January 22nd Edion A.G. Schneiderman Files Suit To Stop Illegal Rollback Of Net Neutrality Attorney General Schneiderman led a coalition of 22 Attorneys General in filing a multistate lawsuit to block the Federal Communications Commission’s illegal rollback of net neutrality. The coalition filed a petition for review in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, formally commencing the lawsuit against the FCC and the federal government. The repeal of net neutrality would have dire consequences for consumers and businesses in New York and across the country that rely on a free and open internet – allowing internet service providers to block certain content, charge consumers more to access certain sites, and throttle or slow the quality of content from content providers that don’t pay more. Under the Administrative Procedure Act, the FCC cannot make “arbitrary and capricious” changes to existing policies, such as net neutrality. The FCC’s new rule fails to justify the Commission’s departure from its long-standing policy and practice of defending net neutrality, while misinterpreting and disregarding critical record evidence on industry practices and harm to consumers and businesses. * A.G. Schneiderman announced a ruling in the A.G.’s lawsuit against Champion Fuel and Service Corp. (“Champion”) and its owner David DeSilva Sr. The judge ordered the company and DeSilva Sr. to provide full restitution (over $176,000) to consumers who were defrauded, to pay triple the amount of unpaid damages he owes from 30 Small Claims judgments, and to pay tax warrants filed by the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance. The court also permanently enjoined Champion and DeSilva Sr. from engaging in the retail sale of home heating oil and the repair and service of oil burners.
Transcript
January 22nd Edition
A.G. Schneiderman Files Suit To Stop Illegal Rollback Of Net Neutrality
Attorney General Schneiderman led a coalition of 22 Attorneys General in filing a multistate lawsuit to block the Federal Communications Commission’s illegal rollback of net neutrality. The coalition filed a petition for review in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, formally commencing the lawsuit against the FCC and the federal government. The repeal of net neutrality would have dire consequences for consumers and businesses in New York and across the country that rely on a free and open internet – allowing internet service providers to block certain content, charge consumers more to access certain sites, and throttle or slow the quality of content from content providers that don’t pay more. Under the Administrative Procedure Act, the FCC cannot make “arbitrary and capricious” changes to existing policies, such as net neutrality. The FCC’s new rule fails to justify the Commission’s departure from its long-standing policy and practice of defending net neutrality, while misinterpreting and disregarding critical record evidence on industry practices and harm to consumers and businesses.
* A.G. Schneiderman announced a ruling in the A.G.’s lawsuit against Champion Fuel and Service Corp. (“Champion”) and its owner David DeSilva Sr. The judge ordered the company and DeSilva Sr. to provide full restitution (over $176,000) to consumers who were defrauded, to pay triple the amount of unpaid damages he owes from 30 Small Claims judgments, and to pay tax warrants filed by the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance. The court also permanently enjoined Champion and DeSilva Sr. from engaging in the retail sale of home heating oil and the repair and service of oil burners.
A.G. Schneiderman Files Suit Against Trump EPA For Failing To Protect New Yorkers From Out-Of-State Air Pollution A.G. Schneiderman announced that New York filed a lawsuit against the Trump Administration for violating the federal Clean Air Act by failing to curb ground-level ozone (or “smog”) pollution that blows into New York from upwind states. This lawsuit is the latest action in a multi-pronged initiative by A.G. Schneiderman to force the Trump Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to fulfill its obligations under the Clean Air Act to reduce upwind sources of air pollution that threaten the health of millions of New Yorkers. At least one in three New Yorkers breathe air with unhealthy levels of smog pollution, with some analyses placing it as high as two in three New Yorkers (approximately 12.7 million people). EPA’s own studies demonstrate that pollution from states upwind of New York contributes substantially to the state’s dangerous smog problem. A.G. Schneiderman Announces Indictment And Arrests Of Medical Testing Company Owners In Multi-Million Dollar Medicaid Fraud Attorney General Schneiderman announced the indictment and arrest of Tea Kaganovich, 45, and Ramazi Mitiashvili, 57, both of Brooklyn, NY for Grand Larceny in the First Degree and other related charges for illegally billing Medicaid for fraudulent diagnostic testing services and laundering the criminal proceeds from their scheme. The Attorney General also filed a civil lawsuit seeking $24 million in damages from the defendants under the State’s False Claims Act and other laws. The indictment alleges that Kaganovich and Mitiashvili, operators of Sophisticated Imaging, Inc., East Coast Diagnostics, Inc., and East West Management, Inc., engaged in a systematic scheme to subject Medicaid patients to a battery of diagnostic tests that were not medically necessary and not ordered by real physicians. Kaganovich, Mitiashvili, and the indicted corporations then caused the Medicaid program, including Medicaid Managed Care Organizations (“MCOs”), to be billed for medical testing, some of which was never rendered at all. The defendants later laundered their illicit proceeds through various bank accounts and paid co-conspirators hundreds of thousands of dollars to perpetuate the scheme. The Attorney General’s civil lawsuit alleges that defendants’ illegal conduct cost Medicaid over $8 Million.
