Join the GOOGLE +Rubber Room Community

Saturday, November 2, 2013

New York City Conflicts of Interest Board Cites Misuse of City Position, Misuse of Resources, and Other Corrupt Practices

The NYC Conflicts of Interest Board has a complaint office which accepts evidence of various corrupt practices
 
 
 
A critical component of the work of the Conflicts of Interest Board involves its Enforcement function. The Enforcement Unit of the Board is responsible for and committed to identifying, investigating, prosecuting, and penalizing violations of City of New York's Conflicts of Interest Law.
The Enforcement Unit receives complaints, both written and oral -- and even anonymous ones -- of violations of the Conflicts of Interest Law from City employees, the media, and members of the public. The Enforcement Unit reviews each complaint individually and refers it to the Department of Investigation ("DOI"), the Board's confidential investigative arm, for investigation and report. Once a complaint has been investigated, if warranted, the Enforcement Unit will pursue confidential administrative enforcement proceedings against the alleged violators of the Conflicts of Interest Law.
A current or former public servant who violates the Conflicts of Interest Law may be subject to serious penalties. The Board may fine a public servant up to $25,000 for each violation of the Conflicts of Interest Law and may recommend to his or her agency that he or she be suspended or fired. In addition, the law contains a "disgorgement" provision, under which the Board may require a person who profited from violating the Conflicts of Interest Law to pay all of the profits to the city.  Such payment would be in addition to payment of any fine levied for the violation.  A violation of the Conflicts of Interest Law could also result in the public servant's City agency, on its own initiative, suspending or firing the public servant under the agency's disciplinary process.  A violation of the Conflicts of Interest Law is also a crime, a misdemeanor that the District Attorney's Office may prosecute; upon conviction, a public servant may be fined and sent to jail and lose his or her City job. The Board may also void any contract or transaction that violates the Conflicts of Interest Law.
In order to report a Conflict of Interest violation, you may:
  1. Call or write the Conflicts of Interest Board, 2 Lafayette Street, Suite 1010, NY, NY, 10007, (212) 442-1400.  You may also email the Board directly.   
  2. Call the Department of Investigation, 24 hours a day, at(212) 825-5959; and/or
  3. Call the Inspector General of your agency (you can find your Inspector General's name and telephone number onDOI's website)
All complaints are confidential.


Key Enforcement Resources Below are links to more information on the COIB's Enforcement Unit, including a searchable index of all of its Enforcement cases.

●  
Enforcement: A Plain Language Leaflet (in PDF)
●  
Enforcement: Current Chapter from the COIB Monograph (inPDF)
●  
Enforcement Case Summaries (in PDF)
●  
Enforcement Fines (in PDF)
●  
Enforcement Dispositions (Searchable via New York Law School's "CityLaw" Website)
●  Executive Order No. 16 (Department of Investigation)
 
Summaries (do not list names)