Cuomo's Deputy for Member Items
Get used to hearing the name: she's the one who's going to be in charge of reviewing some 6,000 legislative member items, and who will be responsible for determining the legality of proposed items in the future.
Full announcement after the jump.
-- Azi PaybarahOR PUBLIC INTEGRITY
Career prosecutor from New York County District Attorney's office to oversee government corruption investigations
NEW YORK, NY (February 26, 2007) - Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo today announced the appointment of Ellen Nachtigall Biben as Special Deputy Attorney General for Public Integrity, where she will oversee landmark initiatives to fight government corruption.
The Public Integrity Bureau will handle civil and criminal cases, pursuing perpetrators of fraud and bad conduct statewide and seeking to recover misspent taxpayer funds.
Ms. Biben's distinguished 11-year career as a prosecutor for the New York County District Attorney's office has produced several long-term, comprehensive investigations into organized crime, money laundering, public corruption, tax evasion, and other forms of racketeering. Since 2001, she has specialized in such prosecutions, serving as Deputy Bureau Chief of the Rackets Bureau.
"Ellen Biben's proven experience finding and eliminating corruption in its various forms puts her at a great advantage to help restore integrity and trust in the state Capitol and beyond," said Attorney General Cuomo. "Her tireless work as a prosecutor has served the people of New York County well for over a decade. I am proud to welcome her to our team, where she will lead this extraordinarily important effort. She will be an asset not only to the Department of Law, but to the entire state."
For the Department of Law, Ms. Biben will manage Attorney General Cuomo's milestone public integrity initiatives, which include a thorough review of approximately 6,000 legislative budget member items, a multi-layered legality review of any further proposed items, and "Project Sunlight," a statewide Internet database where New Yorkers can examine links between elected officials, campaign donations, lobbyists, special interests, and/or state contracts.
"Ellen Biben served the Manhattan District Attorney's office with distinction for more than ten years," said New York County District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau. "Her excellent work on a wide range of white-collar, corruption, and organized crime cases, and her experience as a supervisor in the Rackets Bureau make her an outstanding choice to head the Attorney General's Public Integrity Unit."
Prior to her tenure at the New York County District Attorney's office, Ms. Biben was a litigation associate with Sullivan & Cromwell and a law clerk to the Hon. Alan H. Nevas of the United States District Court for Connecticut. Ms. Biben received a B.A. from Wesleyan University, where she was captain of the varsity swim team and a J.D. from the University of Southern California Law Center, where she was executive editor of the Law Review.
This won't amount to much if the AG doesn't commit significant resources to Biben. The Manhattan DA probably has a better operation for handling public corruption cases, and they had only 1 county (and the occasional prosecution of public officials from other counties) to oversee. Biben will be responsible for the entire State. This will be a huge undertaking.
I hope that Biben not only looks at legislative malfeasance regarding member items, but sometimes sloppy accountability on the part of the gubernatorial agencies that are responsible for ensuring that member items go to organizations that are real entities. for example, the item that went to a for profit entity from joe bruno should have been prevented if the contracting agency were not asleep at the switch in ensuring that tax payer dollars go towards not for profits only.
What ever happened with his investigation. I assumed Cuomo had someone (or some legislatos, plural) in mind when going through all member items. Did Cuomo find anything yet, or was it really just a wild goose chase/publicity thing?