DES MOINES, Iowa (Legal Newsline) - An ad campaign launched statewide in Iowa targets Attorney General Tom Miller and the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG), which he leads, for siphoning settlement money from consumer fraud lawsuits into what critics are calling a NAAG “slush fund.”
The campaign, entitled “Racket,” is being funded by the nationwide consumer group, the Alliance for Consumers Action Fund (AFCAF).
“The money [from the lawsuit settlements] hasn't been sent to the victims of consumer fraud but has instead been stashed in foreign investments and used for things like overseas junkets for attorneys general and their families,” O.H. Skinner, the head of AFCAF, told Legal Newsline.
Iowa AG Tom Miller
“We’re targeting Miller because he’s the current NAAG president,” he added.
AFCAF estimates that NAAG has amassed more than $250 million in the fund under Miller, a Democrat.
In July, NAAG hosted a “Leadership Institute Program” in London for AGs and their spouses or partners. The annual retreat, the invitation reads in part, “provides a confidential environment for attorneys general to build and nurture relationships…”
NAAG covered all expenses.
Last year’s multistate opioid settlement with McKinsey & Co., a business consulting firm, is an exemplar of how NAAG grows its fund.
Under the settlement, McKinsey was directed to pay NAAG $15 million, a sum larger than the payout amount received by many states.
Skinner said the practice is similar to President Obama’s Department of Justice directing a portion of settlements to leftist third parties, but worse.
“This is like the DOJ as part of settlement directing money to the Obama library instead of to a nonprofit,” he said.
What’s more, critics, including AGs from red states, say that NAAG has abandoned its original charge of being non-partisan, and is moving increasingly left and more in step with the trial bar.
In May, Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, in a joint letter with seven other AGs, wrote to NAAG protesting that it’s promoting “entrepreneurial litigation” and “suing businesses for profit.” This approach is “more in line with the plaintiffs’ bar than making whole those who have been harmed,” he said.
Five states have even gone so far as to drop out of the association, TLR reports.
The AFCAF ad campaign, which kicked off last weekend on Fox during the Iowa-Michigan football game, directs viewers to the phone number and email for Attorney General Miller's official office and ends: "Tell Tom Miller. No more overseas trips and foreign investments. Give the money back to victims here in Iowa."
Miller, first elected AG in 1978, is in a tight race for re-election against Republican Brenna Bird, the County Attorney for Guthrie County.
Miller’s campaign did not return a request for comment.