BILL NUMBER: S1693
SPONSOR: SKOUFIS
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the penal law, in relation to the crimes of commercial
bribery and larceny; and to amend the criminal procedure law, in
relation to jurisdiction for personal identifying information theft
crimes
 
PURPOSE:
To amend the penal law to bring prosecutions of certain white collar
crimes into the 21st century and keep up with changing realities.
 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Sections 1 and 2: Amends sections 180.03 and 180.08 of the penal law to
remove the requirement that a person found guilty of commercial bribing
or commercial bribe receiving must have caused more than $250 in econom-
ic harm to their employer. This change was a recommendation of the New
York State White Collar Crime Task Force in 2013.
Section 3: Amends section 155.00 of the penal law to expand the crime of
larceny to cover theft of personal identifying information, computer
data, computer programs, and services in an effort to adapt the law to
modern technological realities.
Section 4: Expands the scope of paragraph 1 of subdivision 4 of section
20.40 of the criminal procedure law.
Section 5: Sets the effective date.
 
JUSTIFICATION:
In 2013, the New York State White Collar Crime Task Force issued a set
of recommendations for amending state law to make it easier to prosecute
and convict individuals charged with serious white-collar crimes. The
report included a range of recommendations; this bill addresses the
proposed changes to commercial bribery and larceny laws. The change to
the commercial bribery statute was justified by the Task Force report
which explained that removing the $250 economic harm requirement from
the felony commercial bribery statutes was necessary because "the
economic harm element has made felony-level prosecutions all but impos-
sible, and allowed private corruption schemes to go unpunished despite
the real-world realization that the harm in a bribery scheme is the
employee's breach of loyalty, which is not always economically quantifi-
able." The Task Force report also recommended expanding the crime of
larceny to cover "theft of personal identifying information, computer
data, computer programs, and services to adapt to modern technological
realities." This bill makes these changes.
 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY: Senate
2019: S5222, Referred to Codes
2020: S5222, Referred to Codes
2021: S1627, Referred to Codes
2022: S1627, Referred to Codes
2023: S1130, Referred to Codes
2024: S1130, Referred to Codes
Assembly
2019: A7913, Referred to Codes
2020: A7913, Referred to Codes
2021: A5007, Referred to Codes
2022: A5007, Referred to Codes
2023: A8041, Referred to Codes
2024: A8041, Referred to Codes
 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
To be determined.
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect on the first of November next, succeeding the
the date on which it shall have become a law.

Statutes affected:
S1693: 180.03 penal law, 180.08 penal law, 20.40 criminal procedure law, 20.40(4) criminal procedure law