Missing Files Motivated The Leak Of Michael Cohen’s Financial Records

[edpc]

Last week, several news outlets obtained financial records showing that Michael Cohen, President Trump’s personal attorney, had used a shell company to receive payments from various firms with business before the Trump Administration. In the days since, there has been much speculation about who leaked the confidential documents, and the Treasury Department’s inspector general has launched a probe to find the source. That source, a law-enforcement official, is speaking publicly for the first time, to The New Yorker, to explain the motivation: the official had grown alarmed after being unable to find two important reports on Cohen’s financial activity in a government database. The official, worried that the information was being withheld from law enforcement, released the remaining documents.

The payments to Cohen that have emerged in the past week come primarily from a single document, a “suspicious-activity report” filed by First Republic Bank, where Cohen’s shell company, Essential Consultants, L.L.C., maintained an account. The document detailed sums in the hundreds of thousands of dollars paid to Cohen by the pharmaceutical company Novartis, the telecommunications giant A.T. & T., and an investment firm with ties to the Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg.

The report also refers to two previous suspicious-activity reports, or sars, that the bank had filed, which documented even larger flows of questionable money into Cohen’s account. Those two reports detail more than three million dollars in additional transactions—triple the amount in the report released last week. Which individuals or corporations were involved remains a mystery. But, according to the official who leaked the report, these sars were absent from the database maintained by the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or fincen. The official, who has spent a career in law enforcement, told me, “I have never seen something pulled off the system. . . . That system is a safeguard for the bank. It’s a stockpile of information. When something’s not there that should be, I immediately became concerned.” The official added, “That’s why I came forward.”

https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/missing-files-motivated-the-leak-of-michael-cohens-financial-records

[edpc]

Suspicious-activity reports are kept strictly confidential, as a matter of law. “sars are secret, to protect the government and to protect financial institutions,” the former prosecutor told me. “I don’t think there’s a safe harbor for somebody who discloses it.” According to fincen, disclosing a sar is a federal offense, carrying penalties including fines of up to two hundred and fifty thousand dollars and imprisonment for up to five years. The official who released the suspicious-activity reports was aware of the risks, but said fears that the missing reports might be suppressed compelled the disclosure. “We’ve accepted this as normal, and this is not normal,” the official said. “Things that stand out as abnormal, like documents being removed from a system, are of grave concern to me.” Of the potential for legal consequences, the official said, “To say that I am terrified right now would be an understatement.”


I'd suggest seeking counsel from the law firm of Curiouser & Curiouser.

[Oceander]

Suspicious-activity reports are kept strictly confidential, as a matter of law. “sars are secret, to protect the government and to protect financial institutions,” the former prosecutor told me. “I don’t think there’s a safe harbor for somebody who discloses it.” According to fincen, disclosing a sar is a federal offense, carrying penalties including fines of up to two hundred and fifty thousand dollars and imprisonment for up to five years. The official who released the suspicious-activity reports was aware of the risks, but said fears that the missing reports might be suppressed compelled the disclosure. “We’ve accepted this as normal, and this is not normal,” the official said. “Things that stand out as abnormal, like documents being removed from a system, are of grave concern to me.” Of the potential for legal consequences, the official said, “To say that I am terrified right now would be an understatement.”


I'd suggest seeking counsel from the law firm of Curiouser & Curiouser.

I’m with you on this one.

In my view, this is rather fishy.  If this official was so concerned that information was missing, why didn’t he take it up through appropriate channels rather than leaking it publicly?

Or am I missing something?

[edpc]

I’m with you on this one.

In my view, this is rather fishy.  If this official was so concerned that information was missing, why didn’t he take it up through appropriate channels rather than leaking it publicly?

Or am I missing something?

It's a rather long, detailed piece by Frank Sinatra's son, but this portion might explain why it was 'missing' from the overall report.....

Seven former government officials and other experts familiar with the Treasury Department’s fincen database expressed varying levels of concern about the missing reports. Some speculated that fincen may have restricted access to the reports due to the sensitivity of their content, which they said would be nearly unprecedented. One called the possibility “explosive.”

It seems as though they may be part of an ongoing investigation and possibly transferred from a previously flagged (maybe foreign) source.  If the details eventually come out from the Cohen investigation by NYSD or the Mueller probe, this person put themselves in legal jeopardy unnecessarily.  The smarter move would have been to hold it and see if your original paranoia was justified.

[Sanguine]

Makes my head spin.

[Frank Cannon]

Muellers flailing and incompetent investigation motivated these leaks and more. Leaks are all he and his circus clowns have left to look relevant.

[edpc]

The statement added, “FinCEN neither confirms nor denies the existence of purported SARs.” Spokespeople for the special counsel’s office and the Southern District of New York declined to comment. Michael Cohen and his lawyer did not respond to requests for comment.


Apparently, the missing SARs are known to exist, according to Farrow, because they were referenced in the one released last week.  It's thought they were pulled, because the FinCEN is accessible to thousands of law enforcement officials across the nation.  Whatever is in them seems to be more important than the one we do know about.

[LauraTXNM]

@edpc Thanks for posting this!