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Who cares
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Sponsors
1 Co-sponsor
History
- Referred to civil service and pensions
Companion bill
The same bill in the other chamber. A bill becomes law when one version passes both houses and the governor signs it, so either number can carry it.
Relates to the attorney general's investigation and commencement of actions relating to fraudulent practices alleged to have damaged a public retirement system
Assembly Floor Calendar · Sponsor Peter Abbate
Full text
The text isn't available here yet. Check nysenate.gov.
Sponsor's memo
BILL NUMBER:S7465
Title of bill
An act to amend the retirement and social security law and the general business law, in relation to the attorney general's investigation and commencement of actions relating to fraudulent practices alleged to have damaged a public retirement system
Purpose
This bill would require the Attorney General to investigate and where appropriate to commence a civil action to recover damages suffered by New York public retirement systems as a result of securities fraud.
Summary of provisions
Section 1 amends the retirement and social security law to require the Attorney General to investigate and where appropriate pursue allegations of securities fraud upon the request of the New York State and Local Employees Retirement System and the police and Fire Retirement System.
Section 2 amends the general business law ( Martin Act ) by adding a new section 353-b (3) to accomplish 41 above for all public retirement systems. The bill provides for reimbursement to the Attorney General from the public retirement system of reasonable investigation and litigation costs.
Section 3 provides that the bill applies to fraudulent actions or omissions that occurred after January 1, 2003
Justification
Shockingly, there is no standing for the Attorney General or the public retirement systems themselves to bring an action for securities fraud under the NYS Martin Act, This is so despite the fact that these funds together hold over $250 billion in public funds. From 2007 to 2009 the net asset value of these funds declined by over $100 billion largely because of the now well documented securities fraud that led to the greatest financial calamity since the Great Depression. As a result, public pension benefits are subject to cuts for new hires and public employer pension contributions have escalated dramatically.
According to a report of the NYC Comptroller, about half of this employer contribution increase is due to the asset value losses during this short time period. To the extent that this asset value loss was caused by securities fraud, this money should be recovered before pension benefits are materially cut for new hires.
Legislative history
New bill.
Fiscal implications
None.
Effective date
The act to take effect immediately and apply to causes accruing and actions pending before, on, or after January 1, 2003.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.