Natalie Edwards
Born
Natalie Mayflower Sours
Other namesDr. May Edwards
EducationNorth Carolina Wesleyan College (B.S.)
Virginia Commonwealth University (M.Ed., Ph.D.)[1]
OccupationIntelligence officer
Employer(s)United States Treasury
Central Intelligence Agency
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
Virginia Commonwealth University
Chesterfield County Public Schools
Known forDisclosing suspicious activity reports (SARs) from October 2017 to October 2018 to BuzzFeed News some of which became the basis for the FinCEN Files and Pandora Papers
SpouseJohn Edwards Jr.
Children1
Conviction(s)Unlawfully Disclosing A Suspicious Activity Report[2]
Criminal penalty6 months in prison and three years of supervised release[3]

Natalie Mayflower Sours Edwards (born 1978) is a United States former senior official with the U.S. Department of the Treasury who was employed in the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).[4] Sarah Ellison of The Washington Post has called her "one of the most important whistleblowers of our era."[5]

Edwards was arrested on October 16, 2018, for disclosing suspicious activity reports from October 2017 to October 2018 detailing Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential election to a reporter with BuzzFeed News, which published the series "The Money Trail".[6][7] The SARs included money transfers and information about Maria Butina, Rick Gates, Paul Manafort, the Russian Embassy in the United States, and a Russian firm, Prevezon Alexander, LLC., involved with money laundering.[8][9]

The Wall Street Journal identified the BuzzFeed News reporter as Jason Leopold. Edwards allegedly sent Leopold internal FinCEN emails, investigative memos and intelligence assessments, and the two were in regular contact.[10] The New York Times characterized Edwards' case as procedurally different from that of James Wolfe, even though both cases involved leaking to reporters.[11]

Edwards pled guilty in 2020, with a maximum sentence of up to five years.[12][13]

In June 2021, she was sentenced to serve six months in prison and three years of supervised release, [14] a sentence on the higher end of the relevant federal sentencing guidelines. Throughout her sentencing hearing, Edwards maintained that she was acting as a whistleblower and that she did not disclose the suspicious activity report, with malicious intent.[7][15][16][17] Her counsel argued that she had gone through whistleblower channels and disclosed information only after she had been the subject of retaliation and believed that disclosing the information to the media would "help the American people", while prosecutors argued that "there has never been any substantive evidence of her claims" that she went through the proper internal channels and that Edwards lacked remorse for her decision to leak confidential information.[7][15][16][17]

Edwards left prison in January 2022.[18]

References

  1. ↑ "VCU Fall Commencement Program 2007" (pdf). Virginia Commonwealth University. Retrieved September 25, 2020.
  2. ↑ "United States v. Edwards (1:19-cr-00064)" (url). Court Listener. Retrieved February 1, 2022.
  3. ↑ "Judgement In A Criminal Case" (PDF). SDNY Judge Woods. Retrieved February 1, 2022.
  4. ↑ Popovich, Ana (January 25, 2022). "U.S. Treasury Whistleblower Natalie Mayflower Sours Edwards Released from Prison". Retrieved February 1, 2022.
  5. ↑ Ellison, Sarah (July 8, 2021). "How May Edwards became the forgotten whistleblower". Washington Post. Retrieved February 9, 2022.
  6. ↑ "The Money Trail". BuzzFeed News. Retrieved October 19, 2018.
  7. 1 2 3 Larkin, Emilee (June 3, 2021). "Document Leak Puts Ex-Treasury Official Away 6 Months". Courthouse News Service.
  8. ↑ Flitter, Emily (October 17, 2018). "Treasury Official Charged With Leaking Bank Reports to Journalist". New York Times. Retrieved October 19, 2018.
  9. ↑ "Treasury official pleads not guilty in leaking case". WDIV. January 31, 2019. Archived from the original on January 31, 2019. Retrieved January 31, 2019.
  10. ↑ Rebecca Davis O’Brien, Aruna Viswanatha (October 17, 2018). "Treasury Official Charged With Leaking Sensitive Bank Information to Reporter". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved June 4, 2020. The BuzzFeed reporter, who isn't identified in the charges, is recognizable as Jason Leopold, who was listed as an author on all 12 articles cited in the complaint.
  11. ↑ Emily Flitter (October 17, 2018). "Treasury Official Charged With Leaking Bank Reports to Journalist". The New York Times. Retrieved June 4, 2020. James A. Wolfe, denies that he distributed classified materials, and the Justice Department has not charged him with leaking information. The case against Dr. Edwards is different. Disclosing suspicious activity reports to anyone who is unauthorized to see them is against the law, and the reports seldom — if ever — make their way into the public domain. When questioned by investigators, Dr. Edwards did not deny having shared them
  12. ↑ Re, Gregg (January 13, 2020). "Ex-Treasury employee pleads guilty to leaking Trump team info, after dramatic bust with flash drive in hand". Fox News.
  13. ↑ "Former Senior Fincen Employee Pleads Guilty To Conspiring To Unlawfully Disclose Suspicious Activity Reports". United States Department of Justice. January 13, 2020.
  14. ↑ "Judgement In A Criminal Case" (PDF). SDNY Judge Woods. Retrieved February 1, 2022.
  15. 1 2 Mack, David (June 3, 2021). "A Former Treasury Official Was Sentenced To 6 Months In Prison For Giving Documents To BuzzFeed News". BuzzFeed News.
  16. 1 2 Stempel, Jonathan (June 3, 2021). "Ex-Treasury employee gets prison for leaks on Trump campaign officials". Reuters.
  17. 1 2 NEUMEISTER, Larry (June 3, 2021). "Ex-Treasury worker sentenced to 6 months in 'leak' case". Associated Press.
  18. ↑ "The Whistleblower Behind the FinCEN Files Investigation Has Been Released from Prison". BuzzFeed News. January 25, 2022.
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