{"id":14256,"date":"2010-03-09T08:07:58","date_gmt":"2010-03-09T15:07:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=14256"},"modified":"2010-03-14T00:07:07","modified_gmt":"2010-03-14T07:07:07","slug":"lawmakers-direct-ag-to-hire-attorney-to-handle-fraud-cases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2010\/03\/lawmakers-direct-ag-to-hire-attorney-to-handle-fraud-cases\/","title":{"rendered":"Lawmakers direct AG to hire attorney to handle fraud cases"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Attorney General Gary King (Photo by Heath Haussamen)<\/p><\/div>\n

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<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lawmakers didn\u2019t give Attorney General Gary King<\/a> the additional money in the special session, but they directed him in the state budget bill<\/a> to hire such an attorney anyway by shifting resources.<\/p>\n

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<\/a> is reporting.<\/p>\n

The budget bill is awaiting action from the governor.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a clear directive from the Legislature to the Attorney General\u2019s office that we expect these cases to get off the dime,\u201d State Rep.\u00a0Joseph Cervantes<\/a>, D-Las Cruces, was quoted by the Independent as saying.<\/p>\n

Cervantes was the original sponsor of the so-called qui tam<\/a> law in 2007. In December, Cervantes called for speedier action<\/a> from the AG\u2019s office on the approximately 100 cases that had been filed under the act.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis 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,\u201d Cervantes said at the time.<\/p>\n

The act, which Gov.\u00a0Bill Richardson<\/a> signed into law\u00a0in 2007<\/a>, protects those who sue the state in an attempt to expose government corruption. The law gained notoriety last year when a whistleblower\u2019s lawsuit against the state\u2019s former state investment officer and members of Richardson\u2019s administration was unsealed.<\/p>\n

After being filed, cases like Frank Foy\u2019s\u00a0pay-to-play lawsuit<\/a> 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 \u2013 as Foy has done \u2013 and can be awarded between 15 and 30 percent of damages as compensation if he\u2019s successful in his lawsuit.<\/p>\n

Since the law took effect, the AG\u2019s office has thus far released three cases \u2013 two filed by Foy and one\u00a0filed by the National Education Association<\/a> \u2013 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Attorney General\u2019s Office needs to either move on these cases or simply allow attorneys with the time and resources to do that job,\u201d he said at the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust because it\u2019s not obvious to the public or the Legislature what the progress is, it doesn\u2019t mean progress isn\u2019t being made,\u201d 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\u2019t fund it, which King said in December was the same as \u201cnot giving any help at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, King says he plans to move quickly to hire such an attorney once the governor signs the law, according to the Independent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lawmakers didn\u2019t give Attorney General Gary King the additional money he\u2019s been seeking to hire an attorney to take on fraud cases during the special session. But they directed him to hire one anyway by shifting resources.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1],"tags":[142,114,107],"class_list":["post-14256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","category-uncategorized","tag-crime","tag-public-corruption","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14256\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}