At the risk of being wildly off topic, I wanted to share a link I came across... A good time line of how the gears of justice move along.  It is a reminder in this day and age where a mere arrest equates to automatic guilt, that everyone out there involved in anything on the fringes should exercise prudence. Thankfully our small town has never had anything remotely close to this that I am aware of... What is nice about the article link is that while it is about a guard, if you scroll down you see a good summary of the inner workings of a large agency. What is more is that in this case and MC, large revenue was involved.  Ironically if the exchange was taxed it probably would have covered nice raises for the executive branch.  Instead, the residents can sleep easier at night and knowing their tax dollars are keeping them safe from the divas. Life is full of trade offs.  This snitch has learned that is best to keep quiet in life, leave no trace and try not to make a big splash just like in the days of Edgar Hoover and Joseph McCarthy.  Just pay your taxes and no that the watchful eyes are protecting you at night and keeping you safe from temptation.

She's not guilty of the charges but the articles don't state that. Others didn't fare as well.

And it reaffirms two things

1)  The government really gets after you when you don't pay taxes

2)  Agencies are big, juicy targets, which makes LE more likely to go after them.

For one thing, you might have missed it, but we did have a pretty big bust here recently. The Good Guys were taken down and caused quite the ruckus.

Also, as far as the ho slinging agency in this story, they prove why the love of money is the root of all evil and the cause of many problems. This outfit was so successful, the story notes they were making bank deposits of $250,000 a month. That's creeping into the territory of Cali cartel type money. The basic idiot can also tell you that all banks are required under Federal regulations to report any cash transaction over $10,000. Which means there was a virtual river of documents flowing to the IRS and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network about this business. That's like walking thru the jungle full of lions and leopards and hyenas with porkchops stuffed in your pockets. It's then only a matter of time until the lions track down the scent to your location, and all Hell will commence to break loose.

If you know that you are engaged in an illegal business, with bucketloads of cash as your daily profit, does it take a rocket scientist to tell you to stay far away from heavily regulated banks??

However it is still very telling that with this being the biggest sting in Arizona history, the dozens of arrests made, the huge amount of cash involved.....the stiffest jail time facing anyone involved is no more than 2.5 years!

Maybe the business owner is not as dumb as I think.

These days at least since FINCEN AML requirements beginning 2006, any unusual string of deposits is reported by software. Because it was so successful, it generated an enormous hit list - a huge case load for the kids in fincen. Eliot Spitzer was flagged via this as he appeared to be structuring or smurfing money.  Of course he was but not to wash illicit profits but instead to pay for illicit things.  In the end he turned it in to a book deal, a movie and a TV gig.  He appears to be making a lot more money these days.

Sort of a side note - 10000 is so yesterday hehe. $3100 in cash is so 2010. The ultimate goal is any abnormal pattern.

But yeah you gotta wonder - millionaire lifestyle, girls, ferraris and the worst sentence is 2.5 years... All that man power, all those hours investigating, and the expense of incarceration.  One has to wonder if our tax dollars would have been better spent on other things like self esteem programs, education or designing and legalizing consensual for profit sex.  Some guys might be asking how they can sign up.  What a sad waste while street prostitution is claiming lives and kids are being abused.

Good news to is the great number of snitching programs you can sign up for after and while the case is under way. Work from home, become a CI and get get paid to make friends (and sometimes break the law - it doesn't matter. Only clearing cases matters)

The reality is the ads still pour in the reviews keep coming in.... Housewives, college girls, and soccer moms as well as professionals keep the money moving in our economy.  But like everything else, our culture says one thing and does another.  

1. Agencies seem to insist on record keeping.  There's quite a bit of news about Miami Companions and their book with names and sexual preferences as well.  I think it's 30,000 names going back 10 years?  Quite a few of those years, MC visited our state.  .

2. Two is one too many to be associated with if you want to be a little fish

3. It seems to take about a year for an investigation, another to prosecute.  Resulting in little over 2 years of jail time.  

4. Every case I've seen so far of these big fish busted starts with either "a trusted hobbyist snitching" and/or cooperating when squeezed.  

5. There is no such thing as a "safe place" to store on servers such as black books, forums or money with the international tax information agreement in place.  (see link)    

What I want to know is why this man owned silencers?  I wonder if those who cooperated are counting down the day of his release.  

Locally, we had a case involving a man who thought he was smarter than he was with a need to provide himself with more entertainment than he could afford, pushing him to involve more people for his own gain than he should have.  Many of those he trusted cooperated with LE of course.  

PM's, phone records, emails and servers are all available to LE if they want.  it's prudent to stay away from people who involve others for personal gain.  

Another observation:  The fed's don't seem to be interested unless you avoid paying them their due.  Alot of federal money has been filtered down these past years to keep children and imigrants from being abused, leading to federally funded agencies looking into anything remotely organized.  

I guess there's a subgroup out there making a hobby of watching the hobby.

I heard a rumor that the revenue was actually recorded and taxes paid by the az divas. However the revenue was recorded as being escorting.  Since prostitution was illegal recording the source of the funds as legitimate (via escorting) equates to laundering. Hence once a few good snitches contributed a few grainy recordings there was enough evidence to go trial as a laundering case because folks said it was really not escorting.

 If this is the case, it is kind of amazing because the cake was HAD and eaten. The divas paid their taxes, but le got to bust them, the prosecutors got the pleas aka sanctioned extortion, the judges had an easier albeit more boring day, the media got their pictures, the pious got to feel self righteous, the pleaders got to make new friends in jail and this new network of ex cons will be needed since their options for legitimate  employment will be very limited - although they can, of course, become snitches part time when their applications for normal employment are rejected because of felony searches.

And you are right, just look up a few cases of hackers and you will see that with enough man power it only takes a few weeks or months to unearth the data.  Given normal case loads, a few years.  The good news is that snitches are still needed as they are sort of a t,radiation in the digital age. I think without people opening their big mouths or people becoming snitches, there just might not be a chance of clearing cases. I have to pray to the patron saint of the snitches - the rat because the rat keeps the other barn yard animals happy. No rats. No cases.