Manhattan DA Launches Corporate Crime and Antitrust Task Force
The Manhattan district attorney has created the office's first Corporate Crime and Antitrust Task Force, adding criminal antitrust — likely under the Donnelly Act — to a local prosecutor's corporate-crime mandate.
On Oct. 14, 2026, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced the office's first Corporate Crime and Antitrust Task Force, led by veteran prosecutor Matthew Bogdanos and staffed with roughly five assistant district attorneys and two investigative analysts. The unit institutionalizes criminal antitrust investigation inside a local prosecutor's office, where such enforcement has historically sat with DOJ's Antitrust Division and the New York Attorney General's Antitrust Bureau; any charges would likely proceed under the Donnelly Act (N.Y. Gen. Bus. Law § 340 et seq.), which largely mirrors Sherman Act Section 1.
Why sophisticated counsel should care: companies with a New York nexus — headquarters, banking infrastructure, investors, health care and technology operations — now face a plausible parallel-enforcement channel alongside federal authorities, with an announced focus on corporate entities, enabling structures and senior executives rather than low-level defendants. BakerHostetler suggests, citing sanctions-evasion matters under prior district attorneys, that the office may use New York's banking system as a jurisdictional hook; that is the firm's assessment, not an announced policy. The office also lacks a whistleblower program, which may narrow the insider reporting pool in conspiracy cases.
What to do now: audit antitrust compliance and third-party diligence, model upstream exposure, and watch for the Task Force's first Donnelly Act action or evidence of coordination with DOJ.