DISTRICT ATTORNEY - NEW YORK COUNTY

NEWS RELEASE
December 18, 2007

Contact: Barbara Thompson
212.335.9400

Manhattan District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau announced today gains against both violent and economic crime in 2007.  This year, as the murder rate in Manhattan plummeted, revenue earned by the District Attorney’s office for the city and state from white-collar prosecutions has increased.

According to the most recent figures available, there have been 65 murders this year in Manhattan. This represents a 40% decrease from last year, the greatest decrease in any of the major boroughs.  It has been widely reported that at the current rate, New York City will have fewer than 500 murders this year, fewer than in any year since 1963.  But Manhattan is on schedule to have only one-fourth as many murders as in 1963 and less than one-third as many as in 1937, when reliable records were first kept.

Mr. Morgenthau said, “The stunning decline in the number of homicides points out the excellent work done by the police and prosecutors.  But the police work in all the boroughs, and the drop in murders has been particularly dramatic in Manhattan.  Obviously, the work of senior assistant district attorneys in the Trial Division and specialized programs in this office, such as the Fire Arms Trafficking Unit and the Homicide Investigation Unit, has played a major role in lowering the number of homicides in Manhattan.”

Mr. Morgenthau also said, “The tremendous decrease in homicides and other violent crime has allowed my office to focus more attention and resources on financial crimes.  These prosecutions not only provide a deterrent for white-collar criminals, but also bring in substantial revenues for both New York City and New York State, in the form of back taxes, criminal fines and forfeitures.”

Earlier this month, the Appellate Division, First Department, in a unanimous opinion, affirmed the convictions of Dennis Kozlowski and Mark Swarz in the Tyco case.  This opinion makes it virtually certain that the $105 million in fines imposed in that case will be collected and added to the other revenues this office has earned for the state and city.  In Fiscal Year 2007, the Manhattan District Attorney’s office returned $43 million to state and city coffers.  The FY ’07 figure represented more than a 40% increase over the revenues earned by the office in FY ’06.   

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