Eliot Spitzer

Eliot Spitzer (2004)

Eliot Laurence Spitzer (born June 10, 1959 in the Bronx , New York City ) is an American politician . He belongs to the Democratic Party . He was Governor of New York from January 1, 2007 to March 17, 2008 .

Life

Spitzer was born as the son of building contractor Bernard Spitzer (1924-2014) and his wife Anne (nee Goldhaber) and grew up in a family with Jewish-Austrian roots in the Bronx, New York. After attending Horace Mann School , he went to college at Princeton University and then studied law at Harvard Law School , where he worked for the Harvard Law Review . At Harvard he met his future wife Silda Wall, with whom he has three daughters.

Legal practice and attorney general

After graduating, Spitzer worked for Judge Robert W. Sweet in Manhattan and was then employed by the law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison . After two years, Spitzer left the office and was in the prosecutor's office (the Authority District Attorney ) of Manhattan still under Robert M. Morgenthau hired. After an unsuccessful candidacy in 1994, he was elected Attorney General of New York in 1998 . He held this electoral office until he became governor. In this role, Spitzer stood out for his actions against well-known opponents, including:

• 1998–2002 Price fixing among (partial) computer manufacturers between 5 companies, of which Samsung Electronics Co. , Elpida Memory Inc. , Infineon Technologies AG and Hynix Semiconductor Inc. had to pay a total fine of USD 730 million, while Micron Technology Inc. Immunity as a "key witness" was granted.
• 2002 Securities trading affair between investment banks and brokers in the offer of issued securities to influential managers, which was a general malaise in Manhattan, as a result of which the companies Bear Stearns , Credit Suisse First Boston , Deutsche Bank , Goldman Sachs , JP Morgan Chase , Lehman Brothers , Merrill Lynch had to , Morgan Stanley , Salomon Smith Barney , UBS Warburg paid fines and damages of $ 1.4 billion.
• In 2004, NYSE Chairman Richard A. Grasso was charged with abuse of office and receiving excessive severance pay.
• 2005 Investigation against Sony BMG because of the use of the XCP copy protection process. Spitzer had previously conducted investigations against both Sony BMG and the Warner Music Group for bribery of radio stations .

Governor of New York

Governor Spitzer at a public appearance in April 2007

The assumed office quickly brought Spitzer the charge of a lack of conscientiousness, as a number of important positions in the executive branch were not filled and the state parliament ( New York State Legislature ) did not comply even after his election. Spitzer mainly drove two projects in 2007 - the consolidation of the state budget and a law on same-sex marriage .

After it became known that Spitzer (alias Client 9 ) had repeatedly used the services of exclusive prostitutes , he resigned on March 17, 2008. Even the use of sexual services is illegal in most states in the United States. However, it is not yet certain whether - apart from the contact with prostitutes - there were closer points of contact with the associated call girl ring Emperor’s Club VIP , which brokered exclusive prostitutes not only in New York and Washington, but also in Paris and London. According to the New York Times , Spitzer had made a name for himself in the past with his actions against at least two prostitution rings. On November 6, 2008, the responsible federal prosecutor, Michael J. Garcia , announced that he would no longer investigate Spitzer because no evidence of misuse of public funds had been found. The film director Alex Gibney made a documentary about the rise and fall of Eliot Spitzer ( Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer ).

Spitzer was succeeded by the previous Lieutenant Governor David Paterson for the remainder of the term of office, which lasted until the turn of 2010/11 .

After Keith Olbermann was fired, Spitzer had his own television show on Current TV from 2012 to 2013 .

Web links

Commons : Eliot Spitzer  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Wikiquote: Eliot Spitzer  - Quotes

• Eliot Spitzer in the nndb (English)
• Eliot Spitzer in the National Governors Association (English)
• Eliot Spitzer 2006 ( Memento from July 2, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Eva Schweitzer : The deep fall of Eliot Spitzer . Zeit Online , November 2008
2. ↑ New York prosecutor has Sony BMG's copy protection in his sights . Heise News, November 30, 2005; Retrieved February 14, 2008
3. ↑ Microsoft and Apple music stores pay more to independent labels . Heise News, July 27, 2005; Retrieved February 14, 2008
4. ↑ Warner Music no longer wants to bribe radio stations . Heise News, November 23, 2005; Retrieved February 14, 2008
5. ^ Danny Hakim , William K. Rashbaum: Spitzer Is Linked to Prostitution Ring. In: New York Times . March 10, 2008, accessed November 15, 2014 . 
6. ↑ Klaus Brinkbäumer: The Difficult Customer 9 . In: Der Spiegel . No. 12 , 2008 ( online ).
7. ^ Statement of United States Attorney Michael J. Garcia. (PDF) (No longer available online.) US Attorney's Office, November 6, 2014, archived from the original on July 21, 2013 ; accessed on November 15, 2014 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
8. ↑ Withdrawal: New York Governor Spitzer resigns after sex affair - Spon, December 3, 2008