Cuomo's Deputy for Member ItemsGet used to hearing the name: she's the one who's going to be in charge of reviewing some 6,000 legislative member items, and who will be responsible for determining the legality of proposed items in the future. Full announcement after the jump. -- Azi Paybarah OR PUBLIC INTEGRITY Career prosecutor from New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of County District Attorney's office to oversee government corruption investigations NEW YORK, NY (February 26, 2007) - Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo today announced the appointment of Ellen Nachtigall Biben as Special Deputy Attorney General for Public Integrity, where she will oversee landmark initiatives to fight government corruption. The Public Integrity Bureau will handle civil and criminal cases, pursuing perpetrators of fraud and bad conduct statewide and seeking to recover misspent mis·spend tr.v. mis·spent , mis·spend·ing, mis·spends To spend improperly or extravagantly; squander: misspent the funds; misspent their youth. taxpayer funds. Ms. Biben's distinguished 11-year career as a prosecutor for the New York County District Attorney's office has produced several long-term, comprehensive investigations into organized crime, money laundering The process of taking the proceeds of criminal activity and making them appear legal. Laundering allows criminals to transform illegally obtained gain into seemingly legitimate funds. , public corruption, tax evasion The process whereby a person, through commission of Fraud, unlawfully pays less tax than the law mandates. Tax evasion is a criminal offense under federal and state statutes. A person who is convicted is subject to a prison sentence, a fine, or both. , and other forms of racketeering Traditionally, obtaining or extorting money illegally or carrying on illegal business activities, usually by Organized Crime . A pattern of illegal activity carried out as part of an enterprise that is owned or controlled by those who are engaged in the illegal activity. . Since 2001, she has specialized in such prosecutions, serving as Deputy Bureau Chief of the Rackets rackets Game for two or four players with ball and racket on a four-walled court. Rackets is played with a hard ball in a relatively large court (approximately 9 × 18 m), unlike the related games of squash and racquetball. Bureau. "Ellen Biben's proven experience finding and eliminating corruption in its various forms puts her at a great advantage to help restore integrity and trust in the state Capitol and beyond," said Attorney General Cuomo. "Her tireless work as a prosecutor has served the people of New York County well for over a decade. I am proud to welcome her to our team, where she will lead this extraordinarily important effort. She will be an asset not only to the Department of Law, but to the entire state." For the Department of Law, Ms. Biben will manage Attorney General Cuomo's milestone public integrity initiatives, which include a thorough review of approximately 6,000 legislative budget member items, a multi-layered legality review of any further proposed items, and "Project Sunlight," a statewide Internet database where New Yorkers can examine links between elected officials, campaign donations, lobbyists, special interests, and/or state contracts. "Ellen Biben served the Manhattan District Attorney's office with distinction for more than ten years," said New York County District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau Robert Morris Morgenthau (born July 31, 1919) is currently the District Attorney for New York County, which is coterminous with Manhattan. Prominent family Robert Morris Morgenthau was born in 1919 in New York City, into a prominent Jewish family that emigrated from . "Her excellent work on a wide range of white-collar, corruption, and organized crime cases, and her experience as a supervisor in the Rackets Bureau make her an outstanding choice to head the Attorney General's Public Integrity Unit." Prior to her tenure at the New York County District Attorney's office, Ms. Biben was a litigation An action brought in court to enforce a particular right. The act or process of bringing a lawsuit in and of itself; a judicial contest; any dispute. When a person begins a civil lawsuit, the person enters into a process called litigation. associate with Sullivan & Cromwell and a law clerk to the Hon. Alan H. Nevas of the United States District Court for Connecticut. Ms. Biben received a B.A. from Wesleyan University, where she was captain of the varsity swim team and a J.D. from the University of Southern California The U.S. News & World Report ranked USC 27th among all universities in the United States in its 2008 ranking of "America's Best Colleges", also designating it as one of the "most selective universities" for admitting 8,634 of the almost 34,000 who applied for freshman admission Law Center, where she was executive editor of the Law Review. 
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