Texas, FTC Announce New Crackdown On Illegal Robocalls
AG Paxton, FTC Announce New Crackdown on Illegal Robocalls
AUSTIN – Attorney General Ken Paxton, in cooperation with the Federal Trade Commission announced a major crackdown on illegal robocalls, including nearly 100 actions targeting operations around the country responsible for more than one billion calls – pitching everything from fraudulent credit card services to auto warranty protection.
The joint crackdown, “Operation Call it Quits,” is part of the FTC’s ongoing effort to help stem the tide of annoying and unsolicited pre-recorded telemarketing calls. Attorney General Paxton’s Consumer Protection Division took legal action on several cases affecting Texans:
–It filed a lawsuit against Mendoza Marketing, resulting in an injunction prohibiting the company from initiating any telemarketing call to a Texas consumer, initiating any telephone call that plays a recorded message, and initiating any telephone call to a person listed on the Texas or federal no-call list. The company’s robocalls violated several state and federal telemarketing statutes and regulations, including the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act.
— It filed a motion in federal court seeking to hold Kevin J. Calvin in contempt for violating a prior court order prohibiting him from engaging in illegal telemarketing practices in Texas. In 2015, Attorney General Paxton’s Consumer Protection Division obtained a judgment and permanent injunction against Mr. Calvin prohibiting him from, among other things, placing any robocalls without the consent of the recipient and calling any Texas resident whose telephone number was listed on the Texas or federal no-call list. Despite the court order, today’s motion alleges that Mr. Calvin continued to make thousands of robocalls to Texas residents, including those on the no-call list.
“Robocalls are an invasion of privacy and most robocalls are illegal. Even worse, robocall scams often take advantage of consumers through identity theft and by stealing their hard-earned money,” Attorney General Paxton said. “’Operation Call it Quits’ represents just one of the many consumer protection and enforcement action cases my office has successfully collaborated on with the FTC in our ongoing effort to protect Texans.”
There’s been a significant increase in the number of illegal robocalls because internet-powered phone systems have made it cheap and easy for scammers to make illegal calls from anywhere in the world, and to hide from law enforcement by displaying fake caller ID information, also known as spoofing.
For more information about illegal robocalls and caller ID spoofing, visit the attorney general’s website at https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/consumer-protection/phone-mail-and-fax-scams/how-spot-and-report-phone-scams.
In October 2017, the Consumer Protection Division was awarded the FTC’s Partner Award in recognition of outstanding work to combat fraud and deception in the marketplace.
State’s Child Exploitation Unit Arrests Sabine County Man for Possession of Child Pornography
AUSTIN – Attorney General Ken Paxton announced that the Child Exploitation Unit of his office arrested 66-year-old Walter James Sanders Jr., of Hemphill, Texas, on five counts of possession of child pornography, a third-degree felony.
A CyberTipline report from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) alerted the Child Exploitation Unit to Sanders, who was reportedly uploading images of child pornography to an internet search engine.
While executing a search warrant at Sanders’ residence, investigators found images of child pornography on a digital storage device located within the home.
During an interview, Sanders confessed to uploading and saving files of child pornography. Investigators seized numerous digital storage devices from his residence for examination by the Digital Forensics Unit of the attorney general’s office.
Attorney General Paxton’s office works to protect children by using the latest technology to track down some of the most profoundly evil predators online. Since its inception, the Child Exploitation Unit has made 326 arrests and obtained 580 convictions on charges for possession of child pornography.
Attorney General Paxton urges all parents and teachers to become aware of the risks children face on the internet and take steps to help ensure their safety. If you suspect someone is producing or downloading child pornography, you can report it to NCMEC.
For more information on cyber safety, please visit: https://texasattorneygeneral.gov/initiatives/cyber-safety/.
AG Paxton Applauds SCOTUS Decision Protecting Cross at Veterans Memorial
AUSTIN – The U.S. Supreme Court today ruled that a cross may continue to mark a World War I veterans memorial in Bladensburg, Maryland. Last year, Attorney General Paxton joined a bipartisan 28-state amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to protect the cross, which serves a memorial to fallen veterans and has been standing for nearly a century. The 7-2 decision confirmed that it does not violate the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause.
Although finished by the American Legion, the memorial was started by community members and mothers whose sons died in World War I. The American Humanist Association, an atheist legal organization that routinely challenges innocuous religious symbolism all over the country, filed a lawsuit in 2014 to force the state of Maryland to tear down the 40-foot Peace Cross.
“The military has used the cross as a symbol of military service for much of our history, including at the time the First Amendment was written,” Attorney General Paxton said. “Public expressions of faith and piety have a long and venerable history in this country, one this office will never hesitate to defend. We’re heartened in that effort by the Supreme Court’s resounding decision to protect the memorial of our fallen soldiers from needless desecration.”
The Supreme Court’s decision could impact similar memorials across the nation, including those at Arlington National Cemetery. Crosses are common on headstones at that cemetery, and a 24-foot granite cross – known as the Canadian Cross of Sacrifice – stands near the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
AG Paxton Co-Authors 12-State Brief to Protect Health and Safety for Women
AUSTIN – Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a friend-of-the-court brief co-authored by Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill, Jr. in the United States Supreme Court in June Medical Services v. Gee, which involves a legal challenge to Louisiana’s requirement that abortion doctors maintain admitting privileges at nearby hospitals.
Ten other states joined Texas and Indiana on the amicus brief. The brief supports Louisiana’s conditional cross-petition, which argues that if the Supreme Court hears the challenge to the admitting-privileges requirement, it should also consider whether abortion clinics have standing to bring lawsuits on behalf of their patients.
Normally, a person filing a lawsuit must represent their own legal rights and interests and may not sue on behalf of another unless they have a close relationship and their interests are the same.
Abortion clinics throughout the country, however, have filed suits “on behalf of” patients in order to eliminate health-and-safety regulations, such as requirements that clinics be licensed, pass health inspections, maintain sufficient staff, sterilize equipment, and have functioning plumbing systems.
In the brief, the States describe how abortion providers claim to act as a representative of their patients in these lawsuits, but offer no evidence of what their patients want and continually argue against laws that protect patients’ well-being.
“Abortion clinics—claiming to represent women—have repeatedly filed suits challenging state abortion laws. But what these clinics are arguing for is entirely contrary to their patients’ interests,” Attorney General Paxton said. “Refusing to maintain basic health-and-safety standards contributes only to the clinic’s financial interest, not to the well-being of their patients. Their patients, like anyone else, would obviously prefer safe, regulated, and competent doctors and facilities.”
View a copy of the brief here.
AG Paxton Launches New Citywide Immersive Training Initiative to Combat Human Trafficking in Texas
AUSTIN – Attorney General Ken Paxton today announced the launch of new partnerships between his office and cities across the state to educate and mobilize Texans in the fight against human trafficking.
The Citywide Immersive Training initiative kicked off in Beaumont last week and included human trafficking awareness training sessions for hospitality professionals, restaurant workers and others, taught by the Office of the Attorney General’s Human Trafficking and Transnational/Organized Crime (HTTOC) Section.
The Citywide Immersive Training seeks to unite Texans in the fight against human trafficking by recognizing and remedying inconsistent language, training the public on red flags of trafficking and promoting information on victim resources.
Over the course of three days, this unique training equips an entire city with a common knowledge base, language and set of tools in the fight against trafficking.
Linking schools, law enforcement, medical providers, child protective services, attorneys, the hospitality industry and the general public, this initiative equips each participating city with the ability to identify and rescue victims, and ultimately seek justice on their behalf.
“The more Texans learn how to be the one who detects and reports human trafficking activities, the better the chance we have to end this despicable form of modern-day slavery once and for all,” Attorney General Paxton said. “I’m grateful to the city of Beaumont and the Jefferson County District Attorney’s Office for their efforts to lead the way on our Citywide Immersive Training initiative, and I look forward to partnerships with other cities in the future.”
Combating human trafficking is a top priority for Attorney General Paxton. In 2016, he launched his office’s human trafficking section.
To date, the human trafficking section has conducted around 300 trainings on human trafficking for more than 20,000 Texans from all walks of life, and 23 cases have been resolved with pleas or trials.
Last year, it assisted the U.S. Department of Justice with permanently shutting down Backpage, which was considered the largest online sex trafficking marketplace in the U.S.
For more information, including how to recognize and report suspected human trafficking activity, visit https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/human-trafficking.
AG Paxton Co-Leads Twenty Seven (27) Attorneys General Effort to Protect Against Potential Class-Action Abuse in Opioid Multidistrict Litigation
AUSTIN – In a letter he co-authored with California from a bipartisan group of 27 states and territories, Attorney General Ken Paxton today asked a U.S. District Court judge presiding over all the federal cases involving opioid lawsuits to delay a ruling that could potentially result in class-action abuse and confusion regarding a proposed novel settlement structure.
Earlier this month, attorneys for hundreds of local governments proposed a plan creating a “negotiation class” consisting of every municipality in the country as a speedy way to settle lawsuits against the manufacturers, distributors and pharmacies accused of profiting from the nation’s opioid epidemic.
Under the plan, if a local government does not opt out, it is considered to have opted in, regardless of whether that government has participated in the case in any way.
Judge Dan Aaron Polster, the federal judge in Cleveland who is presiding over the multi-district litigation, is considering the proposed plan tomorrow.
But in their letter to the judge, Attorney General Paxton and his counterparts urge him to postpone a decision for at least three weeks “to allow all interested parties the opportunity to more fully brief this matter.”
“This proposed process would unnecessarily delay meaningful settlement options and create a negative precedent all to the detriment of the taxpayers and those suffering from opioid addiction,” Attorney General Paxton said. “To certify a negotiation class so quickly and so early in the process, before everyone’s had a chance to determine what their best interest is, constitutes a new and novel procedure that could result in a grave miscarriage of justice and do significant harm to the ability of states to protect their own people.”
Legally, the plan may not satisfy the requirements of federal court rules governing class actions, and may fail to provide adequate due process and fairness to the class members.
The proposed process could also result in significant delays because of inevitable appeals, preventing state and local governments from providing help to the victims of our nation’s opioid crisis.
“State attorneys general have been and remain intimately involved in ongoing efforts to address the opioid crisis through a wide variety of means, including litigation, investigations, and intensive discussions regarding potential resolution with many of the parties that would be potentially impacted by the proposed class,” the letter states.
View a copy of the letter here.
Texas Solicitor General Kyle Hawkins Testifies Before U.S. House Judiciary Subcommittee
AUSTIN – On Tuesday, the Texas Solicitor General Kyle Hawkins testified in Washington, D.C., before the U.S. House Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties.
The subcommittee heard testimony on continuing constitutional problems with the Voting Rights Act since the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in Shelby County v. Holder.
In 2013, the high court struck down an outdated provision of the Voting Rights Act which required nine states, including Texas, to seek preclearance from the U.S. Justice Department or a federal court before making changes to voting laws.
Solicitor General Hawkins testified that the Supreme Court’s decision in Shelby County v. Holder recognized the importance of federalism.
The Court also noted the profound changes and progress that have occurred in the U.S. since the Voting Rights Act was passed by Congress in 1965.
“Given the grave constitutional concerns that arise from subjecting a state’s laws to federal approval, preclearance must be reserved for the extraordinary circumstances,” Solicitor General Hawkins said. “In Shelby County, the Supreme Court threw out Congress’s reauthorization of a preclearance regime because the legislative record failed to show anything approaching the ‘pervasive,’ ‘flagrant,’ ‘widespread,’ and ‘rampant’ discrimination that faced Congress in 1965, and that clearly distinguished the covered jurisdictions from the rest of the nation at that time.”
In his prepared written testimony, Solicitor General Hawkins noted that preclearance inevitably causes harm to the political process because it fuels political rhetoric that displaces legitimate policy debate with claims of racial discrimination.
He used Texas’ voter ID law as an example. The Obama-era Department of Justice abused the preclearance process to thwart the state law not because it was unconstitutional, but because the Department of Justice deemed it unnecessary.
Solicitor General Hawkins concluded by summing up the main lesson of Shelby County:
“Before imposing a preclearance regime, Congress must make credible findings that a state is so determined to evade the commands of the Fourteenth or Fifteenth Amendment that its citizens will be unable to protect their constitutional rights through traditional litigation under existing law.
“As Congress revisits the Voting Rights Act, it must adhere to the constitutional principles the Supreme Court articulated in Shelby County that limit the power of the federal government to impede on fundamental principles of federalism and disturb the coequal sovereignty of the states.”
View a copy of the Texas solicitor general’s prepared written testimony here.
AG Paxton’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit Helps Feds Catch Three Individuals in Multimillion-Dollar Health Care Fraud Scheme
AUSTIN – Investigative work by the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office helped the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) bring charges today against the director and two operators of a Houston-based medical clinic for their alleged participation in a multimillion-dollar health care fraud scheme.
Dr. Douglas Sharp, the medical director of Verimed Health and Medical Wellness Clinic, and clinic operators Dr. Innad Husaini and Hanh Nguyen are accused of submitting around $16 million in fraudulent claims to Medicare and Medicaid for home health care services, diagnostic tests and eye procedures that were medically unnecessary or not provided. The three allegedly cheated Medicare and Medicaid out of more than $12 million.
Attorney General Paxton’s Medicaid Control Fraud Unit assisted the DOJ, FBI, and U.S. Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General in the investigation of the case.
“We’re pleased that our Medicaid Fraud Control Unit played such an important role in helping to stop this multimillion-dollar health care fraud scheme,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said. “My office will continue to work with our federal partners to uncover waste, fraud, and abuse in the Medicare and Medicaid systems, and to ensure Texans’ tax dollars are not stolen by criminals.”
Sharp, Husaini and Nguyen were arrested and charged in an indictment unsealed today with one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud. Sharp also faces three counts of false statements relating to health care matters. The two other defendants were charged with multiple counts of health care fraud.
During fiscal year 2018, Attorney General Paxton’s Medicaid Control Fraud Unit obtained 82 indictments, 69 convictions, and court-ordered restitution of over $139 million.
Last year, the unit received the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General’s top award of excellence in fighting fraud, waste and abuse – the number one award from 50 Medicaid fraud control units nationwide.
Law Enforcement Division’s Captain Wes Hensley Honored for Valor
AUSTIN – Attorney General Ken Paxton today announced that Captain Wes Hensley from the Law Enforcement Division of his office received an award for valor during the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement’s annual Law Enforcement Achievement Awards Ceremony at the state Capitol.
Captain Hensley serves as a commissioned officer in the Law Enforcement Division’s Fugitive Apprehension Unit.
On the afternoon of December 11, 2018, Captain Hensley and several fellow law enforcement officers were attacked by an armed suspect while executing a felony arrest warrant at the home of a violent criminal in Houston.
During the course of the engagement that followed, Captain Hensley exhibited exceptional courage while risking his own life to protect others, even after being critically wounded numerous times.
During the course of the engagement, Captain Hensley twice made face to face contact with the assailant. The first time, Captain Hensley and the other officers were ambushed as they were searching the suspect’s apartment. When the officers entered the apartment’s bathroom, the assailant opened fire, hitting Captain Hensley multiple times.
Believing Captain Hensley to be dead, the assailant left the room to pursue and fire on the other officers. Captain Hensley followed the assailant and again took gunfire while attempting to convince the suspect to surrender.
Suffering from multiple wounds to his body and unable to use his arms, Captain Hensley then crawled his way out of the apartment while continuing to take fire. During a subsequent standoff with police, the shooter took his own life.
“There is no more important duty of the commissioned peace officers in my Law Enforcement Division than to protect Texans from harm, and Captain Hensley bravely put public safety before his own safety when he confronted pure evil,” Attorney General Paxton said. “Captain Hensley is deeply deserving of this award, along with the gratitude of all Texans for the courage and dedication that he and other officers like him show in protecting us from the dangerous human predators in our midst.”
Captain Hensley has 15 years of service with the attorney general’s office, including work in the Child Exploitation Unit. Since last year, he’s undergone several reconstructive surgeries on his hands and arms, and continues on the road to recovery.
AG Paxton’s Office Honored with National Award for Best Website
AUSTIN – The Conference of Western Attorneys General (CWAG) awarded the Texas Office of Attorney General its 2019 WAGGY for the Best Overall Website during its annual meeting this week in Santa Barbara, California.
“I’m proud of our web team and everyone in my office who works so hard each day to make our website as user-friendly, reliable and helpful to Texans as it can be,” Attorney General Paxton said. “We strive for excellence in everything we do, and this CWAG award for best website is a validation of our office’s dedication to serve the state of Texas and its citizens.”
Attorney General Paxton’s office was selected for the top WAGGY award from among a bipartisan group of more than two dozen CWAG member states and territories. His office redesigned its website, texasattorneygeneral.gov, last year.
CWAG’s awards program was established in 2002 to recognize and honor outstanding achievement in the internet websites of its members. The judging criteria used to assess the websites focuses on site design, site content and site purpose.
“For overall excellence in website content and design, the WAGGY winner for Best Overall Website stood alone. Congratulations to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and his team,” CWAG’s multi-state awards committee concluded.
Notification of Opinion
Original Request for Opinion RQ-0264-KP: Whether subsection 2261.252(e) of the Government Code allows a member of the State Soil and Water Conservation Board to receive funding through an agency program for land improvement measures
Opinion Summary KP-0259: Government Code subsection 2261.252( e) does not abrogate common-law conflict-of-interest rules, which would prohibit a member of the State Soil and Water Conservation Board from receiving $15,000 in financial assistance through a program administered by the agency.
Request for Opinion
Original Request RQ-0292-KP: Authority of a commercial entity to operate a willed body program in Texas
Received: Monday, June 24, 2019
Requestor: John K. Hubbard, PhD, PT
Chairman
Anatomical Board of the State of Texas
Post Office Box 195895
Dallas, Texas 75219
