AGO News Releases for 2013

Attorney General Bob Ferguson has honored Senior Counsel Andy Fitz with the Attorney General’s 2013 Steward of Justice Award. The award recognizes assistant attorneys general who further the cause of justice through exceptional legal work and extraordinary contributions to the people of Washington.

Attorney General Bob Ferguson has selected six assistant attorneys general to receive the 2013 William V. Tanner Award for outstanding achievements early in their careers.  Ferguson established the new award this year in honor of the youngest Attorney General in state history.

Attorney General Bob Ferguson today announced a major breakthrough in the fight against ‘mobile cramming’ — unauthorized third-party charges that appear on mobile telephone bills. Cramming on cell phones and landlines is estimated to cost Americans $2 billion per year.

Courtesy of the Department of Revenue  Nov. 21, 2013   The owner of a King County landscaping business pleaded guilty to stealing $112,572 in sales tax she collected from customers from 2006 through 2011.

A three-judge panel in the Division II Court of Appeals has upheld the convictions of a former Department of Defense and Port Orchard police officer who threatened his live-in girlfriend with a gun and pushed her out of a second-story window in 2010.

This special to the Bellingham Herald was published November 20, 2013. By Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson You might reasonably assume that the federal government regulates and tests most of the chemicals found in our children’s toys, household products, and other consumer goods to make sure they are safe. They do not. In response, states like Washington stepped up with stronger chemical safety state laws to protect consumers and the environment from the impacts of toxic chemicals.

Attorney General Bob Ferguson led a coalition of 34 states and one territory today in filing a  ‘friend of the court’ brief in the U.S. Supreme Court. The issue in the case, Paroline v. Amy Unknown and the United States, No. 12-8561, is the extent to which victims of child pornography can recover money (restitution) from those who market, possess or trade images depicting sexual assault and rape of children.

This afternoon in Thurston County Superior Court, the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) amended its lawsuit against the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA). The amended complaint increases the amount the state alleges the GMA collected from its members to oppose Initiative 522 without complying with Washington’s campaign finance laws from $7.2 million to $10.6 million. This is the largest amount the state has ever addressed in a campaign finance concealment case.

The owner of a foreign-language interpreter service pleaded guilty Monday in a scheme that authorities say cost Washington state hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Washington helped lead $17M multi-state settlement with Google Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced today that his office, along with 36 states and the District of Columbia, entered into a settlement with Google Inc. for tracking information on Apple’s Safari web browser.