A former senior Treasury Division official was sentenced Thursday to six months in jail for leaking 1000’s of paperwork to a information reporter whereas she labored at a monetary crimes division on the company.
Natalie Mayflower Sours Edwards pleaded responsible final 12 months to leaking suspicious exercise stories, generally known as SARs, throughout her time on the Monetary Crimes Enforcement Community — however maintained she did in order a whistleblower to spotlight alleged corruption within the authorities.
Manhattan federal courtroom Decide Gregory Woods sided with prosecutors, who requested a most sentence of six months after Sours Edwards pleaded responsible.
Woods mentioned on the sentencing listening to that the unauthorized leaking could have made our nation much less secure and will have put scrutiny on harmless individuals, because the stories reveal identities of individuals beneath suspicion who could haven’t dedicated against the law.
“The crime was a critical one,” Woods mentioned, including a sentence that included jail time was crucial to deter potential criminals.
In ready remarks, Sours Edwards mentioned she was raised to settle for accountability and act with integrity — and highlighted her Native American upbringing.
“I’m an indigenous matriarch warrior whose spirit can’t be damaged,” she mentioned earlier than in the end apologizing for breaking the legislation.
Her protection lawyer argued she be given probation and tried to pin a number of the blame on BuzzFeed Information reporter Jason Leopold, who she mentioned “cultivated” Sours Edwards as a supply and pressured her to leak paperwork to him.
Sours Edwards leaked Leopold some 50,000 paperwork, prosecutors mentioned, which have been the idea for plenty of investigative tales revealed by the information web site, together with a sequence of tales dubbed the “FinCEN Recordsdata.”
The stories examined, partly, how drug cartels and different felony organizations throughout the globe have been allegedly given entry to the worldwide banking system to launder their illegally obtained money.
Prosecutors argued the leak additionally revealed details about the terrorist group Hezbollah and will have given accused cash launders advance discover about investigations into their crimes.
In an announcement, BuzzFeed spokesperson Matt Mittenthal mentioned Sours Edwards was a “courageous whistleblower” for leaking the paperwork.
“Due to Ms. Edwards’s bravery, BuzzFeed Information, together with the 108 media organizations within the Worldwide Consortium of Investigative Journalists, have been ready to publish the FinCEN Recordsdata, which revealed monetary corruption on a worldwide scale,” Mittenthal mentioned.
“BuzzFeed Information helps the actions of whistleblowers and strongly condemns in the present day’s sentence of Ms. Edwards,” he added.
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