News Releases

 Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine, Montgomery County Sheriff Phil Plummer, Warren County Sheriff Larry Sims, and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Acting Special Agent in Charge William Hayes announced today that an ongoing investigation has led to the seizure of more than a quarter of a million dollars and nearly 50 pounds of cocaine.

 Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine and Ashtabula County Sheriff William Johnson announced today that, following a joint investigation by the Ashtabula County Sheriff’s Office and the Ohio Attorney General’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI), an Ohio woman is now charged with murder in connection with the poisoning death of her husband in 2009. 

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine announced today that civil charges have been filed against TEEN USA and Darien E. Smith of Cleveland for violating the terms of an Assurance of Discontinuance — a legal agreement the organization made with the Attorney General’s Office in November of 2013. According to the agreement, Smith agreed to dissolve TEEN USA, to not hold any position in or participate in soliciting donations for any charitable organization in Ohio, and to pay $10,000 to the Attorney General’s Office. Through TEEN USA, teens went door-to-door selling candy, but the money raised was not used for charitable purposes.

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine today rejected the petition for the proposed “Bottle Bill for Ohio” because the petitioners did not submit the minimum valid signatures required.

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine announced today that Ohio consumers will begin receiving account credits or checks this week in settlement funds from a 2012 e-books price-fixing lawsuit. The lawsuit was brought by Attorney General DeWine and attorneys general from 32 other states against Apple, Inc. and five of the six largest e-book publishers in the country for conspiring to fix the price of e-books. Those e-book publishers — Hachette Book Group Inc., HarperCollins Publishers LLC, Simon & Schuster Inc., Holtzbrinck Publishers, LLC, d/b/a Macmillan, and Penguin Group (USA) Inc. — settled the claims against them for a total nationwide payment of $166 million, of which approximately $4.7 million will be distributed to Ohio consumers. The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York approved those settlements on December 6, 2013.

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine today announced a lawsuit against a Springfield home improvement contractor accused of failing to deliver promised services to consumers

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine announced today an agreement with Dynamite TKD Kids Foundation and Abbie M. Taylor of Warren to cease charitable solicitations in Ohio and to pay $5,000 to the Attorney General’s Office. The organization provided scholarships for students to attend Tae Kwan Do classes at Taylor’s husband’s Tae Kwan Do school.

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine today joined New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman in leading an effort to convince the largest pharmacy chains in the United States to stop selling tobacco products. Led by DeWine and Schneiderman, the Attorneys General of 28 states and territories have written to the CEOs of Wal-Mart, Walgreens, Rite-Aid, Safeway and Kroger, asking them to remove any and all tobacco products from their shelves. In addition, 32 Attorneys General have commended CVS Caremark for its recent decision to stop selling tobacco in its stores.

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine today released the 2014 edition of Ohio Sunshine Laws: An Open Government Resource Manual. The release of the manual, commonly referred to as the “Yellow Book,” coincides with the commemoration of Sunshine Week.