ALBANY— At a joint hearing of the Senate Codes and Consumer Protections committees, Senator Zellnor Myrie (D-Brooklyn) today highlighted the urgent need for updates to New York State's white collar criminal laws against fraud, scams and other types of financial crimes. Many of these laws and their associated penalties have remained unchanged since the 1980s, despite rapid technological advances that allow financial scams to be carried out with ever-increasing speed and sophistication.

At the hearing, Myrie and other lawmakers including Senator Rachel May (D-Syracuse), chair of the Consumer Protection Committee, heard from state regulators, district attorneys, industry representatives and advocates about the existing legal framework that exists to prevent and prosecute scams and frauds, especially those preying on the most vulnerable New Yorkers. Topics included student loans, cryptocurrency, deed theft and foreclosures, wage theft and more.

Senator Myrie sponsors the "Securing Customer Assets against Malfeasance (SCAM) Act," the most comprehensive update to white-collar criminal laws in generations. The bill updates fraud statutes, clarifies criminal procedure law, strengthens standards against bribery, protects tax dollars and deters malfeasance by large corporations with a new penalty model.

Notably, the bill would allow for "corporate equity fines" as a penalty for very large ($100M+ market cap) companies who commit serious crimes; this legislation would permit courts to impose fines consisting of corporate stock to be deposited into a state-managed victims' compensation fund.