OLYMPIA - Attorney General Rob McKenna has named assistant attorney general Tony Rugel head of the new Eastern Washington division of the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit in Spokane. The announcement is part of a larger effort to expand the unit’s presence in Eastern Washington.

OLYMPIA – Attorney General Rob McKenna today presented legislation recommended by his “Operation: Allied Against Meth” task force to the Senate Human Services and Corrections Committee in Olympia.

Senate Bill 6239 includes additional funding to help local governments fight the meth epidemic, tools for effective meth lab cleanup and more effective treatment, public education and criminal penalties.

Olympia - Attorney General Rob McKenna will testify on two of his top priority bills tomorrow in the House Criminal Justice and Corrections Committee.

Operation: Allied Against Meth: McKenna’s Operation: Allied Against Meth bill, Senate Bill 6239, is first on the agenda at tomorrow. The measure, based on recommendations of McKenna’s Operation: Allied Against Meth Task Force, covers substance abuse reduction, clean-up and criminal sanctions. Highlights of the bill include:

OLYMPIA – Attorney General Rob McKenna today joined 48 other attorneys general nationwide in urging Congress to work with Internet Service Providers to adopt a meaningful data retention standard to protect data critical to online child pornography and sex crime investigations.

KENNEWICK – On May 25, a former mortgage loan officer was sentenced to nine months in jail and ordered to pay restitution of $13,500, plus costs for witness and attorney’s fees for stealing money and forging a promissory note.

Kennewick, WA – A former Kennewick loan officer, charged with stealing $9,000 from his former customers through an investment scheme, entered a not guilty plea at his arraignment today in Benton County. He was released on his own recognizance until trial.

In late March, the Washington State Attorney General’s Office Financial Crimes Unit charged Sathiane Lakkham a/k/a Bruce Santana, 38, with two counts of first-degree theft and three counts of forgery in the case.

Tacoma – Attorney General Rob McKenna announced today that the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU) reached agreement with a pharmaceutical company that incorrectly reported prices to the government for several of its drugs and paid millions of dollars less in rebates to government entities, including state Medicaid programs.

SEATTLE – Attorney General Rob McKenna spoke in opposition today of the IRS’s proposed new rule that would allow tax-return preparers to sell information from individual returns to third parties.

McKenna joined U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Mountlake Terrace, and members of the Washington Society of Certified Public Accountants, the Evergreen Freedom Foundation and WashPIRG during a bipartisan roundtable event in Seattle with constituents.

SEATTLE – Attorney General Rob McKenna this week filed formal objections to the Internal Revenue Service’s proposed rules that would make it easier for businesses to sell and share personal information included on tax returns.

OLYMPIA – The Attorney General’s Office today announced the state will seek U.S. Supreme Court review of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision, which upheld a lower court ruling invalidating the Initiative 872, the top-two primary initiative.