Gregory Krakower, who recently served as senior advisor to New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, has joined the Getnick & Getnick law firm in New York.
Gregory Krakower
Krakower will work in the firm’s whistleblower and False Claims Act practice, while also working on matters involving business integrity and independent monitorships.
Krakower conceived of and organized the New York State Attorney General’s Taxpayer Protection Bureau.
Launched in 2011, the bureau was established to work with whistleblowers and bring False Claims Act cases against government contractors, financial institutions, corporate recipients of government funds, and large taxpayers that defraud New York State and local governments.
Krakower supervised many significant whistleblower cases during his five years with the attorney general’s office.
He supervised the initiation and intervention of New York State in the whistleblower action against the Bank of New York-Mellon for allegedly defrauding New York government pension funds in connection with foreign currency transactions.
That action resulted in a nation-wide $714 million settlement involving the state, the federal government, and private plaintiffs.
He also led a groundbreaking False Claims Act case against a company for illegally outsourcing jobs overseas.
“The firm is extremely fortunate to bring on a person of Greg’s knowledge, talent, and reputation in False Claims Act matters,” said Getnick & Getnick managing partner Neil Getnick. “His experience in New York State government will bring added depth to the firm’s longstanding and robust whistleblower and business integrity practice. Greg has proven himself to be a dedicated and effective advocate for whistleblowers and sound public policy.”
Prior to working at the Attorney General’s office, Krakower was the Director of the New York State Senate Policy Group.
In that role he was the lead counsel and strategist in drafting the critical amendments to the New York False Claims Act that made it the strongest in the country by, among other things, empowering whistleblowers to initiate lawsuits against large-scale tax cheats.
In an interview with Corporate Crime Reporter in 2012, Krakower said that “whistleblowers have been so effective in fighting Medicaid fraud and defense contracting fraud and fraud against educational programs under the False Claims Act.”
“So we thought – why a loophole for tax cheats? It was something we thought we could fix,” Krakower said. “The False Claims Act is universally accepted as the most effective tool governments have in fighting fraud. So, why keep this loophole?”
“We all wanted to close this loophole. And it was closed.”
Krakower also authored the law requiring certain government contractors to notify their employees about the FCA whistleblower provisions. Once at the Attorney General’s office, he conceived and drafted the regulations implementing the FCA, including the strongest damages provision in the country.
“Getnick & Getnick has handled many of the nation’s largest and most important whistleblower cases and provides me an excellent platform for continuing my whistleblower work aimed at combating government fraud in New York and throughout the country,” Krakower said.
Krakower graduated from Columbia Law School in 1999, where he was named a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar.
He practiced white collar criminal law in New York City at Schulte, Roth & Zabel LLP and Clifford Chance.
He also served as a federal law clerk for the Hon. Roanne L. Mann of the United States District Court, Eastern District of New York.