State Enforcement

December 4, 2014

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan joined with the attorneys general of 44 states and the District of Columbia to announce that Sirius XM Radio Inc. agreed to pay $3.8M and provide restitution to eligible consumers to resolve claims that the satellite radio company engaged in misleading advertising and billing practices. The states’ investigation focused on consumer complaints involving: difficulty canceling contracts, cancellation requests that were not honored, misrepresentations that the consumer’s Sirius XM service would be canceled and not renewed, contracts that were automatically renewed without consumers’ notice or consent, unauthorized fees, higher and unanticipated rates after a low introductory rate, and Sirius XM failing to provide timely refunds. IL

December 2, 2014

Durable medical equipment supplier Regional Home Care, Inc., which does business as North Atlantic Medical Services, will pay a total of $852,378 to federal and state authorities for its violation of the False Claims Act by billing Medicare and Medicaid for unlicensed services for the treatment of respiratory ailments, such as oxygen deficiency and sleep apnea. MA

November 24, 2014

New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced the indictment of three pharmacies and seven individuals for allegedly defrauding Medicaid of over $5M by allegedly paying customers for prescriptions obtained from a local doctor and then billing Medicaid for the drugs even though they were never dispensed. The corporate defendants include Perfect Gift US, Inc., d/b/a Central Pharmacy, Princess RX, Inc., d/b/a Hastings Drug Corp., and Bright RX, Inc., d/b/a Buffalo Drugs. NY

November 20, 2014

California Attorney General Kamala D. Harris and Alameda County District Attorney Nancy E. O’Malley announced a settlement with AT&T to resolve allegations that hundreds of AT&T’s California facilities unlawfully disposed of hazardous waste and material over a nine-year period. As part of the settlement, AT&T will pay $23.8M million and spend an additional $28M over the next five years to implement the enhanced environmental compliance measures required by the settlement. CA

November 19, 2014

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that eight residents of Miami-Dade County and three residents of Nicaragua have been charged for their alleged participation in a $25M Medicare, Medicaid, and wire fraud scheme. As alleged in the indictment, the defendants recruited individuals who resided in Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic to enroll in Medicare Advantage plans and Florida Medicaid by falsely representing in enrollment applications that they resided in Florida. Additionally, the defendants caused physicians associated with Pharmovisa Inc., Axis Le Professional Medical Group, Inc. and Rodney Montoya Corp. to be designated as the primary care physicians for the beneficiaries residing in Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic. FL

November 19, 2014

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi’s Office and the Federal Trade Commission filed a complaint against multiple companies operating multi-million dollar schemes to sell tech support services to consumers nationwide, many of whom are senior citizens. The defendants, Inbound Call Experts, Super PC Support, Vast Tech Support, LLC and related entities, allegedly operated a technical support scam that exploited consumers’ fears of viruses, malware and other security threats to their computers and used deceptive online advertisements and telephone calls to convince consumers to run scans on their computers to detect errors. According to the investigation, the defendants ran scans on consumers’ computers and then charged for repairs when the computers actually had no performance problems. Consumers paid up to $500 for repairs in addition to other charges for software. This scheme has caused more than $22 million in consumer injury. FL

November 19, 2014

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine, the Federal Trade Commission, and Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan announced an agreement under which ScoreSense, owned by One Technologies, a Texas-based business that also operated MyCreditHealth and marketed through at least 50 websites, including FreeScore360.com, FreeScoreOnline.com, and ScoreSense.com, has agreed to change its business practices and pay $22M to resolve claims it deceptively marketed its online credit monitoring services. According to the government, ScoreSense bought advertising on search engines such as Google and Bing so that ads for the websites appeared near the top of search results when consumers looked for terms such as “free credit report,” but the company failed to adequately disclose that by accessing their score, consumers would be enrolled in a credit monitoring program costing $29.95 per month until they called to cancel. OH

November 13, 2014

California joined a whistle-blower lawsuit against BP alleging the company overcharged the state by as much as $300M for natural gas for almost a decade. The case was unsealed today in San Francisco state court. The state and two of its university systems are pursuing the case along with a whistleblower, former BP employee Christopher Schroen. Bloomberg

November 13, 2014

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi’s Office and the Federal Trade Commission obtained a permanent injunction against an Orlando-based operation that used pre-recorded telephone calls, known as robocalls, to pitch purportedly free medical alert devices to senior citizens by falsely representing that the devices had been purchased for them by a relative or friend, violating the FTC Act, the Commission’s Telemarketing Sales Rule and Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act. The defendants also allegedly misled consumers to believe that the devices were endorsed by various health organizations and that they would not be charged anything before the devices were activated. The defendants include Worldwide Info Services, Inc., Elite Information Solutions Inc., Absolute Solutions Group Inc., Global Interactive Technologies, Inc., Global Service Providers, Inc., Arcagen Inc., American Innovative Concepts, Inc., Unique Information Services Inc. and National Life Network Inc. FL

November 13, 2014

Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen G. Kane announced a consumer protection lawsuit against Texas-based companies Think Finance Inc. (formerly ThinkCash), TC Loan Services LLC, Elevate Credit Inc., Financial U LLC and former CEO Kenneth E. Rees for allegedly engineering an illegal payday loan scheme over the Internet. According to the lawsuit, Think Finance targets consumers in Pennsylvania using three Native American tribes, who function as the apparent lender, as a cover. In turn, Think Finance earns significant revenues from various services it charges to the tribes.