Announcements, information & updates from the Attorney General Alliance Members and Associates
November 4, 2022
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Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita announced the national Anti-Robocall Litigation Task Force is enforcing investigative demands sent to two voice service providers over alleged involvement in illegal robocalls. The targets of the investigation are Michael Lansky LLC — doing business as Avid Telecom — and One Eye LLC. The national task force is enforcing civil investigative demands against each entity. Fifty-one attorneys general participate in the national task force, which Indiana co-leads with North Carolina and Ohio. The formation of the task force was announced in early August. Joining in on sending this comment letter are the Attorneys General of Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
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Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson's Office has reached a $10.5 million resolution with the largest broiler chicken producer in the U.S. It is part of his civil lawsuit against 19 national producers. Attorney General Ferguson previously reached resolutions with two smaller producers and has claims remaining against 16 additional companies.
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Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro announced a verdict against junkyard and auto repair shop Progress Auto Salvage, Inc., and owner and operator Emeka K. Oguejiofor, for violating Pennsylvania consumer protection laws. Oguejiofor, along with his business, accepted deposits and advance payments from consumers and failed to do the agreed-upon work.
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New York Attorney General Letitia James secured $300,000 from a cookware company, Hy Cite Enterprises, LLC for failing to clearly disclose their refund policies in their contracts with thousands of consumers in predominantly Spanish-speaking communities throughout the state. Hy Cite, which owns the brands Royal Prestige and Kitchen Charm and uses door-to-door marketing, told customers they only had three business days to return products when they tried to make returns. However, the Door-to-Door Sales Protection Act requires companies that do not have a refund policy to give consumers 20 days to make a return on door-to-door sales. The Office of the Attorney General found that Hy Cite’s contracts failed to clearly disclose any refund policy and did not allow consumers to make returns within the 20-day timeframe. As a result of the agreement, Hy Cite must pay a penalty and offer refunds to eligible customers who were previously denied a cancellation when they tried to make a return within 20 days of their purchase.
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Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich offers Consumer Protection tips when considering over-the-counter hearing aids. The Food and Drug Administration rules now allow the sale of over-the-counter hearing aids. Consumers, especially in the important senior community, can buy hearing aids directly from store shelves and online at lower prices. Finding the right hearing aid may require consumers to try more than one device before finding the perfect fit. That’s why consumers should carefully read return policies and be wary of very low prices.
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Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost sues Dollar General over deceptive pricing. After receiving consumer complaints from multiple counties, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost is taking Dollar General to court for allegedly advertising goods for one price on shelves and charging a higher price at the register. Dollar General, a Tennessee-based company specializing in household goods, has operated in Ohio since 2015. It has 943 stores statewide.
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Attorney General Todd Rokita is alerting Hoosiers of important consumer protection concerns for products recalled in October. Consumers should take full advantage of the solutions available for those who purchased the recalled items.
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Guam Attorney General Leevin T. Camacho announced that a $1,638,362.16 settlement payment has been received from the opioid manufacturer Johnson & Johnson. This payment brings the total balance held in the opioid trust account to over $2.6M.
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Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden announced that the State of Idaho received more than $26 million in opioid settlement funds following the state’s final 2022 payment last week. The money is being distributed to the state, regional health districts, cities, and counties to fight the opioid addiction epidemic.
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Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, under an agreement announced by Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, OptumRx will repay the state $15 million in prescription-drug overcharges assessed to the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation, raising the Yost administration’s total recoveries from pharmacy benefit managers to more than $100 million.
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Connecticut Attorney General William Tong announced the arrival of $13.5 million to Connecticut a recent opioid distributor settlement. The first $11.1 million payment was delivered in July to support opioid treatment and prevention from the landmark $26 billion settlement with opioid distributors Cardinal, McKesson, AmerisourceBergen, and manufacturer Johnson & Johnson.
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Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron released the following statement regarding the status of settlement negotiations with CVS Pharmacy Inc. (CVS) and Walgreens for the companies’ role in fueling the opioid epidemic.
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"Today, a coalition of attorneys general announced a tentative agreement with CVS Pharmacy and Walgreens to resolve their role in fueling the opioid epidemic in the Commonwealth and across the nation. While our office is actively litigating our own cases against both CVS and Walgreens here in the Commonwealth, we look forward to evaluating the proposed settlements to determine if participation in each of these settlements would be in the best interest of Kentuckians."
--Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron
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Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser released a statement regarding the settlement negotiations with CVS Pharmacy Inc. (CVS) and Walgreens for the companies’ role in fueling the opioid epidemic.
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“Thousands of Coloradans have died or are sick due to the opioid crisis. The companies that helped create and fuel this crisis need to step up to fix it. That means providing significant resources to increase treatment and recovery services and changing their business practices to make sure this never happens again. “To date, we have secured more than $520 million to address the opioid crisis in communities throughout Colorado. While significant work remains, a broad coalition of states is making progress in our negotiations with CVS and Walgreens, and we are hopeful that we will be able to reach a final agreement on all terms. As soon as possible, we want to deliver meaningful resources to save lives and help the people in our state suffering from opioid addiction recover.”
--Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser
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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced plans to enter into a $5.034 billion multistate settlement with CVS Pharmacy for its role in the nationwide opioid epidemic, with over $276 million designated for Texas. The agreement will largely track the terms of the Global Prescription Opioid Litigation Settlement Agreement with opioid distributors that was executed in July 2021. This agreement is the latest opioid settlement Attorney General Paxton has negotiated for Texas. With the addition of the CVS funds, General Paxton will have secured over $2.37 billion for Texas from the distributors, Allergan, Mallinckrodt, Teva, Endo, Johnson & Johnson, and McKinsey & Company. General Paxton worked closely on these negotiations with the Attorneys General of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee.
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“Millions of Americans have died or are sick due to the opioid epidemic. While significant work remains, a broad coalition of states reached certain terms with CVS, and we are hopeful that we will be able to reach a final agreement on all terms,” Attorney General Paxton said. “Pharmaceutical companies that have been at the root of the problem must be involved in not only changing their business practices to keep this tragic epidemic from taking more lives in the future, but also by providing treatment for those currently still struggling with opioid addiction.”
--Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton
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Nevada Attorney General Aaron D. Ford met with state regulators to determine the best methods to reduce the risk of overdoses in Nevada's communities. The OAG will continue to fight to mitigate the harm caused to Nevadans by the opioid epidemic.
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New York Attorney General Letitia James marked a monumental milestone in her fight against the opioid crisis in New York state and announced that her office has secured up to $523 million from Teva Pharmaceuticals, Ltd., its American subsidiary Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, and its affiliates for their role in fueling the opioid crisis. The $523 million settlement is the largest reached with an individual opioid defendant by Attorney General James and raises the total amount secured from opioid manufacturers and distributors to more than $2 billion to combat the opioid crisis. The settlement resolves Attorney General James’ claims against Teva, the final remaining defendant not currently in bankruptcy and concludes the Attorney General’s litigation against opioid manufacturers and distributors.
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NATIONAL PRESCRIPTION TAKE BACK |
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The National Prescription Drug Take Back Day aims to provide a safe, convenient, and responsible means of disposing of prescription drugs, while also educating the general public about the potential for abuse of medications. The Attorneys General Community joins law enforcement partners with the support of the Drug Enforcement Administration to target the drug overdose epidemic in the United States. It is a clear and present public health, public safety, and national security threat. National Prescription Drug Take Back Day reflects the commitment to Americans’ safety and health, encouraging the public to remove unneeded medications from their homes as a measure of preventing medication misuse and opioid addiction from ever starting. While the community does its part to turn in unneeded medications and remove them from potential harm, law enforcement partners are doing their part to further reduce drug-related violence.
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New York Attorney General Letitia James secured $30.5 million from CBS and former CBS President and Chief Executive Officer, Leslie Moonves, for concealing sexual assault allegations against Mr. Moonves, misleading investors about those allegations, and insider trading. An investigation by the Office of the Attorney General found that CBS and its senior leadership knew about multiple allegations of sexual assault made against Mr. Moonves and intentionally concealed those allegations from regulators, shareholders, and the public for months. The investigation also revealed that another senior executive at CBS — one of the few people who knew about the allegations — sold millions of dollars of CBS stock in the weeks before the allegations became public.
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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has announced that the El Paso-based Texas Eighth Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court’s judgment against Dr. Richard Malouf, former owner of All Smiles Dental Center, for violations of the Texas Medicaid Fraud Prevention Act. The trial court held Dr. Malouf responsible for committing 1,842 unlawful acts under the TMFPA, resulting in more than $11 million in civil remedies. The opinion makes clear that Medicaid providers who falsely represent that they treated Medicaid patients, and who ask Medicaid to pay for those un-performed services, will face stiff monetary penalties.
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Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser announced that the Colorado Department of Law has filed charges against a Pueblo woman for submitting Medicaid claims and being paid for telemedicine services that she never provided.
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Connecticut Attorney General William Tong announced a $532,830.33 Connecticut False Claims Act settlement with Psychiatric Care Consultants LLC and its owner, Dr. Kishorchandra Gonsai, resolving allegations that the New Haven-based psychiatrist overbilled the state’s Medicaid program for psychotherapy.
Following a fraud referral from the Department of Social Services, an investigation by the Office of the Attorney General found that between June 1, 2017, and March 31, 2022, Psychiatric Care Consultants repeatedly billed the Connecticut Medical Assistance Program for either 45-minute or 30-minute psychotherapy sessions that were not provided for the length of time claimed.
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Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced that the owner of G L Tate & Associates, an outpatient treatment center for substance-use disorders in Mansfield, has been sentenced to 6 years in prison for defrauding the Ohio Department of Medicaid and will repay $1.57 million.
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ATTORNEY GENERAL ELECTIONS |
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2022 State AG General Election Results |
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AGA Sponsor Cozen O’Connor has prepared this website, so you may bookmark this page now and come back on election night and in the days following the election to see the results for the 2022 state Attorney General races in 30 states and the District of Columbia, as well as other key races where a state attorney general is running. Results will be updated as votes are counted after the polls close until all races have been called. All data is verified by The Associated Press.
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CWAG Executive Committee
AG Alliance Co-Chairs
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Attorney General Alliance 5050 | Laguna Blvd., Ste. 112-323 | Elk Grove, CA 95758
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