Press Releases: 2012

Attorney General Sam Olens has announced a multi-state agreement with four major tobacco companies that settles a 10-year dispute regarding payments under the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement (MSA).

On December 7, 2012, a Fulton County Grand Jury charged Michael Anthony Dix with Criminal Attempt to Commit Theft by Taking (O.C.G.A. § 16-4-1 and § 16-8-2) for attempting to steal computers by posing as a fictitious state agency.

Attorney General Sam Olens announced that his office has recouped more $550,897.89 in tax revenue for the State of Georgia from defendants involved in an extensive tobacco trafficking ring, and more is expected to be recovered.

Georgia is one of seven states to earn a “B” grade in a national study of state human trafficking laws. Shared Hope International, a non-profit committed to combating human trafficking, produces an annual report grading the effectiveness of each state’s human trafficking law.

Chiquita Rivers pleaded guilty yesterday in Tift County Superior Court to seven counts of Forgery in the First Degree (O.C.G.A. § 16-9-1). Judge Melanie B. Cross sentenced Rivers to serve four years in prison, followed by 16 years probation and restitution in the amount of $19,385.00.

On November 28, 2012, a Gwinnett County Grand Jury issued an indictment against Oluyemisi Afuape and Olufemi Afuape on one count of Medicaid Fraud, O.C.G.A. § 49-4-146.1(b)(1), and one count of Conspiracy to Defraud the State, O.C.G.A. § 16-10-21(a).

The Office of the Attorney General and the Governor’s Office of Consumer Protection are warning consumers who are in the market for used cars to beware of flood-damaged vehicles in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.

Attorney General Sam Olens announced that over 9,500 Georgia borrowers have received mortgage relief totaling $480,938,542 as a result of the National Mortgage Settlement with the nation’s five largest mortgage servicers.

Yesterday, Eugene B. Wimby, Jr. pleaded guilty to 14 felony counts of Theft by Taking (O.C.G.A. § 16-8-2) for fraudulently collecting his father’s retirement benefits from the Teachers’ Retirement System of Georgia (TRS) after his father’s death.

Former Georgia Department of Corrections (DOC) employee Debbie Lynn Wright pleaded guilty in Tattnall County Superior Court on November 1, 2012, to one count of Racketeering (O.C.G.A.