New York, NY – City officials plan to combine information from numerous agencies into a database to better fight financial fraud and tax evasion.
Subscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
Led by a former Manhattan district attorney, Michael Flowers, the Financial Crime Task Force for the City of New York is expected to recoup lost monies, catch tax cheats and boost revenue for the city by serving, in part, as the investigative arm of the New York City Law Department.
The city recovers millions of dollars a year by filing lawsuits, but while the law department currently has 19 lawyers, it has no investigators. Mr. Flowers said he expects the task force to mine data and send leads on suspected fraud back to investigators with city agencies who have subpoena power.
“You’re biting off a tremendous chunk of data and you’re trying to digest it to a point where you can spot trends,” said Mr. Flowers, 41 years old, who was the second-in-command in the prosecution of Saddam Hussein before the Iraqi Special Tribunal. “It’s a fire hose of information available out there that we are trying to channel in a meaningful way.”
An early test has involved searching out mortgage fraud, such as a scam in which unsuspecting homeowners are convinced to sign over their deeds under the premise that they are refinancing their mortgages.
In the past few months, the task force has taken a Department of Finance database that lists property transfers and searched for properties valued at zero or near zero, often a sign of evasion of a tax on real-estate transfers based on the value of the property.
Eric Proshansky, deputy chief of affirmative litigation, said he expects the task force to branch out and target the city’s financial sector as well.
Mr. Flowers said he expects the database to use pattern recognition software, such as that used by the New York Police Department in its Real Time Crime Center, which crunches information from the field and accesses police databases to find crime patterns and to help stop crime in early stages.
The government needs more $$$$ so they hire more investigators
this is mamash ant-semitism
years ago people would give different numbers for different agencies. such as food stamps 100.00 per week, section 8 120.00 per week, tax return 200.00 per week etc. this was all done in order to maximize $$$$ received. if the same person would apply for a loan from the bank he would produce a false tax return showing 500,000 annual income, in order to be qualified for the loan.
but this has long stopped, and people have changed since they understand that the government randomly reviews these numbers and many have indeed been thrown off certain government programs, lost apartments in housing projects and even been arrested for submitting false information.