Contact: Kate Simmons(207) 626-8577

Attorney General Janet T. Mills announced that $135,000 in proceeds from a court case will soon help to feed the hungry in Maine. The funds, which result from a price-fixing case against major vitamin companies, will be donated to the Good Shepherd Food Bank, the state?s largest distributor of emergency food to those in need. A small portion of the settlement funds will also go to the State?s Emergency Food Assistance Program to purchase food for low-income Mainers.

Augusta - Attorney General Janet Mills announced today that she is distributing $200,507 in foreclosure relief money from the Countrywide Financial Corporation settlement. The funds are being distributed to the state?s ten Community Action Programs based on the population of the areas they serve.

Contact: Kate Simmons(207) 626-8577

Augusta ? Maine Attorney General Janet T. Mills applauded the action of all four Maine distributors of Joose in agreeing to stop selling this alcoholic energy drink (AED) to Maine retailers. The distribution companies Federal Distributors, Maine Distributors, National Distributors and Valley Distributors took this action voluntarily in response to findings by the Food and Drug Administration that the addition of caffeine to Joose made this product unsafe.

Contact: Kate Simmons207) 626-8577

Maine Attorney General Janet T. Mills Applauds FDA?s Letters to Alcoholic Energy Drink Manufacturers Stating That Their Products Are Unsafe

Augusta - Attorney General Janet T. Mills applauded the U.S. Food and Drug Administration?s (FDA) issuance of warning letters today to four manufacturers of alcoholic energy drinks (AEDs) stating that the caffeine in their alcoholic beverages, including the popular brands ?Four Loko? and ?Joose,? are ?unsafe food additives,? making these products adulterated under federal law.

Contact: Kate Simmons, 626-8577

Attorney General Mills Announces Results of Fraud Investigations

Maine Attorney General Janet Mills announced the hiring of a new fraud prosecutor to pursue additional cases of abuse of Maine's safety net programs.

Assistant Attorney General Peter Black has been on the job for a month but has already brought several indictments for the misuse of various state administered programs. Mr. Black will focus on theft and fraud by recipients of state programs.

Augusta, ME ? Attorney General Janet T. Mills has filed suit against Lysco Contracting Inc., a residential chimney and furnace repair business operating in central Maine, for unfair and deceptive trade practices.

Attorney General Janet T. Mills announced on October 27, 2010, that the National Association of Medicaid Fraud Control Units joined the federal government to reach an agreement in principle with the pharmaceutical manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) to settle allegations that the company introduced adulterated drugs into interstate commerce. As a result, GSK will pay the states and the federal government $600 million in civil damages and penalties for Medicaid and other federally-funded health care programs. Maine will receive $1,808,522 from the settlement.

Augusta, ME ? Attorney General Janet T. Mills announced today her office?s receipt of $135,000 in federal funding to provide Maine consumers with advice about health insurance coverage and their rights to appeal denials by private insurers.

Machias?Attorney General Janet Mills announced that Jackie Fenton, age 61, of Jonesport, Maine, was sentenced in Superior Court in Machias on his plea of guilty to charges of failing to file his state income tax returns for 2003 to 2008. The charges are Class C felonies punishable to up to five years in jail, because this is the second time that Fenton has been convicted of failing to file taxes for multiple years. Fenton, a commercial fisherman, had previously been convicted on February 18, 2004, of failing to file state taxes for 1997 to 2002.

Attorney General Janet T. Mills announced today that Maine has joined with other states and the federal government to reach an agreement in principle with Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation (Novartis) to settle allegations it improperly promoted Trileptal and engaged in unlawful kickback schemes to induce physicians to prescribe Trileptal, Diovan, Zelnorm, Sandostatin, Exforge and Tekturna. As a result, Novartis will pay the states and the federal government $237.5 million in damages and penalties for losses to the Medicaid and other federal health care programs.