Manhattan DA Launches Corporate Crime and Antitrust Task Force
Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg's Oct. 14 launch of a unit led by Matthew Bogdanos makes criminal antitrust enforcement under New York's Donnelly Act a local reality, alongside DOJ and the state Attorney General.
On October 14, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced the creation of 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, drawing on the Office's investigators, forensic accountants and Financial Intelligence Unit. The unit targets corporate and executive misconduct, including antitrust violations, healthcare fraud and consumer fraud, and is framed around pursuing "high-level actors" and "structures that enable and profit from crime."
The consequential element for counsel is antitrust. Any criminal antitrust prosecution by the Office would proceed under the Donnelly Act (N.Y. Gen. Bus. Law § 340 et seq.), which largely mirrors Sherman Act Section 1, meaning criminal antitrust exposure is no longer exclusively federal and may run in parallel with DOJ Antitrust Division and New York Attorney General activity. Companies with a New York nexus should assess upstream exposure, third-party diligence and management-level compliance; prior administrations' sanctions-evasion cases show the Office treats New York's financial infrastructure as a jurisdictional hook. The Office currently operates no whistleblower program, which may narrow insider cooperation in conspiracy cases. Watch for the first task force referrals and any coordination protocol with the Antitrust Division.