A year ago, Suspicious Activity Reports (“SARs”) were illegally released to news media.

An arrest has been made in regards to those leaks.

https://www.justice.gov/usao-s...ully-disclosing-sars

Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, William F. Sweeney Jr., Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), and Eric M. Thorson, Inspector General for the Department of Treasury, announced today the filing of a criminal complaint charging NATALIE MAYFLOWER SOURS EDWARDS, a/k/a “Natalie Sours,” a/k/a “Natalie May Edwards,” a/k/a “May Edwards,” who is a Senior Advisor at the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”), with unlawfully disclosing Suspicious Activity Reports (“SARs”) and conspiracy to do the same. EDWARDS was arrested yesterday and will be presented this afternoon in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

Beginning in approximately October 2017, and lasting until the present, EDWARDS unlawfully disclosed numerous SARs to a reporter (“Reporter-1”), the substance of which were published over the course of approximately 12 articles by a news organization for which Reporter-1 wrote (“News Organization-1”). The illegally disclosed SARs pertained to, among other things, Paul Manafort, Richard Gates, the Russian Embassy, Mariia Butina, and Prevezon Alexander

EDWARDS had access to each of the pertinent SARs and saved them – along with thousands of other files containing sensitive government information – to a flash drive provided to her by FinCEN. She transmitted the SARs to Reporter-1 by means that included taking photographs of them and texting the photographs to Reporter-1 over an encrypted application. In addition to disseminating SARs to Reporter-1, EDWARDS sent Reporter-1 internal FinCEN emails appearing to relate to SARs or other information protected by the BSA, and FinCEN non-public memoranda, including Investigative Memos and Intelligence Assessments published by the FinCEN Intelligence Division, which contained confidential personal, business, and/or security threat assessments.

EDWARDS, 40, of Quinton, Virginia, is charged with one count of unauthorized disclosures of suspicious activity reports and one count of conspiracy to make unauthorized disclosures of suspicious activity reports, both of which carry a maximum sentence of five years in prison. The statutory maximum penalties are prescribed by Congress and are provided here for informational purposes only, as any sentencings of the defendants would be determined by the judge.

Civilly, that's $1k per SAR she just owned. Criminally, well, her Fed job just got toasted.

Explain to me, please, what this has to do with Russian collusion?

quote:

Originally posted by fpuhan:
Explain to me, please, what this has to do with Russian collusion?

SARS are Suspicious Activity Reports banks provide to the Fed (and other LEA's) to warrant further scrutiny. Edwards, apparently, was leaking these SARS relating to Manafort, et al, to the media. A SJW act. She was letting the media know the source money of Manafort's accounts, etc. This would lead to discovery of other accounts, where they are located, how they are funded and distributed and, lastly, if they were reported.

If the source was "Russian collusion" you can backtrack who owns the accounts that funded the transaction.

Lastly, because Manafort was found guilty, manly, of tax law, these SARS are clearly evidence he did not report his TOTAL income.

She will be in a world of hurt for, basically, divulging personal income tax information not hers.

conservative Treehouse notes that the OP link also indicates that Edwards' boss may be involved.

This is an Associate Director of the Treasury Dept Financial Crimes Enforcement Network

See paragraphs 19 and 20 of the complaint pdf at the bottom of the OP link

quote:

Originally posted by fpuhan:
Explain to me, please, what this has to do with Russian collusion?

From another link about the story:

The case is apparently the first criminal prosecution arising from leaks about individuals targeted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team in the course of its Russia investigation.


https://www.foxnews.com/politi...l-info-of-trump-team

Natalie Mayflower Sours Edwards

Edwards was booked into the Alexandria, Virginia, jail following her arrest, and made her first court appearance Wednesday in the Eastern District of Virginia federal court. According to CNN, she was released on a $100,000 personal recognizance bond into the custody of her parents.

She is scheduled to appear in federal court in Manhattan, where the case will be heard, on November 2.

https://heavy.com/news/2018/10...lower-sours-edwards/

Natalie Mayflower Sours Edwards, who goes by May Edwards, was born Natalie Mayflower Sours in Virginia. Her family descends from a Native American tribe that received state recognition in 1983 and federal recognition earlier this year, the Chickahominy people. According to her Facebook page, she is involved in the tribe and helps organize and promote its events.

Edwards’ LinkedIn bio reads,

“Dr. Edwards is the first Native American Indian whose family stayed in the Commonwealth of Virginia, raised participating in tribal affairs, and received her formal education through the Virginia public school system to earn the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. As an All-American–All-Academic softball player, she earned her B.S. in Biology & Medical Studies, minors in criminal justice/chemistry/physics. As a High School Biology and Physics teacher, she coached various sports, and volunteered for the Special Olympics. At VCU, she served as the Assistant Director of Technology, Professor, and developed Master of Arts in Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness.

Her Federal Service consists of the Department of Justice, Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, Intelligence Community, and Office of the Director of National Intelligence. She has established and directed highly successful, multi-million dollar programs, operational deployments, negotiated proposals/contracts, executed financial plans, formulated/implemented business development strategies, spearheaded congressional notifications, fostered team building, cultivated effective staff, and led organizational change

She identified, led the development, and implemented the IC HCES program, which she briefed to Congress. The IC HCES is comprised of all 17 Intelligence Agencies as well as the Under Secretary of Defense (USDI) and the Department of Defense (DoD). The IC HCES promotes shared services across the IC enabling innovation, collaboration, and agility to facilitate idea, resource, and information sharing to enable mission execution and promote best practices.

Edwards worked for the Chesterfield County Public Schools as a physics, biology and chemistry teacher from 2000 to 2005, according to her Linkedin profile. She then worked for Virginia Commonwealth Unviersity as assistant director of technology and as a professor from 2005 to 2007 while she completed her doctorate in philosophy.

Edwards is married and lives in Quinton, Virginia. She has been placed on leave from her Treasury Department job.

Mollie Hemingway:

FINCEN refusing to say in which division she worked. Co-conspirator mentioned in FBI affidavit is an associate director and her boss.

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reading the FBI Complaint doc, Edwards' boss is identified as a "co-conspirator" between 24 Aug 2018 and 2 Oct 2018. (very recent)

reading the Buzzfeed articles cited in the FBI complaint, these articles are very AntiPresident Trump.

Constant suggestions of Trump Admin links to Russia. Much of these reports say the info went to the FBI, Mueller Special Counsel, and the Senate Intel Comm.


If you want to read the FBI Complaint, it is here:

https://www.scribd.com/documen...s-Complaint#download

Reporter-1 would seem to be Jason Leopold of Buzzfeed

From the Complaint doc, Jason Leopold was asking Edwards to do specific searches for him on the FinCen database.

This is pretty bad. Hoping she gets nailed. And her boss.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: sdy,

a person named Brian Cates wrote an article that raises an interesting possibility

The article is here:

https://www.theepochtimes.com/...ntinues_2693375.html

The Great Leak Hunt Continues

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What Brian Cates points out is that Reporter-1 (most likely Jason Leopold of Buzzfeed) made requests of Natalie Edwards to search the FinCen database for particular information.

Count Two of the Complaint is that Edwards and others did conspire to make unauthorized disclosures of SARS.

So the question is, can Reporter-1 be charged as part of the conspiracy ?

Reporter-1 didn't just accept information from Edwards, in some cases he told her what to search for.

Manafort gets 47 months. Seems a little light to me. It was mentioned on Fox that the judge said that this has nothing to do with the collusion alleged in the Mueller investigation.

Jim

quote:

Originally posted by Jimbo54:
Manafort gets 47 months. Seems a little light to me.

Jim

Well, I don't think that's the end of it. i think he has another sentencing next week .