A congressional committee plans to probe what exactly led to the downfall of disgraced former Gov. Eliot Spitzer, officials said yesterday.
The House Financial Services Committee plans to hold hearings next year into whether federal law enforcement’s use of “suspicious activity reports,” filed by banks, is “an effective use of counterterrorism efforts,” according to committee spokesman Steve Adamske.
As part of that probe, the committee will examine Spitzer’s case, which Adamske said is the only one they know of where those reports appeared to implicate a person in a possible crime.
The reports, which banks are required to file if they notice unusual behavior, reportedly tipped investigators off that Spitzer was wiring large amounts of money to a shell company set up by a prostitution ring.
Early news reports indicated that Spitzer may have attempted to structure bank transactions to avoid mandatory reporting requirements.