FINANCIAL CRIMES

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Manhattan is both the financial capital of the world and home to over one-and- a-half million people. As a result, bad economic actors in our city run the gamut from large banks that falsify documents to conduct business in violation of federal sanctions, to people who scam senior New Yorkers to gain access to their bank accounts.

To respond to the wide variety of economic crimes, Lucy will:

Ensure that all people charged with a crime are treated equally, regardless of how wealthy or powerful they are or how prestigious their lawyer is, by establishing a strict equal access policy that eliminates backroom deals and applies to every lawyer involved in cases and investigations handled by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. Read more about Lucy’s Equal Access Policy here.

  • Centralize the investigation and prosecution of economic crimes and frauds in a single Economic Crimes Bureau, staffed with both junior and senior assistant district attorneys, who will work directly with forensic accountants and others on the DA’s staff. This structure will:

    • Increase productivity by consolidating resources.

    • Increase availability of senior assistant district attorneys to investigate and prosecute white-collar crimes, like elder financial abuse, that directly harm many New Yorkers.

    • Increase lateral recruitment of experienced white-collar lawyers.

    • Facilitate in-bureau training between senior and junior lawyers.

  • Create specialized units within the Economic Crimes Bureau to handle particular classes of criminal activity that require specialized attention, including:

    • Tax Fraud Unit — focusing on traditional cases of tax fraud along with innovative investigations, like real estate developers and landlords who falsely claim tax breaks they have not earned.

    • Elder Abuse Unit — focusing on financial abuse, the most common form of senior abuse, and other scams that affect senior New Yorkers, while also providing investigative backup to assistant district attorneys pursuing cases of physical abuse.

    • Worker Protection Unit — focusing on cases ranging from wage theft to job listing scams, where fraudsters collect fees to place New Yorkers in jobs that do not exist.

    • Immigrant Affairs Unit — focusing on scams that target New York’s immigrant community, like visa scams, while also providing support Office-wide for cases involving undocumented New Yorkers as witnesses, victims or the accused.

    • Animal Welfare Unit — focusing on investigation and prosecution of cases harming animals for economic gain, including longer-term investigations under the Environmental Conservation Law and other statutory provisions, along with staffing and supporting cases of individual abuse.

  • Reinstate in-person intake, including in the Harlem and Washington Heights offices, to supplement virtual and telephone intake. In-person intake provides training for junior assistant district attorneys on case assessment and interviewing skills for white-collar crimes and also provides a reporting route for New Yorkers who have been victimized by opportunistic scams but do not trust reporting to the NYPD.

  • Staff the Economic Crimes Bureau with social workers, establish and foster relationships with social service agencies and community-led social service groups, and provide intensive training on referrals to all staff. Even in situations reported to the District Attorney’s Office that do not rise to the level of a criminal charge, Lucy’s Office will work to see that New Yorkers in need are connected with the services they deserve.

  • Facilitate communication between the Economic Crimes Bureau, Cybercrime Bureau, and the Industry and Enterprise Bureau to eliminate unnecessary investigative overlap and conform to investigative and prosecutorial best practices.

  • Create a Compliance and Investigation Bureau by combining the Financial Intelligence Unit, International Money Movement Center, Cyber Intelligence Unit, Counterterrorism Program, Privilege Review Unit, High Technology Analysis Unit, Discovery Compliance Unit and Investigator Unit in a dedicated bureau. Consolidating these units into a single bureau will:

    • Centralize these functions, ensuring that all investigative and compliance work is done in conformity with the highest ethical standards.

    • Minimize investigative overlap and improve investigations by encouraging intelligence analysts from different disciplines to collaborate under common leadership.