ involvement, I too want to know how involved New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg might be, and working with New York state Sen. Joseph Bruno on all this, given Bruno’s history with Spitzer.

That said, I don’t know why she’s asking why the bank didn’t notify Spitzer, not the IRS, of suspicious money transfers. I’m assuming the transfers were over the $10,000 mark and therefore, the bank had to notify the IRS.

As far as not notifying Spitzer, we don’t know whether they did or didn’t. I mean, is he going to tell the world now, if he were notified? And, what was he going to say to the bank?

“Thanks, but that was actually me spending massive money on high-priced call girls?”

Update: Turns out I was right on Spitzer’s bank transfers. In fact, he broke his money movements down below the $10,000 threshold, but the total amount involved, with estimates running from $40,000-$80,000, was enough to trigger suspicion. Spitzer certainly didn’t help himself by then trying to get the bank, as yet unnamed, to take his name off the wire transfers.

Bank officials declined, however, saying that it was improper to do so and in any event, it was too late to do so, because the money already had been sent, the sources said.

The bank, as is required by law, filed an SAR, or Suspicious Activity Report, with the Internal Revenue Service, reporting the transfer of the money that exceeded $10,000, but had been broken down into smaller amounts, the sources said.

Unbelievable.