{"id":18900,"date":"2010-06-30T06:17:49","date_gmt":"2010-06-30T12:17:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=18900"},"modified":"2010-06-30T06:19:19","modified_gmt":"2010-06-30T12:19:19","slug":"a-busy-half-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2010\/06\/a-busy-half-year\/","title":{"rendered":"A busy half-year"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Gary King<\/p><\/div>\n

Summer 2010 is scarcely one week old, and looking back it has been a very busy half-year for the Attorney General\u2019s Office. We have been working on major issues including state investments,\u00a0public land exchanges, environmental protection, and various civil and criminal prosecutions.<\/p>\n

OppenheimerFunds recovery<\/h3>\n

One of our most recent accomplishments involves a settlement agreement in the state\u2019s investigation of OppenheimerFunds\u2019 management of the\u00a0New Mexico\u00a0529 college savings programs.<\/p>\n

Under the terms of the settlement agreement, OppenheimerFunds agrees to pay to the state Education Trust Board more than $67.3 million, to be distributed to eligible Education Plan and Scholar\u2019sEdge participants who invested in portfolios that had exposure to the Oppenheimer Core Bond Fund.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Federal health care bill<\/h3>\n

Much has been said on all sides of the\u00a0federal health care\u00a0bill issue, most of it being political and rhetorical posturing. I have made it clear to all factions that I am not inclined to join lawsuits for or against the bill until and unless it is determined that to do so will benefit my client, the state of New Mexico.<\/p>\n

The bill is beyond voluminous but until we have read it through, done our research and reviewed the research of others, I will not be pressured by politics or special interest groups to get\u00a0New Mexico\u00a0involved in unnecessary litigation.<\/p>\n

Environment<\/h3>\n

Earlier this year my office sued to stop the controversial\u00a0White Peak\u00a0land exchanges because they violate state law and the bidding process used is unconstitutional. We asked for and received from the\u00a0state Supreme Court\u00a0an emergency stay to prohibit further similar exchanges of state trust lands by the land commissioner.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Prosecutions<\/h3>\n

In February, my office\u00a0prosecutors successfully obtained six separate convictions in a two-week period against people accused of exploitation, fraud and\u00a0physical abuse\u00a0of elderly and developmentally disabled Medicaid recipients.<\/p>\n

March saw my Medicaid fraud unit investigation lead to indictments against an Albuquerque-area pair for Medicaid fraud, conspiracy and\u00a0falsification of documents. In the same month our Medicaid Fraud &\u00a0Elder Abuse\u00a0Division obtained separate indictments\u00a0against two Valencia County women on charges including\u00a0resident abuse and neglect\u00a0and Medicaid fraud.<\/p>\n

And recently, working with local law enforcement, we produced the first indictment under New Mexico\u2019s relatively new anti-human trafficking law. The suspected violator is charged with\u00a0human trafficking\u00a0involving forced prostitution at an Albuquerque-area motel.<\/p>\n

Finally, because of space limitations, I will just briefly remind you of what the Attorney General\u2019s Office is doing to combat government corruption and other crimes. Cases are still working their way through the judicial system that involve a PRC commissioner, former\u00a0secretary of state, Region 3 Housing Authority, multiple\u00a0Internet crimes against children,\u00a0mortgage fraud,\u00a0securities fraud,\u00a0unfair business practices, and much more. The rest of the year ahead appears to be just as busy as the first half.<\/p>\n

King<\/em><\/a> is New Mexico\u2019s attorney general.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Summer 2010 is scarcely one week old, and looking back it has been a very busy half-year for the Attorney General\u2019s Office. We have been working on major issues including state investments, public land exchanges, environmental protection, and various civil and criminal prosecutions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192,16],"tags":[107],"class_list":["post-18900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary","category-guest-columns","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18900","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\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18900\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}