MARYLAND NEWS

The Howard county Ethics commission dismissed a complaint alleging a conflict of interest in the search for the county's first inspector general. The dismissal follows the commission's investigation into Steve Quisenberry and his role on Howard's Inspector General Advisory Board, which last fall selected his boss, Kelly Madigan, for the county's watchdog job from a pool of more than 50 applicants.

Before leaving her position as the Baltimore County Inspector General, Madigan tapped Quisenberry to serve as Baltimore county's acting inspector general. Source: Baltimore Banner

Source: U.S. Attorney, District of Maryland

Judge denies city’s motion to disqualify attorneys, allowing IG Cumming’s lawsuit to proceed. The judge’s decision undercuts the administration’s broader efforts to limit the inspector general’s access to city records.

In an earlier report on April 17, the Brew reported the following: "Even before hearing any arguments, Baltimore Circuit Court Judge Pamela J. White made clear she was pretty skeptical of the city’s position..In dismissing Cumming’s request for document access as 'a political disagreement,' she said, the Scott administration 'minimizes the charter authority of the OIG – particularly concerning [its] powers and responsibilities to issue and enforce subpoenas.' Source: https://baltimorebrew.com/

Today’s motion continues the city’s argument that the Office of the Inspector General is part and parcel of city government and cannot enforce a subpoena or otherwise act independently from the law office...Such was the case prior to 2018 when the inspector general reported directly to the city solicitor, an appointee of the mayor. That year voters approved a charter amendment to create an “independent” inspector general governed by an advisory board. Source: baltimorebrew.com

Two former inspectors who monitored Maryland's flagship EmPOWER energy efficiency program have come forward publicly for the first time with allegations that millions in ratepayer funds were misspent. Source Baltimore Sun

The bill would have guaranteed the OIG unrestricted access to government records...Instead, the two bills — one from the House and one from the Senate — despite bipartisan support, were held up in committee and did not advance. Source: foxbaltimore.com

Investigators linked him to more than 10,000 fraudulent federal tax returns, attempting to collect over $91 million and successfully securing more than $11.6 million…The scheme relied on stolen identities — more than 259,000 of them — along with thousands of IRS filing PINs used to bypass federal safeguards. Source: aol.com

In an amended complaint, IG Isabel Mercedes Cumming asks how her office can root out fraud and waste if it cannot access city records. Source: baltimorebrew.com  

According to the guilty plea, Park admits that from October 2020 through January 2021, he participated in a conspiracy to launder proceeds he and his associates generated through selling marijuana in Maryland. As part of the conspiracy, female co-conspirators transported marijuana from California to Maryland, usually via commercial air travel.  Parks traveled separately from the co-conspirators to Maryland, but he sold the marijuana with local co-conspirators after arrival. Source: US Attorney, District of Maryland

Attorney General Anthony G. Brown today issued an alert about the prevalence of fraudulent investment schemes proliferating across Meta platforms, including on Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Scammers are increasingly using deceptive advertisements and “deepfake” technology to lure investors into high-stakes scams to defraud them of their savings. These scams include “pump and dump” scams, confidence scams, and fraudulent cryptocurrency schemes that take advantage of people to extract as much money as possible.

 The Maryland Attorney provides tips to protect investors from scams and urges them to scrutinize social media advertisements before investing. Most reputable broker-dealers and investment advisors do not post specific investment advice on social media platforms. The AG encourages anyone who may have been affected by these types of investment scams to report it to his Securities Division at securities@oag.maryland.gov and anyone harmed by a consumer scam to report it to his Consumer Protection Division at consumer@oag.maryland.gov.

Source: oag.maryland.gov