Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is expanding his office's focus on financial crimes now that violent crime has declined across the borough, according to an interview with Bloomberg Law. After spending his first term demonstrating that a progressive prosecutor could address violent crime, Bragg says he's shifting resources to tackle fraud, identity theft, and corporate misconduct. The recent drop in shootings and major violent crimes across Manhattan and New York City is allowing him to reorganize how his office allocates staff and attention.
Murders have fallen in Manhattan, part of a broader pattern that includes declining shootings and other serious violent offenses both in the borough and citywide. Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch has credited the improvement to a precision policing approach that targets guns, dismantles violent gangs, and stations officers in high-priority locations including public transit and public housing. However, not all crime categories are improving: felony assaults rose roughly 3% this past August compared to the same month a year earlier, and hate crimes have climbed 16% so far this year. Bragg won re-election in a landslide last year, securing a second term leading one of the nation's largest prosecutor's offices.
"We're charged with fighting crime from the streets to the suites, particularly when you're situated where we are in the center of commerce," Bragg told Bloomberg Law. He said his metric for allocating attention comes partly from what he hears at community meetings, where residents express concern not only about personal safety but also about stolen money, identity theft, and hacked accounts. According to Bragg, the goal for his second term is "systemic accountability" rather than stopping at the most visible offenders. His office is looking at AI-generated fraud, unlicensed cryptocurrency money movers, and prediction markets, and has already seized websites containing alleged celebrity deepfake pornography earlier this month. He's also pushing legislation that would grant him additional authority to prosecute crypto crimes, though he noted his office has existing tools to address illegal activity in that space.
The broader push into corporate enforcement comes as federal prosecutors have scaled back their focus on certain types of corporate crime and shifted workplace protection priorities under the Trump administration, which has emphasized violent crime and immigration enforcement instead. Bragg's Worker Protection Unit, launched in 2023 to prosecute businesses for wage theft, fraud, and safety violations, is expanding beyond construction to examine fashion, hospitality, entertainment, and other industries more closely. A recent case against the owner of luxury brand Salon 1884 for allegedly operating a sweatshop was meant to signal that such enforcement isn't limited to one sector, Bragg said. Manhattan Institute senior fellow Nicole Gelinas noted that while the white-collar focus is important given reduced federal activity, it shouldn't come at the expense of violent crime work, since the felony index hasn't returned to normal and random assaults remain a concern for residents.
Bragg emphasized that prosecuting financial crimes is "in our DNA" for Manhattan district attorneys, unlike most local prosecutor's offices nationwide. Previous Manhattan DAs prosecuted major corporate cases, including Cyrus Vance's work with federal authorities on an $8.9 billion settlement against BNP Paribas for sanctions violations and Robert Morgenthau's fraud prosecution of Tyco executives. Bragg said his office will always give primacy to shootings, homicides, and assaults, but can handle that work alongside responding to New Yorkers whose money or identities are stolen. The shift reflects what he's hearing from neighborhoods that have seen reductions in violent crime: people are focusing more on economic harms as physical safety improves.