In November 2010 the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and the New York High Intensity Financial Crime Area (“HIFCA”), which is part of the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (“HIDTA”), sponsored a day-long symposium on law enforcement and banking. The event, hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, welcomed more than 350 individuals from over 60 financial institutions and numerous federal and state law enforcement agencies.

This symposium was the first of its kind for the District Attorney’s Office and reflected District Attorney Vance’s fundamental focus on crime prevention strategies as applied to the white-collar arena.  The philosophy underlying the symposium was that law enforcement and the financial services industry need to find strategies to work together to stay ahead of the most sophisticated forms of economic crime.  To this end, the symposium provided a forum for law enforcement personnel to examine cutting edge issues with members of the financial services community to find new methods to detect and disrupt complex financial crime.  Together, we examined a number of timely and relevant topics, from the viewpoint of industry experts, regulators, and prosecutors on issues facing the financial community, including trends in money laundering and financial crime, and the use of technology and information sharing to fight corruption, cyber-fraud, and terrorism.

Panelists in the financial and law enforcement fields discussed topics including: “Financial Crisis & Financial Crimes,” “Micro-Cap Fraud,” “Financial Exploitation: The Elderly, The Vulnerable, & The System” and “Emerging Financial Crime Trends.”

Experts in attendance included: James T. Hayes, Jr., Special Agent in Charge, Homeland Security Investigations; Gary Sherrill, Deputy Assistant Inspector General for Investigations, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Office of Inspector General; Andrew Calamari, Associate Director for Enforcement, the Securities and Exchange Commission; Peter Grupe, Assistant Special Agent-in-Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation at the New York Field Office; Michael Paley, Assistant Director, Enforcement, Securities and Exchange Commission; Rene Febles, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Office of the Inspector General; and Ari Baranoff, Assistant to the Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Secret Service.