Sometimes, things need to be shaken up.

And when it comes to white collar and corporate crime, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. wants to shake things up.

“The idea of this Task Force is to convene thoughtful people, with different specialties and perspectives, to spend several months to a year studying our anti-fraud and anti-corruption laws to determine ways they can be strengthened,” said Vance, who is also president of the District Attorneys Association of the State of New York. “New York is the financial capital of the country and we have a responsibility to make sure that state prosecutors in New York have the tools they need to combat white-collar crime in the 21st Century.”

Columbia Law School Professor John Coffee said that just as former New York Attorneys General Eliot Spitzer and Andrew Cuomo and current New York banking regulator Benjamin Lawsky “moved in the past to fill the void created by slow or non-existent federal enforcement of securities fraud, we are now seeing a new entrant at the state level – district attorneys.”

“Overall, I think competition between state and federal regulators can be desirable and can protect the public from the danger that enforcers on one level may get ‘captured,’” Coffee told Corporate Crime Reporter.

The Task Force members are:

Frank Sedita (Co-Chair) District Attorney, Erie County;

Daniel R. Alonso (Co-Chair) Chief Assistant District Attorney, New York County;

David Anders Partner, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz;

Catherine Christian Executive Assistant District Attorney, Office of the New York City Special Narcotics Prosecutor;

Steven M. Cohen, Zuckerman Spaeder;

Sandra Doorley, District Attorney, Monroe County;

Christina Dugger, Chief Assistant U.S. Attorney, Eastern District of New York;

William Fitzpatrick, District Attorney, Onondaga County;

Daniel J. French, Of Counsel, Bond, Schoeneck & King;

Barry Ginsberg, Chief Risk Management Officer, New York State Department of Taxation & Finance;

Owen Heimer, Marsh;

Nancy Hoppock, NYU School of Law;

Mitra Hormozi, Kirkland & Ellis;

Andrew C. Hruska, King & Spalding;

Lawrence Iason, Morvillo, Abramowitz, Grand, Iason, Anello & Bohrer;

Adam S. Kaufmann, Executive Assistant District Attorney, Manhattan District Attorney’s Office;

Andrew Lankler, Lankler & Carragher;

Maureen McCormack, Chief of Economic Crimes Bureau, Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office;

John Moscow, Baker & Hostetler;

James Murphy, District Attorney, Saratoga County;

Daniel C. Richman, Columbia Law School;

Albert Rosenblatt, NYU School of Law;

John M. Ryan, Chief Assistant District Attorney, Queens County;

Karen Patton Seymour, Sullivan & Cromwell;

David Szuchman, Chief, Cybercrime & Identity Theft Bureau, Manhattan District Attorney’s Office; and

Toby Thacher, Thacher Associates.

Vance said that while the federal government has reacted to new corporate crime scandals with new policies, laws, and regulations, “the near-silence from New York has been striking.”

“Our state, the financial capital of the nation, has done little to adapt its laws to the modern problems white-collar crime presents,” Vance said.

“New York State has done little other than make a few token modifications to a handful of laws,” Vance said. “This lack of initiative by policymakers means that New York State prosecutors are fighting 21st century crime with 1970s-era tools, which is ironic in light of the traditional primary role of district attorneys in New York law enforcement.”

Vance’s task force aims to strengthen New York’s Martin Act, used to combat fraud and false statements in the sale of securities.

Vance said that the Martin Act represents “a potentially useful tool undermined by woefully inadequate penalties.”

“Violating the Martin Act is either a misdemeanor or the lowest-level felony,” Vance said. “But sadly, criminals engaged in large-scale schemes are not deterred by the prospect of unsupervised probation even after conviction at trial.”

“New York is the financial capital of this nation,” Vance said. “Business, finance, and industry all make their home here, making Wall Street the most important address in the financial world. From the corner bodega to the world’s biggest Fortune 100 corporations, local business in New York is our most important financial resource. We need to bring our white-collar crime laws into the 21st century to protect that asset and our individual citizens.”