A.G. names new public integrity officers

As part of his effort to crack down on corruption and restore the public’s trust in government, Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman today announced the appointments of public integrity officers to serve in Long Island’s two regional offices.

In Nassau and Suffolk Counties, respectively, Victoria Safran and Kimberly Kinirons will be charged with giving Long Island residents a place to go to report complaints of government corruption without the fear of local politics influencing the outcome.

  “When it comes to local public corruption, Long Islanders deserve a dedicated cop on the beat, and Victoria and Kimberly will be those cops,” Attorney General Schneiderman said. “They will focus exclusively on rooting out abuse and fraud by public officials so that New Yorkers can have confidence that taxpayer dollars are being spent wisely and everyone is playing by the same set of rules. No matter the scope, government corruption is a betrayal of the public trust and will not be tolerated by my office.”

  As part of his sweeping reform initiative to restore confidence in the public sector, Schneiderman is placing public integrity officers in each of his regional offices across the state to police local government corruption. The officers will take confidential complaints from the public, facilitate investigations, and coordinate with the Public Integrity Bureau. The regional appointments are part of the Attorney General’s statewide initiative to bolster the focus and resources employed to address waste, fraud, and corruption at all levels of government, and will formally link the regional offices to the Attorney General’s central Public Integrity Bureau.

  Safran has served an assistant attorney general since 2004, and has focused on public advocacy issues. She has investigated and built cases to stop deceptive business practices and fraud in consumer, Internet, mortgage, securities and charities transactions.