Emperors' Club Owner Mark Brenner Worked for the IRS?!

[JackRiddler]

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0803/11/sitroom.02.html

I'm Wolf Blitzer. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.

Right now, we're getting some breaking news on the Eliot Spitzer sex scandal and the IRS connection. Drew Griffin of CNN's special investigations unit is joining us right now.

You've been working your sources Drew. What are you picking up?

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS UNIT CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, something that is very curious in the least. But certainly interesting at most and may explain why the IRS got on in this in the first place. Mark Brenner, he is the alleged ringleader of the Emperors Club, this prostitution ring that Eliot Spitzer, the governor, has been wrapped up in. We've just confirmed with the IRS that Mark Brenner, the supposed ringleader, was or is an enrolled agent with the IRS.

This is somebody who represents taxpayers in front of the IRS. That means he either studied IRS law and took the test or is possibly an ex-IRS agent with the tax company.

It certainly adds to the intrigue as to how the IRS actually began this investigation with money transfers and looking at how this money was going and eventually got to the point where they identified client number nine as being the governor of New York. But we are now confirming that Mark Brenner, the ringleader, is an enrolled agent with the IRS -- Wolf.

BLITZER: What an intriguing part of the story, Drew. Thank you very much. Drew is going to continue to work the story. I expect we're going to be learning a lot more about this investigation.

:crazy:

[magellan]

1. So the IRS is running sting operations?

Or is this guy just moonlighting from his tax job to earn some extra cash?

:wtf:

[tridim]

5. Sounds like it was an IRS honeypot to entrap Democrats.

That can't be legal.

What's stunning to me is that the protitues they used were real. Sting operations usually don't deliver the actual goods. This one did.

[aquart]

14. Well, if we had the names of all the clients...

We could match them to donations to Republican causes, campaigns, and presidential libraries.

[magellan]

18. It'd be nice to see those, wouldn't it?

It's unlikely that Spitzer and the Duke of Westminster were the only clientele the public would find of interest.

[jgraz]

This whole thing stinks to high heaven

Anybody else wonder if the Emperor's Club was just a front for BushCo to get damaging evidence on rivals (and allies)?

[magellan]

3. Wouldn't surprise me

At the same time, no one is forcing clients to hire prostitutes. That's on their own heads.

[aquart]

13. And not a bad source of income, either.

I want to know what ad company designed the site. Looks like a Victoria's Secret catalog.

[EFerrari]

2. So, is this little club a honey pot?

:crazy:

[AlCzervik]

4. there is a lot of stuff on google if you search Mark Brenner IRS, one on zoominfo

that could be him. If we had more info i bet we could find a lot more.

[Junkdrawer]

6. Watch how fast Spitzer falls from the news...

This whole episode is stinky as hell and I'm SURE the people who pulled it off don't want too many questions.

Hell, look how many trolls were out on the Web trying to label questions about this "Conspiracy Theories". That's usually a big red flag.

[JackRiddler]

7. Yes, I noticed a couple of sudden new posters coming on all strong in that regard...

Interesting.

[EFerrari]

9. I agree. Guess what, Republican felons, we're going to

keep pursuing this! You are so busted. :hi:

[aquart]

11. Don't promise what our people won't deliver.

I'd rather we be pleasantly surprised.

[AlCzervik]

8. here's the link to the actual criminal complaint, has names and aliases.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/2253740/NY-Governor-Spitzer-Criminal-Complaint

It's a pdf but it's manageable.

[Junkdrawer]

10. Heavily redacted....

:tinfoilhat:

[aquart]

12. Just give me clients 1-8.

They are also spending money on an illegal service, are they not?

[AlCzervik]

16. Joannerb just posted 2 threads about The Duke Westminster, he was a client #6.

[tanyev]

15. Holy crap.

Laura Rozen already called it Operation Honeypot in her blog--I thought she was just being snarky. They got the Duke of Westminster, too.

March 12, 2008
Apparently, Spitz is not the only one caught up in "Operation Honeypot." There's also the Duke of Westminister who reportedly used the services of the Emporers Club VIP. But he was smart enough to pay cash! If you think about it, such an outfit might be useful for some other purpose or another, given its seemingly exclusive target clientele of the high powered in western financial and political capitals able to pay as much as $5,000 an hour. I'm still curious about its founder, Mark Brener, found with an Israeli passport, $600,000 and 19,000 Euros in cash in his New Jersey apartment when the ring was taken down last Friday. Update: Apparently Brener found with three passports, two Israeli.

More from the Post on how the FBI had been trying to sting Spitzer in the act for a while. A bit disturbing, no, when they realized the politically exposed person was not paying blackmail?

Funny.

http://www.warandpiece.com/blogdirs/007142.html

[democraticinsurgent]

17. So much for the nice bank software story that's making the rounds

NPR is all aglow the last couple of days with the Patriot Act-motivated high security software that banks are using to parse transactions to find suspicious money activity. This same software was advocated by Spitzer himself as a tool to use against Wall Street fraud and corruption; now it's being used against him.

Or is it?

Sounds to me like the OCT is as above and the real story has to do with Mark Brenner.

Here we go again.