Natalie Mayflower Sours Edwards (born 1978) is a United States former senior official with the

U.S. Department of the Treasury The Department of the Treasury (USDT) is the national treasury and finance department of the federal government of the United States, where it serves as an executive department. The department oversees the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and t ...

who was employed in the

Financial Crimes Enforcement Network The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) is a bureau of the United States Department of the Treasury that collects and analyzes information about financial transactions in order to combat domestic and international money laundering, terr ...

(FinCEN). Sarah Ellison of ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' has called her "one of the most important whistleblowers of our era." Edwards was arrested on October 16, 2018, for disclosing

suspicious activity report In financial regulation, a Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) or Suspicious Transaction Report (STR) is a report made by a financial institution about suspicious or potentially suspicious activity. The criteria to decide when a report must be ma ...

s from October 2017 to October 2018 detailing Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential election to a reporter with ''

BuzzFeed News ''BuzzFeed News'' is an American news website published by BuzzFeed. It has published a number of high-profile scoops, including the Steele dossier, for which it was heavily criticized, and the FinCEN Files. Since its establishment in 2011, it ...

'', which published the series "The Money Trail". The SARs included money transfers and information about

Maria Butina Maria Valeryevna Butina (russian: Мари́я Вале́рьевна Бу́тина, sometimes transliterated as Mariya Butina; born November 10, 1988) is a Russian politician, political activist and former entrepreneur who was convicted in 20 ...

, Rick Gates,

Paul Manafort Paul John Manafort Jr. (; born April 1, 1949) is an American lobbyist, political consultant, and attorney. A long-time Republican Party campaign consultant, he chaired the Trump presidential campaign from June to August 2016. Manafort served ...

, the Russian Embassy in the United States, and a Russian firm, Prevezon Alexander, LLC., involved with

money laundering Money laundering is the process of concealing the origin of money, obtained from illicit activities such as drug trafficking, corruption, embezzlement or gambling, by converting it into a legitimate source. It is a crime in many jurisdictions ...

. ''The Wall Street Journal'' identified the ''BuzzFeed News'' reporter as

Jason Leopold Jason Arthur Leopold (born October 7, 1969) is an American senior investigative reporter for ''BuzzFeed News''. He was previously an investigative reporter for ''Al Jazeera America'' and ''Vice News''. He worked at ''Truthout'' as a senior edit ...

. Edwards allegedly sent Leopold internal FinCEN emails, investigative memos and intelligence assessments, and the two were in regular contact. ''The New York Times'' characterized Edwards' case as procedurally different from that of

James Wolfe James Wolfe (2 January 1727 – 13 September 1759) was a British Army officer known for his training reforms and, as a Major-general (United Kingdom), major general, remembered chiefly for his victory in 1759 over the Kingdom of France, French ...

, even though both cases involved leaking to reporters. Edwards pled guilty in 2020, with a maximum sentence of up to five years. In June 2021, she was sentenced to serve six months in prison and three years of supervised release, 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. 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. Edwards left prison in January 2022.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Edwards, Natalie 1978 births 21st-century American women Criminals from Virginia Living people North Carolina Wesleyan College alumni People associated with Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections United States Customs Service personnel Virginia Commonwealth University alumni