Apr 20, 2009 10:46 pm US/Central
I-TEAM: MN AG Accused Of Being Unethical, Unlawful
ST. PAUL (WCCO) ―
The WCCO I-TEAM first told you about expensive, sound-proof doors in the Attorney General's Office. Now there are allegations of unethical and unlawful behavior from two former lawyers in the office speaking publicly for the first time.
Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson issued a press release response but refused to sit down with WCCO for an interview. And the State Legislative Auditor has just reopened an investigation based on the sworn testimony of several lawyers who have not spoken out before now.
Paul Civello was a Medicaid fraud attorney under former DFL Minnesota Attorney General Mike Hatch and his successor, the DFLer Swanson.
"It was always political mode," said Civello.
In an interview with the I-TEAM, Civello said employees were routinely pressured into working on high profile cases intended only to bring publicity and political attention to the boss.
But there's more to his charges than just politics.
"The problem I found in the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit was an attempt to deceive the Office of Inspector General (about the make up of the unit)," said Civello.
Civello makes the claims in a sworn affidavit, in which he describes "misconduct" by two successive Democratic Attorneys General, the top law enforcement officers in the state.
In one case, said Civello, a lawyer was hired under a different title in order to receive federal funding.
Another attorney, who still works in the AG's office, writes in a memo that "this amounted to fraud."
A second case involved the giant pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline. Civello said he and others worked "for years" on an anti-trust case against the drug company when Hatch was running for governor.
Hatch, at a 2004 press conference, said of GlaxoSmithKline and the pharmaceutical industry:
"This is a big industry. They're pretty arrogant and they've got a lot of control over people."
Four years after Hatch opened the case with much media attention, it was quietly settled. There were no penalties, no fines and no publicity.
"We had worked hundreds and thousands of hours on this case. We had won at every step of the litigation," said Civello. "This case was worth a lot of money to the state and it was essentially dumped."
Asked if that surprised him, Civello said, "It's not surprising to me or to, I would think, people who worked in the Attorney General's Office. There has been, over the years, while I was there, a pattern of filing lawsuits, holding a press conference and then quietly either settling the case or dumping the case."
However, that's not what bothers Civello the most. He said Swanson deceived the federal government, using the Medicaid Fraud Unit to prosecute cases that helped her campaign for attorney general.
Minnesota's non-partisan office of investigations, the legislative auditor, did not find evidence to support Civello's claims.
But in an unusual move, the auditor is now taking another look.
"Certainly if there are misrepresentations, we want to uncover that," said Jim Nobles, Minnesota's Legislative Auditor.
The new investigation comes at the request of Democratic State Representative Steve Simon, DFL-St. Louis Park and State Representative Tom Emmer, R-Delano.
"Someone has made very significant allegations of wrongdoing, illegal activity in that office," said Emmer. "Those allegations need to be investigated; they need to be determined. One way or the other there needs to be a determination: are they credible or are they without merit. "
Swanson declined WCCO's request for an on-camera interview, but she is hitting back; hard.
In an unusually blunt written response to Civello's claims, Swanson calls him a "bitter" man, part of a group of disgruntled former employees who, she said, "wallow in despair."
But other former employees are rallying to Civello's defense.
"It's a typical vicious attack that I've become accustomed to seeing from Lori Swanson and Mike Hatch," according to Martin Carlson, a lawyer who worked in the Attorney General's Consumer Enforcement Office.
Carlson describes an atmosphere of intimidation, where he says all employees were asked to work for the headlines.
"The adage was: Once the publicity's over, the case is over," said Carlson.
Meanwhile, since Swanson took office two years ago, 68 staff attorneys have left their jobs. That's about half of the total number of attorneys.
However, Swanson's office said that's comparable to past attorneys general.
To see some of the documents obtained during this investigation click on the links below.
Paul Civello Affidavit (PDF)
AG Lori's Swanson's Response To Civello Affidavit (PDF)
National Association Of Medicaid Fraud Control Units (PDF)
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