Spitzer held his secret until prosecutors forced his hand

NEW YORK — Eliot Spitzer finally had to tell someone his secret.

It was last Sunday morning, and he had just spent five hours driving through a fierce storm to his family and his Fifth Avenue apartment.

Until then, the law-and-order New York governor had not dropped a hint of the bombshell that was about to force him from office, not a strained word during public appearances Friday in Manhattan or glad-handing the media at a Saturday dinner in Washington.

But shortly after entering his luxurious high-rise building a little after noon, Spitzer faced his wife of two decades, Silda, and he had to tell her:

The "Mr. Clean" ex-prosecutor known for fighting corruption and taking the moral high ground was going to be outed as a client of a $5,500-an-hour prostitution ring.

After a few hours alone, they broke the news to their three teenage daughters.

A day later, the scandal went public. Two days after that, his career would be officially finished.

Spitzer's secrets began to unravel last year when banks tipped Internal Revenue Service agents to something strange going on with his accounts, authorities said. His money transfers were setting off all sorts of red flags.

The case was referred last fall to federal prosecutors, who came to believe that Spitzer may have spent tens of thousands of dollars transferring money between accounts to pay for prostitutes, according to a law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case.

The first public hint of Spitzer's downfall was dropped in a federal court in Manhattan on March 6. Four people were charged with running a prostitution and money-laundering ring called Emperors Club VIP.

It was clear this was more than a run-of-the-mill prostitution bust. The prosecutors assigned to the case were headed by the U.S. attorney's public corruption unit, which generally looks at cases involving elected officials. None of the prostitution ring's clients was named, but the 47-page document detailed dealings with 10 of them — identified only as Clients 1 through 10.

On pages 26 through 31, "Client 9" — who law enforcement officials say is Spitzer — was described as being caught on a wiretap Feb. 12 and Feb. 13, ordering a tryst with a prostitute at Washington's Renaissance Mayflower Hotel.