Based on publicly reported information about New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s involvement in a call-girl ring, former prosecutors and white-collar defense specialists said Tuesday they are skeptical he could be charged with structuring — the breaking down of payments into smaller increments to avoid the $10,000 threshold for reporting cash transactions.
“The crime of structuring requires that you act to keep the cash transaction under the $10,000 reporting threshold and it doesn’t look like he needed [to break down] $10,000,” said Kathryn Keneally, a Fulbright & Jaworski partner who specializes in white-collar criminal defense. “And it doesn’t appear from what has been reported that it was cash — they look like wire transfers.”
