Since taking office January 12, 2009, Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller has overseen numerous achievements in the Attorney General's Office. Here are examples:
1. Consumer Protection: Led by Deputy Attorney General Abigail Kuzma, the AG's Consumer Protection Division (CPD) investigated complaints by consumers against businesses, telephone solicitors, medical professionals and other licensed professionals. Fielding 13,885 new consumer complaints in 2009, the CPD filed suit against illegal foreclosure rescue consultants, telemarketers blasting out robo-calls offering extended warranties and other companies engaged in deceptive practices. Zoeller launched the Consumer Fraud Alert System, allowing Hoosiers to sign up to receive email and text alerts about the latest scams to reach Indiana, such as fraudulent secret-shopper offers, identity-theft schemes or bogus H1N1 flu-remedy scams. Specifically:
. Telephone Privacy: Building on the popular Do Not Call List program started by former Attorney General Steve Carter to protect Hoosiers from annoying telemarketing calls, the Attorney General's Office in 2009 filed 14 lawsuits against companies for violating the Do Not Call law or Auto Dialer law, and filed another 11 suits for Unsolicited Fax violations. Thirty-nine existing cases against companies ended in settlements or judgments with injunctions. Civil penalties of $214,658 were collected in Do Not Call and Auto Dialer cases; with another $66,882 collected in Unsolicited Fax cases. A total 105,344 Hoosier telephone numbers were added to the state's Telephone Privacy list. The Attorney General's Office defended Indiana's Auto Dialer statute against a legal challenge brought by a political group that wanted state laws prohibiting robocalls rescinded. The group recently withdrew its petition before the Federal Election Commission rather than contest the case. Zoeller brokered a treaty between the state chairmen of the three political parties to not encourage the use of campaign robocalls during the 2010 elections.
. Medical Licensing: The medical licensing division took action to summarily suspend the medical license of a Middletown physician, Dr. Phillip Foley, accused of greatly overprescribing narcotics and contributing to several deaths. The office succeeded in revoking the license of drug-dealing Dr. Edward Manolo. The practice of telemedicine in Indiana is under scrutiny; two telemedicine cases are pending before the Medical Licensing Board.
2. Combating Public Corruption: Attorney General Zoeller picked up the reins from former Attorney General Steve Carter in pursuing the East Chicago RICO case. In a historic ruling in June, a federal court found that the former city administration of East Chicago was a corrupt organization under federal racketeering laws, and entered a judgment against former Mayor Robert Pastrick and aide James Fife III on every count the attorney general alleged in the $24 million "sidewalks-for-votes" fraud. Zoeller has urged the Legislature to create greater transparency in how Local Development Agreement (LDA) groups spend casino revenue.
The Attorney General's Office tightened the vise grip on corrupt local government officials in 2009. Zoeller filed suit against five former Chesterfield officials to recover nearly a quarter million dollars they allegedly embezzled from the town government. On January 26, the court granted the Attorney General's motion for a default judgment of against three of the defendants with triple damages, the largest totaling nearly $779,000. Zoeller also advocated passing the state's new public-accountability law, HEA 1514, which alerts the Attorney General's Office about State Board of Accounts examinations of local-government embezzlements much earlier in the process. Zoeller used the law for the first time in November in freezing assets of the former Brownstown clerk-treasurer, suspected of a $365,000 embezzlement.
3. Partnering with the Criminal Justice System: Attorney General Zoeller strengthened the working partnership with law enforcement, prosecutors, judges and correctional officers in representing Indiana's criminal justice system. This includes a continuation of the highly successful work in defending the criminal convictions or sentences that are challenged on appeal. The Attorney General's Office also worked to combat the rising crime of identity theft, produced a training session for law enforcement about detecting Internet crimes against children and supported victims of crime in the AG's Victim's Assistance section. The Attorney General's Office long has assisted domestic-violence victims through the Address Confidentiality Program that provides a secure address for victims to receive mail. Specifically:
. Combating Internet crimes: Zoeller brought in an expert from Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Wash., to lead an October 23 training session on cyber crimes for 175 Indiana law enforcement officers about the latest methods for detecting online predators. This public-private partnership is part of an effort to augment the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) task forces around the state.
. Identity Theft Protection: The 2009 Legislature passed a tough new identity-theft protection law Zoeller proposed, HEA 1121. The Identity Theft Unit helped victims restore their good name and credit rating, and created an online security freeze so consumers can avoid having their credit ruined. By recovering abandoned medical records left unsecured, the ID Theft Unit prevented possible data breaches.
. Criminal Appeals: Representing the State in the Court of Appeals and Indiana Supreme Court, the Attorney General's Office has a 95.6 percent success rate in getting convictions or sentences affirmed on appeal, sparing crime victims (and taxpayers) the burdens of retrial. That's up from the 94 percent success rate the previous year. Zoeller met with county prosecutors on lower-court cases headed for appeal.
4. Homeowner Protection: The Attorney General's Professional Licensing and Homeowner Protection Unit in 2009 investigated more than 100 for-profit foreclosure rescue consultants operating or soliciting in Indiana, and filed suit against more than a dozen operating illegally. The Attorney General's Office partnered with the Indiana Foreclosure Prevention Network (IFPN) to raise awareness about free certified mortgage-counseling services across Indiana. Through a multi-state settlement with Countrywide Home Loans, about 1,800 Hoosiers families will receive restitution totaling $2.8 million. The state received $200,000 in fees that created two new Deputy Attorney General (DAG) positions in the unit. Another $50,000 of the settlement went to IFPN. Zoeller joined Lt. Governor Becky Skillman and Chief Justice Randall Shepard in an effort to train attorneys to work on cases pro bono and represent homeowners during the settlement conference process. The settlement conference is among several new rights afforded homeowners and homebuyers through a new law Zoeller supported (HEA 1176).
5. Public outreach and Communication: Zoeller was the first state attorney general in the nation to partner with the federal Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA) program. Thirteen VISTA members assigned to the Attorney General's Office worked with local agencies and nonprofits to help connect 12,238 underserved Hoosiers to services provided by the office. The VISTA staff conducted 2,184 unclaimed property searches that found $58,187.39 for underserved Hoosiers and registered 803 consumers for the Telephone Privacy list. Hoosiers also can now sign up for consumer fraud alerts by email or text. To improve public and media access, the AG's Office has a newly redesigned Web site, http://www.in.gov/attorneygeneral/, and the Attorney General is on Twitter, Facebook and has a YouTube channel. Deputy attorneys general (DAGs) were cross-trained on the functions of other AG's Office sections so they can work more closely together as a cohesive whole.
6. Sales Tax Enforcement: For the first time since the 1970s, the Attorney General's Office used its rarely-invoked criminal-law jurisdiction to file charges of sales-tax evasion. Charges were filed in three cases in 2009. The operators of the Gilchrist puppy mill in Cloverdale were charged with felonies for not paying nearly $193,000 in sales tax. The Attorney General's office served a search warrant on the Garwood puppy mill in Harrison County in June that allegedly owed $132,440 in sales tax, and the state seized the inventory, 240 puppies. A perpetrator of a "white van scam" selling poor-quality stereo equipment from parking lots without collecting sales tax, Ed Christner, was prosecuted.
Gilchrist and her accomplices pleaded guilty to felony tax-evasion charges, as did Christner. The Garwood puppy mill operators await trial on tax evasion charges; and the Attorney General's Office also filed a civil suit against them for deceptive consumer practices. A new law, HEA 1468, allows the Attorney General to file civil actions against dog breeders who fail to register with the state.
7. Environment: The Attorney General has a role in enforcing environmental laws while benefiting economic development. Zoeller sued wood recycler VIM Inc. in Elkhart for repeatedly violating environmental and other laws. Due to a settlement the office reached, $2 million was obtained for cleanup of the former Dana site in Angola where Univertical now operates. Action by the Attorney General's Office freed up $500,000 for cleanup of the old Visteon site in Connersville will hasten the arrival of Carbon Motors plant there, which eventually will employ more than 1,500 workers. Old abandoned oil wells are being removed from Harmonie State Park in Posey County because of a state-and-federal consent decree with Countrymark over an oil spill. The office filed a lawsuit against an Evansville landlord to demand remediation of a house contaminated with lead paint that exposed tenants to lead.
8. Medicaid Fraud Prevention Unit: The Attorney General's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU) recovered a record amount of Medicaid overpayments in 2009. This was the third consecutive year that MFCU recoveries set a new record. In 2007, the MFCU collected $14 million in 2007, $19 million in 2008 and $38 million in 2009. MFCU in 2009 for the first time crossed the $500,000 threshold for total settlements from Medicaid providers who hired excluded individuals. Also, the MFCU obtained $19.8 million for Indiana in a settlement with Eli Lilly for illegal off-label marketing of Zyprexa. Former State Ethics Commission director Tim McClure joined MFCU as deputy director.
9. High-Profile Cases and Litigation: The AG's Solicitor General, Thomas M. Fisher, represents Indiana in the U.S. Supreme Court. In 2009 the Solicitor General authored (or co-authored with other states) six multi-state amicus briefs filed in the U.S. Supreme Court; and is drafting a friend-of-the-court brief in Michigan's Asian carp case against Illinois. The office is developing a report on the federal healthcare bill at the request of Sen. Lugar, under a statute that gives the Attorney General the duty to report on federal legislation to members of the Indiana congressional delegation.
Despite a larger case volume, the Litigation Division achieved significant savings to the State in payments out of the Tort Claim Fund. Tort litigation was up 17 percent, civil rights claims were up 45 percent, but total tort costs are down 23 percent from last year. During the fiscal year ending June 30, 2009, the State paid $5.1 million for settlements, judgments, claims and litigation expenses from the Tort Claim Fund, compared to $6.6 million in FY 2008. Managing a complex caseload, the Litigation Division prevailed on motions to dismiss that prevented repetitive prisoner litigation and frivolous prisoner lawsuits. And, the Litigation Division represented the state Securities Commissioner in a civil case against fugitive financier Marcus Schrenker - freezing Schrenker's assets, getting a receivership appointed, and winning in an appeal brought against the State by Schrenker's wife.
10. Unclaimed Property: Indiana is the only state in the nation where the state Attorney General's office administers the Unclaimed Property program, whereby millions of dollars worth of dormant bank accounts, un-cashed checks, lost securities and forgotten store credits are returned to their owners or heirs. In 2009, the office returned $42.1 million to consumers, the second-highest annual total ever. Zoeller visited all corners of the state to show consumers how to use the Unclaimed Property Web site, www.indianaunclaimed.com, to search for property owed to them.
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