Toppling of the Luv Guv is ‘Wall Street revenge’

Eliot Spitzer’s downfall as governor last week may have roots in pursuit of wealthy bankers while state attorney-general

IN early 2004 Eliot Spitzer was at the height of his powers as the sheriff of Wall Street, the highflying New York prosecutor who had set his sights on the cosy corporate kleptocracy that was pocketing millions from insider deals while ordinary investors went bankrupt.

His latest victim was Richard Grasso, the chief executive of the New York Stock Exchange, who had made headlines around the world by negotiating himself a $140m (£69m) retirement package that Spitzer alleged was illegal.

Grasso claimed he had done nothing wrong and when it became clear he was prepared for a fight, Spitzer’s investigators went to work. What happened next helps to explain why much of Wall Street cheered – and the rest of America gasped – when Spitzer, who was later elected governor of New York state, became enmeshed in a call-girl scandal that cost him his political career last week.

Not since the Monica Lewinsky affair have Americans enjoyed so mesmerising a spectacle of a powerful politician laid low by seemingly inexplicable lust.

The ineffably sleazy case of the “Luv Guvâ€