Each week, Crowell & Moring’s State Attorneys General team highlights significant actions that State AGs have taken. Here are this week’s updates.

California

  • California Attorney General Rob Bonta conditionally approved the sale of four continuing care retirement communities (CCRCs) located in Northern and Southern California. Attorney General Bonta also conditionally approved the sale of the residential care facility for the elderly known as “Windsor” to Ararat Home of Los Angeles, Inc.
  • Attorney General Bonta submitted a comment letter to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau regarding the agency’s preliminary determination that the California Commercial Financing Disclosures Law is not preempted by the Federal Truth in Lending Act.

Florida

  • Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody issued a consumer alert with tips for Floridians to secure personal information during National Data Privacy Week. According to reports, data breaches exposed approximately 22 billion records worldwide in 2022.
  • Attorney General Moody’s Office of Statewide Prosecution secured 30-year prison sentences for members of a massive identity theft scheme. Carnessa Rouse, Gregory Engram and Samishia Askew stole the identities of more than 120 individuals, most of whom were above the age of 65. Using the victims’ identities, the defendants opened fraudulent credit card accounts to fund luxurious lifestyles.

Georgia

  • Alongside Insurance Commissioner John King, Attorney General Chris Carr urged Georgians to be on the lookout for potential home repair fraud, insurance scams, price gouging, and other schemes following the recent tornadoes and severe storms that moved throughout the state.

Maryland

  • Maryland Attorney General Anthony G. Brown publicized that his Consumer Protection Division reached a settlement with Charm City Puppies, Inc. and its owner, Wayne Cossentino. The Division had alleged that Charm City Puppies violated the Consumer Protection Act when it sold puppies to consumers in violation of the “No More Puppy Mills Act.”

North Dakota

  • North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wigley announced that his office has issued a Cease and Desist Order against Nu Life Institute, LLC and Edward Baca III of Las Vegas, Nevada—banning the business from engaging in any sales in the State of North Dakota. The Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division began investigating the business when it received a complaint involving an elderly consumer who paid $844 believing she was receiving a product that would treat macular degeneration. 

Pennsylvania

  • Acting Pennsylvania Attorney General Michelle Henry announced a settlement with the gravestone and engraving company “1843 LLC,” and its owners Gregory J. Stefan Sr., Gregory J. Stefan Jr., and Gerard Stefan. According to court documents, the company often failed to deliver gravestones and gravestone engravings in a timely manner, or not at all.