The Career of Eliot Spitzer

Eliot Spitzer took office as New York's governor on the first day of 2007, with a record margin of victory. But his first year as governor was rocky and his reform-based platform hit early roadblocks.

Shortly after taking office he openly and harshly criticized fellow Democrats controlling the Assembly after they installed one of their own, Thomas P. Dinapoli, as the state comptroller. Then he began an increasingly bitter war of words with Joseph L. Bruno, the Senate majority leader and the state's top Republican.

Spitzer, a Democrat, gained national recognition while serving as the state's attorney general, a position he had for eight years. He became known as the 'Sheriff of Wall Street' as he sought to uncover corporate corruption in the financial services industries as well as the prescription and power industries.

Among the high-profile cases that Spitzer pursued were allegations that Dick Grasso, the chairman of the New York Stock Exchange violated his positions as chairman of the New York Stock Exchange by receiving excessive compensation.

He also pursued some of the largest investment banks on Wall Street for inflating stock prices to benefit their corporate investment clients, eventually brokering a $1.4 billion settlement with Bear Stearns , Credit Suisse First Boston , Deutsche Bank , Goldman Sachs and others.

In the "late trading" and "market timing" investigations, Spitzer also probed practices that allowed mutual funds to provide select clients with special priviledges.

Spitzer also prosecuted at least two prostitution rings as head of the state's organized crime task force.

Spitzer graduated from Horace Mann in 1977. He earned a degree from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton, and then went on to study law at Harvard, where he served as an editor at the Harvard Law Review.

It was at Harvard that Spitzer met his future wife, Silda Wall. They were married in New York City in 1987 and have three daughters.

On Monday, Spitzer apologized to his family and to the public for a "private matter," but did not address reports that he had been involved in a prostitution ring.

© 2008 CNBC.com