Queens County Criminal Courts Building (Photo: Queens DA)
June 9, 2020 By Allie Griffin
The Queens District Attorney’s office has launched a Major Economic Crimes Bureau to investigate and prosecute a variety of large-scale financial crimes, Queens DA Melinda Katz announced today.
The bureau will target organized groups engaging in check-cashing and credit card fraud, fishing and identity theft schemes, auto theft, insurance fraud rings, gambling and loan sharking operations. It will also be charged with dismantling medical mills.
Katz, who took office in January, has reorganized the office and created several new bureaus. The Major Economic Crimes Bureau is a combination of former existing bureaus and is within the Investigations Division of the District Attorney’s Office.
“When I became your District Attorney, I set out to re-organize the Office to better serve the needs of our communities,” Katz said in a statement. “At the helm of this new and modernized Major Economic Crimes Bureau will be a veteran prosecutor with a wealth of experience fighting on behalf of the people of Queens County.”
Katz appointed Assistant District Attorney Mary Lowenburg to lead the bureau. Lowenburg has worked within the Queens DA Office for 22 years and previously served as Deputy Bureau Chief of the former Organized Crimes and Rackets Bureau
The Economic Crimes Bureau team will work with a variety of local, state and federal law enforcement partners to investigate financial crimes.
The team will also work hand-in-hand with the Queen DA’s Violent Criminal Enterprises Bureau as financial crimes are frequently tied to violent criminal organizations. Together the two bureaus will partner to fully dismantle criminal organizations operating in Queens, Katz said.
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