Attorney General Gary King (Photo by Heath Haussamen)
The attorney general has been asking lawmakers and the governor to give him at least $100,000 in additional money to hire an attorney to take on cases filed under the Fraud Against Taxpayers Act.
Lawmakers didn’t give Attorney General Gary King the additional money in the special session, but they directed him in the state budget bill to hire such an attorney anyway by shifting resources.
King is to take $150,000 from the more than $15 million the budget appropriates to him to focus on the fraud cases, The New Mexico Independent is reporting.
The budget bill is awaiting action from the governor.
“It is a clear directive from the Legislature to the Attorney General’s office that we expect these cases to get off the dime,” State Rep. Joseph Cervantes, D-Las Cruces, was quoted by the Independent as saying.
Cervantes was the original sponsor of the so-called qui tam law in 2007. In December, Cervantes called for speedier action from the AG’s office on the approximately 100 cases that had been filed under the act.
“This legislation was designed to encourage whistleblowers to come forward with knowledge of fraud and abuse, and unfortunately these delays send the wrong message to people trying to bring an end to these abuses,” Cervantes said at the time.
The act, which Gov. Bill Richardson signed into law in 2007, protects those who sue the state in an attempt to expose government corruption. The law gained notoriety last year when a whistleblower’s lawsuit against the state’s former state investment officer and members of Richardson’s administration was unsealed.
After being filed, cases like Frank Foy’s pay-to-play lawsuit remain sealed and are presented to the AG for prosecution or a civil lawsuit. If the agency declines to take action, the citizen can proceed on his own with a civil lawsuit – as Foy has done – and can be awarded between 15 and 30 percent of damages as compensation if he’s successful in his lawsuit.
Since the law took effect, the AG’s office has thus far released three cases – two filed by Foy and one filed by the National Education Association – allowing citizens to proceed with their own, unsealed lawsuits. The approximately 100 left, Cervantes said at the time, were way too many to be left in limbo.
“The Attorney General’s Office needs to either move on these cases or simply allow attorneys with the time and resources to do that job,” he said at the time.
“Just because it’s not obvious to the public or the Legislature what the progress is, it doesn’t mean progress isn’t being made,” King responded in December. But he also pointed out then that he was seeking the additional resources. The Legislature approved a full-time position last year to handle the cases but didn’t fund it, which King said in December was the same as “not giving any help at all.”
Now, King says he plans to move quickly to hire such an attorney once the governor signs the law, according to the Independent.