Announcements, information & updates from
the Attorney General Alliance Members and Associates
November 24, 2023
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From all of us at the Attorney General Alliance, we hope you and your family are having a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration. We hope you know how much we appreciate all of our attorneys general and staff, and our public, private, academic, and nonprofit partners. |
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California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced the sentencing of an individual who was convicted on 100 felony counts for carrying out a $7 million mortgage fraud scheme. |
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New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez received a default judgment against the Duke City Dog Academy and its owner, Lisa Berry, for violating the Unfair Practices Act. Despite advertising as a dog training service, Berry would charge dog owners between $2,000 to $8,000 to train their dogs and ended up keeping the dogs for weeks or months longer than contracted for, returning them with sores, diseases, and emaciated. The court ordered the business to cease operating and ordered Berry to pay civil penalties, compensatory damages, and restitution to the victims whose dogs suffered great harm in Berry’s custody. |
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Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser announced that his office will provide $3 million in funding to local food banks, food pantries, and diaper programs that Coloradans rely on for food and other basic necessities |
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Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced The Mount Vernon Project: School of Public Service, a series of online trainings designed to give candidates for public office and newly elected officials at all levels of Ohio government an orientation to public service.
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Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell announced a series of citations against Quick Temp., Inc., along with its owner and manager, totaling $1,392,665, in restitution and civil fines. The violations were for failure to pay a prevailing wage, failure to pay minimum wage, failure to pay overtime, non-payment of wages, failure to accrue earned sick leave, failure to keep true and accurate records, and failure to furnish employment notices to temporary agency employees. |
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Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced that his office will partner with tribes across Washington to research, identify and create an inventory of cold cases involving missing and murdered Indigenous people that date back more than 40 years.
The federal Emmett Till Cold Case Investigations and Prosecution Program supports state, local and tribal law enforcement efforts to investigate and prosecute cold cases from before 1980 that involve racially motivated crimes or civil rights violations. Ferguson’s office won $1.5 million, the largest-ever grant from this program.
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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced two actions against pharmaceutical companies under the Texas Health Care Program Fraud Prevention Act. |
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New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin and the Division on Civil Rights (DCR) announced that DCR has issued Findings of Probable Cause in ten cases alleging discrimination on the basis of disability in violation of the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination. |
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Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes announced a lawsuit against insulin manufacturers and pharmacy benefits managers regarding insulin pricing. |
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Attorney General Jason Miyares announced that a Fauquier County jury found an individual guilty of 60 counts of misdemeanor animal cruelty in a puppy mill case. |
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District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb announced he filed a lawsuit against Curbio, Inc. under the District’s Consumer Protection Procedures Act and the District’s Abuse, Neglect, and Financial Exploitation of Vulnerable Adults and the Elderly Act. |
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U.S. Virgin Islands Attorney General Ariel Smith announced that "a conviction and judgment was entered against a real estate agent charged with embezzling millions of dollars from clients between 2008-2010 in the U.S. Virgin Islands." |
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Pennsylvania Attorney General Michelle Henry announced a settlement agreement with central Pennsylvania-based Inch & Company Property Management, LLC over alleged violations of the Federal Consumer Review Fairness Act and Pennsylvania Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law. |
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Guam Attorney General Douglas Moylan issued a consumer protection notice regarding "load shedding" related to Guam's electrical power grid. |
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Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced the first criminal prosecution by his new Organized Retail Crime Unit, and the first leader for the Unit.
The Attorney General’s Office charged an individual with felony first-degree organized retail theft. The criminal charges stem from 11 thefts totaling more than $50,000 in merchandise from Target stores in King and Kitsap counties.
AG Ferguson also announced he selected Assistant Attorney General Kent Liu as the leader for the Organized Retail Crime Unit. Liu is a criminal prosecutor who has worked for the Attorney General’s Office for more than 15 years.
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Michigan Attorney Dana Nessel announced that a second defendant was sentenced in an organized retail fraud scheme involving the theft and resale of KitchenAid brand stand mixers from metro Detroit Target stores. |
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COMBATING HUMAN TRAFFICKING AND CHILD EXPLOITATION
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Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody added Jacksonville Port Authority, or JAXPORT, to the 100 Percent Club. Attorney General Moody’s 100 Percent Club which recognizes businesses who train employees to spot and report human trafficking. |
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South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson announced several actions related to combating child exploitation. |
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Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron announced that action taken by his Special Prosecutions Unit resulted in the conviction of an individual on sexual assault charges where the victim was a 13-year-old child. |
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Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch announced the completion of a multi-day human trafficking operation in Jackson that resulted in the recovery of 12 victims and one arrest. |
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Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha announced that a Central Falls man has been sentenced in Providence County Superior Court to serve 30 years at the Adult Correctional Institutions after being found guilty of child molestation against two female victims between 2015 and 2017. |
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South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley announced that a Sisseton man has been convicted and sentenced to a combined 25 years in prison after earlier pleading guilty to three counts of Sexual Assault With a Child under the age 16. |
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OPIOIDS AND ILLICIT DRUGS |
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Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody’s Office of Statewide Prosecution secured a 25-year prison sentence for the leader of a drug-trafficking organization selling cocaine and heroin in Gadsden and Leon counties. A Leon County jury found an individual guilty of trafficking heroin over 28 grams, trafficking cocaine over 400 grams, conspiracy to traffic cocaine over 400 grams and felon in possession of a firearm. |
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Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown announced that all nine defendants facing multiple charges in a long-term investigation into the Wick Squad drug trafficking organization have pleaded guilty. |
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Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch, in collaboration with the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics and the Andrew Jackson Council of the Boy Scouts of America, hosted Scout Out Opioids, a program to raise awareness with Scouts and their families of the dangers of opioids and offer techniques for reducing opioid abuse and misuse for them and their loved ones.
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Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond announced the Attorney General’s Organized Crime Task Force (OCTF) and Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority (OMMA) served search warrants at six medical marijuana grow operations. The sweep yielded 77,362 untraceable and untagged marijuana plants, nearly 2,000 pounds of untraceable and untagged harvested marijuana, and several firearms. |
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GINSBURG/SCALIA INITIATIVE
ISRAEL
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Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes called a special meeting of her Arizona Civil Rights Advisory Board "to explore potential actions and solutions to combat antisemitic and other hate-based crimes in Arizona communities." |
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Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul led a coalition of 16 attorneys general in filing an amicus brief before the U.S. Supreme Court regarding the transportation-worker exemption to the Federal Arbitration Act in Bissonnette v. LePage Bakeries.
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Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita selected James Barta to serve as his new Solicitor General. |
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Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced that the National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates' membership elected Assistant Attorney General Michael Moody, Division Chief of the Special Litigation Division in the Michigan Department of Attorney General, to serve as President of the national organization. |
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The Snap team will be hosting an LEO Summit where they will share more about how Snapchat works to support law enforcement, best practices for communicating with them, key privacy and safety features, a Q&A session, and more.
The Summit will be on December 6, 2023 from 1-3pm EST.
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If you are interested in other Attorney General Alliance and Conference of Western Attorneys General newsletters, follow the link below to sign up! |
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Attorney General Alliance
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