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Missourinet

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You are here: Home / Archives for Attorney General Chris Koster

‘Little tobacco’ squares off vs. Attorney General’s office, ‘big’ counterparts in hearing

March 13, 2014 By Mike Lear

Those pushing for and against passage of a law that would make small tobacco companies pay more into an escrow account have made their cases to the House Budget Committee.

The escrow account was created for tobacco companies not participating in the Tobacco Master Settlement to pay into, and they would get their money back after 25 years. How much they paid into it was based on their sales compared to the national tobacco market.

Due to what Representative Chris Kelly (D-Columbia) calls a “very complex formula,” those companies were able to take back out most of the money paid into escrow.

The bill, HB 1242 would change that formula. It is sponsored by House Budget Committee Chairman Rick Stream (R-Kirkwood).

Andy Arnold, a lobbyist for U-Gas, Inc., tells the committee the legislation would cause small tobacco companies’ per-carton fees to the State of Missouri to increase from 14-cents to $6, while the fees paid by big tobacco companies would remain 14-cents per carton.

Kelly is a co-sponsor. He notes that the lack of money in that escrow fund is part of what a 3-judge panel cited as Missouri’s poor past enforcement of tobacco laws that has caused it to lose $70-million of its $120-million tobacco settlement payment that comes next month.

“Much of which or all of which we would not have lost had we passed this legislation,” says Kelly. “Tobacco companies settled with other states whose position was similar to ours for 43-cents on the dollar.”

Lobbyist Chuck Hatfield representing Cheyenne Cigarettes says the arbitration panel that made the decision to pull part of Missouri’s 2014 payment for poor enforcement in 2003 said that Missouri is not required to pass such legislation as part of tobacco law enforcement. He says there were eight factors that played into the decision, that would be important in future arbitrations.

Hatfield says one of those reasons is that Missouri came in last in its collection rate in 2003.

“24 percent collection rate on cigarettes,” says Hatfield. “Dead last because the Attorney General’s Office did not file lawsuits and because they did not properly communicate with the Department of Revenue.”

Another of the opponents of the bill is the Missouri Petroleum Marketers & Convenience Stores Association.

“One of the things that you need to understand,” its lobbyist Ron Leone tells the committee, “Six states lost arbitration. Five of them passed the law that’s in front of you today.”

Leone and representatives of small tobacco companies argue that the formula was intentionally designed to have companies not participating in the Master Tobacco Settlement pay less than big tobacco companies, and the bill is an effort by big tobacco companies to undo that.

Steve Carroll, representing tobacco company Excalibur, tells lawmakers, “You’ve got some corporations coming before you … that committed perjury before Congress, lied to Congress, ended up in a settlement, and are paying damages for that tort that they committed. As I view it they’re trying to shift those damages and that tort to my client, which has done nothing wrong, has always abided by the law, we’ve always been in compliance with state law. We weren’t even in existence at the time (of the settlement).”

The General Counsel for the Attorney General’s Office, Joan Gummels, dismisses the argument that the 1999 law was intended to be drafted the way it was passed. She asked lawmakers to consider two points on that matter.

“One is just the irrationality of having someone deposit a large amount of money only to refund them 97 percent of it,” says Gummels. “The second, and I think really compelling point on this is why have 45 of the 46 states that signed the agreement closed this loophole?”

No vote has been taken on the legislation.  Next week is the legislative spring break and the House will take up the budget when it returns the week after.  Stream says he wants lawmakers to have time to process what they heard in the hearing and says another hearing might be held before a vote is held on the bill.

Filed Under: Legislature, News Tagged With: Attorney General Chris Koster, Chris Kelly, Missouri House of Representatives, Rick Stream, Tobacco

House Speaker calls on Attorney General to investigate CCW list handling (VIDEO)

April 11, 2013 By Mike Lear

The House Speaker is again calling on Attorney General Chris Koster to act in the shipping of concealed carry permit holder information to the feds.

House Speaker Tim Jones (R-Eureka) had already said he wants Koster to get involved when it was clear that concealed carry permit and driver’s license applicants’ information was being scanned and retained by the Revenue Department.  Now the Highway Patrol has told the Senate Budget Committee it handed over the complete list of concealed carry permit holders – 163,000 of them – to the federal government.

“I believe that Attorney General Koster should immediately appoint an independent investigative committee to look into this scandal.”

Jones shares the fears many other conservatives say they have about how that information will be used.

“I’m very concerned that this may be a backdoor attempt to create the Eric Holder gun registry.”

Jones says he had not spoken to Koster before hand-delivering a letter to the Attorney General’s Office requesting action and holding a media conference in the State Supreme Court Building on Thursday joined by several House Republicans and Lieutenant Governor Peter Kinder.

Koster has not publicly addressed the situation since reports were first made last month that the Department of Revenue’s fee offices was scanning and keeping copies of personal documents from applicants for driver’s licenses and concealed carry endorsements. Requests for an interview on the subject from Missourinet have not been answered.

Jones says there is precedent for an Attorney General to investigate such allegations of wrongdoing, such as when then-Attorney General Jay Nixon investigated claims of sunshine law violations by Governor Matt Blunt’s office.

Jones also announced the House Committee on Government Oversight and Accountability chaired by Representative Jay Barnes (R-Jefferson City) will investigate the handling of concealed carry permit holder information.

“If necessary,” Jones says,” I will grant [Barnes] any requested and necessary subpoena powers.”

Filed Under: Legislature, News Tagged With: Attorney General Chris Koster, Jay Barnes, Missouri House of Representatives, Tim Jones

High school’s “Kindness is Cool” campaign inspired by Koster’s internet safety program (AUDIO)

March 13, 2013 By Missourinet Contributor

Missouri’s Attorney General is applauding Tuscumbia High School students for creating an anti-bullying campaign.

Chris Koster is praising the students for their effort in creating a “kindness campaign” to combat bullying. Students began the campaign after hearing a presentation about internet safety and cyberbullying from Koster’s Education Director, Tim Durkin, nearly two years ago. Koster says it’s a big issue that needs to be addressed.

“It’s now annually talked about in varying degrees over the General Assembly,” he said. “There are bills introduced annually about it because it’s such a serious issue.” He says the high school students have made more strides forward in success than the General Assembly has had in the last ten years on the topic.

Koster says over the last several years, he’s been concerned over the issue of internet safety for young people, with bullying as a big part of that concern. “Bullying in school is a topic that has received a lot more attention in recent years and part of the problem is that bullying has become a 24 hour phenomenon,” he said.

“In the old days the 3 o’clock bell would ring and students would go home; in the modern era with text messaging, cell phones, and the internet, a student can be bullied or victimized 24 hours a day.” Koster says this has heightened the concern around the issue.

However, the students at Tuscumbia are seeing a positive effect with their “Kindness is Cool” campaign. “The students themselves decided to do something about it and they came up with their own plan, their own idea, and they put it in place,” he said.

Tuscumbia High School student, Sara Abbett, 18, who’s involved with the campaign says if bullying can happen at her school, it can happen anywhere. “If it happens in our small hallways, where everyone knows everybody by their first name, I can’t imagine how awful it is in bigger schools when there is ten times as many people,” she said.

He says the students’ anti-bullying campaign has led to impressive results at Tuscumbia. Koster says he hopes the campaign can be replicated in other schools across the state. Statistics show that since starting the “Kindness is Cool” campaign, reported incidents of bullying decreased almost 20 percent and school attendance has increased from 94.8% to 98.2%. 

AUDIO:  Mary Farucci reports. (0:58)

 

 

Filed Under: Education, News, Politics / Govt Tagged With: Attorney General Chris Koster

Former Mamtek CEO arrested and charged with stealing, fraud (COURT DOCUMENTS)

September 18, 2012 By Mike Lear

The former chairman and CEO of the failed Mamtek sugar refining plant at Moberly, Bruce Cole, is in custody in Orange County, California. This morning, the Attorney General’s Office along with Randolph County Prosecutor Mike Fussellman, filed five charges in Randolph County against him related to the $39 million dollar deal.

Former chairman and CEO of Mamtek, Bruce Cole, was arrested at his home in Dana Point, California this morning.

Those felony charges are: one count of stealing with a punishment of 5 to 15 years in prison and four counts of criminal securities fraud, that each carry up to 10 years imprisonment and up to a $1 million dollar fine. Attorney General Chris Koster would not comment on whether prosecutors would seek the maximum penalties.

See the complaint and the probable cause statement.

The charges allege Cole took at least $700,000 from the $39 million in bond money for personal use. According to the probable cause statement, Cole had an invoice created that appeared to come from “Ramwell Industrial, Inc,” requesting payment of over $4 million for Ramwell’s services, though that company never existed.

The next day, Cole had a Mamtek bookkeeper wire $700,000 to Cole’s wife, Nanette. She then made a mortgage payment of over $243,000 to stop foreclosure proceedings on the Cole’s home in Beverly Hills, California.

Koster says Cole “misrepresented or failed to disclose important facts related to the construction project.” That includes claiming that the sucralose manufacturing process to have been conducted at the Moberly plant would have created no hazardous materials, when in fact it would have.

Attorney General Chris Koster (at the podium) announces the charges against Cole, along with Moberly Mayor Bob Riley (left) and Randolph County Economic Development Director Corey Mehaffey.

The charges filed today also allege that Cole told Moberly that Mamtek had a fully operational sucralose plant in China when it did not, and only four to six months would be needed to build the Moberly facility when Cole believed it would take longer.

Koster says the process begins today to extradite Cole to Missouri to face the charges. Cole is being held on $500,000 bond in Orange County, California.  Koster would not comment on whether additional charges might be filed or whether more people could face charges, but says the investigation is continuing.

Koster says these criminal charges have little to do with any money being recouped from the Mamtek deal, but adds, “I think that the likelihood of financial recuperation coming out of this still remains less than likely. The bankruptcy proceeding will determine that.”

The site of the Mamtek plant and all equipment there is scheduled to be auctioned off at 10:00, October 24.

Filed Under: Crime / Courts, News Tagged With: Attorney General Chris Koster, Mamtek, Moberly



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