Attorney General Mills Seeks Volunteer Mediators

AUGUSTA ? Are you interested in helping Maine consumers resolve disputes with businesses? The Attorney General?s Office is recruiting volunteer mediators for the Consumer Mediation Service, with the next training scheduled for February 2017. For more than 30 years the Consumer Protection Division of the Attorney General?s Office has offered a free and voluntary complaint resolution program for Maine consumers, staffed by trained volunteers and overseen by full-time staff.

AUGUSTA ? Maine Attorney General Janet T. Mills and 35 other attorneys general today filed an antitrust lawsuit against the makers of Suboxone, a prescription drug used to treat opioid addiction, over allegations that the companies engaged in a scheme to block generic competitors and cause purchasers to pay artificially high prices.

(AUGUSTA) The Maine Attorney General?s Office has noticed a recent increase in the number of Mainers calling to report they are the target of phone scams in which someone pretends to be calling to collect a debt owed to the Internal Revenue Service. Maine Attorney General Janet T. Mills is reminding people to be aware that these are scams and no one should give people credit card information or wire money. 250 people called the Attorney General?s Consumer Protection Division about these scams in August.

AUGUSTA ? Maine Attorney General Janet T. Mills is reminding Mainers to be on guard against ?government grants? being offered through instant messenger programs and social media programs like Facebook.

AUGUSTA ? Attorney General Janet T. Mills today announced a new public education campaign aimed at stemming the abuse of painkillers in Maine. The new website and three television spots are designed to give Maine a ?Dose of Reality? about painkillers.

(AUGUSTA) Since 2014 the Attorney General?s Office recovered more than $26.2 million from 28 healthcare providers who billed MaineCare for goods and services they did not provide. In addition, the Attorney General?s Office obtained restitution of about $654,000 from 62 individual recipients in who defrauded various DHHS programs in 2014 and 2015. The Attorney General?s Office also brought criminal tax fraud cases that resulted in restitution of $1.5 million in the last two state fiscal years.

AUGUSTA ? Attorney General Janet T. Mills today announced a settlement requiring Volkswagen to pay more than $570 million to states for violating state laws prohibiting unfair or deceptive trade practices by marketing, selling and leasing diesel vehicles equipped with illegal and undisclosed defeat device software. The settlement also establishes an environmental mitigation fund of $2.7 billion.

AUGUSTA ? ?If I can?t have you, no one can? is not an idle threat. It is a sign of controlling and violent behavior that too often is the prelude to homicide. This is one of the observations of the Domestic Abuse Homicide Review Panel in its 11th biennial report entitled: On the Path to Prevention. The Panel?s report was released at a State House press conference Thursday which included Governor Paul R. LePage and Attorney General Janet T. Mills.

AUGUSTA ? Attorney General Janet T. Mills announced today that Maine has reached an agreement in principle to settle allegations against the drug-maker Wyeth, a wholly owned subsidiary of Pfizer, Inc. The settlement will resolve allegations that Wyeth knowingly underpaid rebates owed under the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program for the sales of Protonix Oral and Protonix IV between 2001 and 2006. Under the settlement Wyeth has agreed to pay $784.6 million to the United States and the States. Over $371 million of this amount will go to the Medicaid Program.

AUGUSTA, Me ? Attorney General Janet Mills announced today that Tracy Burke, 51, a Merchant Marine now living in Virginia, was sentenced to serve jail time on multiple counts of Intentional Income Tax Evasion, Failure to File Maine Income Tax Returns, and Failure to Pay Maine Income Tax for years 2008 through 2013. Burke evaded paying Maine income tax by pretending to be a New Hampshire resident, and later a Florida resident, while he was in fact residing in Maine. New Hampshire and Florida do not have a state income tax.