Corrupting the government in the second degree · as in force on May 31, 2026
§ 496.04 Corrupting the government in the second degree.
A person is guilty of corrupting the government in the second degree when, being a public servant, or acting in concert with a public servant, he or she engages in a scheme constituting a systematic ongoing course of conduct with intent to defraud the state or one or more political subdivisions of the state or one or more governmental instrumentalities within the state to obtain property, actual services or other resources, or obtain property, actual services or other resources from the state, or any political subdivision or governmental instrumentality of the state by false or fraudulent pretenses, representations or promises, and thereby wrongfully obtains such property, actual services or other resources with a value in excess of twenty thousand dollars.
Corrupting the government in the second degree is a class C felony.
A public servant, or someone acting in concert with one, who engages in a scheme that is a systematic ongoing course of conduct, intending to defraud the state, a political subdivision, or a governmental instrumentality to obtain property, actual services, or other resources or to obtain them from the government by false or fraudulent pretenses, representations or promises, and thereby wrongfully obtains more than $20,000 in such property, services, or resources commits corrupting the government in the second degree, a class C felony. ★
Marked in the text: penalties, time limits, sums of money. Editorial emphasis added by this edition; it does not appear in the statute as enacted.
This provision appears in Volume 4 — The Court Clerk: Penal Law; Volume 1 — The Court Officer in Plain English; Volume 3 — The Court Officer: Penal Law; Volume 3 — Your Career: Penal Law in Plain English.