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Sean D. Reyes
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Attorney General Reyes Joins Multistate Effort to Preserve Ban on Federally Funded Fetal Tissue Research

April 10, 2020

Attorney General Sean D. Reyes has signed on to a letter, sent this week to President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and other top federal officials supporting the administration’s current ban on federal funding for fetal tissue research. The letter is co-signed by the attorneys general of 18 other states.

Last month, a California-led coalition of 15 other attorneys general called upon President Trump to end the ban in order to facilitate studies they claimed could lead to new methods of fighting the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

The U.S. Supreme Court has previously affirmed Indiana’s contention that states have a legitimate interest in enforcing the respectful handling of fetal remains (Box v. Planned Parenthood of Indiana & Kentucky).

Advocates for fresh fetal tissue research say it could produce medical breakthroughs in such areas as developing vaccines, but Attorney General Reyes noted that such claims are mostly unsupported by scientific evidence.

Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill originated the letter.

“We urge the Trump administration to stand by its priority of promoting the dignity of human life from conception to natural death even in this global health crisis,” Attorney General Hill said. “In order to make advances in the ethical treatment of human remains, this nation must reject the false notion that scientists cannot achieve the laudable goal of creating vaccines and treatment for COVID-19 without using unethical means.”

Read Attorney General Hill’s letter to the Trump administration here.

Utah Attorney General Reyes Joins 50 Attorneys General in Multistate Google Investigation

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 9, 2019

UTAH ATTORNEY GENERAL REYES JOINS 50 ATTORNEYS GENERAL IN GOOGLE MULTISTATE BIPARTISAN ANTITRUST INVESTIGATION 
 

SALT LAKE CITY – Utah Attorney General Sean D. Reyes today announced that Utah is joining the attorneys general in 48 states, Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico in a multistate, bipartisan investigation of tech giant Google’s business practices in accordance with state and federal antitrust laws.

The bipartisan coalition announced plans to investigate Google’s overarching control of online advertising markets and search traffic that may have led to anticompetitive behavior that harms consumers. Legal experts from each state will work in cooperation with Federal authorities to assess competitive conditions for online services and ensure that Americans have access to free digital markets.

“Now, more than ever, information is power, and the most important source of information in Americans’ day-to-day lives is the internet. When it comes to internet search, Google is-and has been-the 90% market share leader.” said Attorney General Reyes. “There is nothing wrong with a business becoming the dominant player if it does so fairly, but we are concerned Google’s dominance has been achieved and maintained through business practices designed to thwart competition and prevent new alternatives from ever existing. If true, such practices have undermined consumer choice, stifled innovation, violated users’ privacy, and impermissibly put Google in control of the flow and dissemination of online information.

“At times, there is a fine line between aggressive and abusive business practices. This investigation will tell us if Google has crossed that line. We intend to closely follow the facts we discover in this case and proceed as necessary. I raised these issues with the FTC several years ago but didn’t have the resources as a single state to pursue this behemoth. I am glad so many of my colleagues have seen the wisdom and importance of pursuing this investigation.”

Past investigations of Google uncovered violations ranging from advertising illegal drugs in the United States to now three antitrust actions brought by the European Commission. None of these previous investigations, however, fully address the source of Google’s sustained market power and the ability to engage in serial and repeated business practices with the intention to protect and maintain that power.
 

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Uber to pay $148 million in multi-state settlement

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 26, 2018

 

UBER AGREES TO PAY $148 MILLION IN MULTI-STATE SETTLEMENT
Uber agrees to strengthen security practices after data breach

SALT LAKE CITY – Today, Attorney General Sean Reyes and Utah Department of Commerce Executive Director Francine Giani jointly announced that Utah would receive nearly $900,000 from Uber Technologies, Inc. (Uber) in a settlement agreement over a one-year delay in reporting a data breach to affected drivers. Uber will pay Utah, the other 49 states, and the District of Columbia a total of $148 million in addition to strengthening its corporate governance and data security practices to prevent similar occurrences in the future.

Uber learned in November 2016 that hackers gained access to personal information involving the ride-sharer’s drivers, including drivers’ license information.  The data breach involved approximately 600,000 drivers nationwide, about 2,500 from Utah. Uber tracked down the hackers and obtained assurances that the hackers deleted the information. Utah’s law requires Uber to notify affected Utah residents, but Uber failed to report the breach until November 2017.

Attorney General Reyes stated, “I’m a fan of Uber, but that doesn’t keep us from doing our job. Protecting Utahns, their data, and identities is one of the top priorities of my office. Working with the Utah Department of Commerce and colleagues from other states, we were able to achieve a fair resolution without protracted litigation.” Deputy Attorney General David Sonnenreich added, “prompt reporting of data breaches is important so that victims have the information they need to better protect themselves from identity theft.” 

“Sadly data breaches have become a constant headline in our highly connected lives,” said Francine Giani, Executive Director for the Utah Department of Commerce. “We hope Uber’s case sends a message to the business community to be swift in alerting the public when consumer information is compromised.  The Department of Commerce is grateful for the partnership with the Attorney Generals’ Office in settling Utah’s claim.”

The settlement requires Uber to: 1) comply with Utah data breach and consumer protection law about Utah residents’ personal information and notifications in the event of a data breach; 2) take precautions to protect any user data Uber stores on third-party platforms outside of Uber; 3) use strong password policies for its employees to gain access to the Uber network; 4) develop and implement a strong data security policy for all data that Uber collects about its users, assess potential risks to the security of the data, and implement additional security measures beyond what Uber is doing to protect the data; 5) hire an outside qualified party to assess Uber’s data security efforts on a regular basis and draft a report with recommended security improvements, and 6) develop and implement a corporate integrity program to ensure that ethics concerns brought by Uber employees about other employees will be heard.

Utah joins the other 49 states and the District of Columbia in this multistate agreement with Uber.

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NOTES:

  1. You can find a copy of the Complaint, Proposed Judgment, and additional court documents here:
    https://attorneygeneral.utah.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/2018-09-26-Uber-Complaint-Utah.pdf
    https://attorneygeneral.utah.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/2018-09-26-Uber-Summons-Utah.pdf
    https://attorneygeneral.utah.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/2018-09-26-Uber-Acceptance-of-Service-Stratford-Utah.pdf
    https://attorneygeneral.utah.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/2018-09-26-Uber-UTAH-Proposed-Judgment.pdf

 

Photo by Antonio DiCaterina

Utah Attorney General's Office

A.G. Reyes Announces a $220 Million Multi-state Settlement with Deutsche Bank for Manipulating Interest Rate Benchmarks

LIBOR manipulation hurt government and not for profit counterparties

in Utah and across the country

SALT LAKE CITY  October 30, 2017 – Attorney General Sean Reyes today announced a $220 million settlement with Deutsche Bank for fraudulent conduct involving the manipulation of LIBOR. This is a benchmark interest rate that affects financial instruments worth trillions of dollars and has a widespread impact on global markets and consumers.

“The fraudulent acts by Deutsche Bank hurt Utahns, cheating local non-profits and governmental bodies out of millions of dollars through fraudulent manipulation of interest rate benchmarks,” said Attorney General Sean Reyes. “Any company that defrauds Utahns out of hard-earned money must be held to account.

“I appreciate the hard work by Ron Ockey, Antitrust Section Director, David Sonnenreich, Deputy Attorney General, and Edward Vasquez, Assistant Attorney General, and their team for their hard work on this settlement.”

The investigation, conducted by a working group of 43 State Attorneys General revealed that Deutsche Bank manipulated LIBOR in a number of ways.  Deutsche Bank employees improperly (a) made internal requests for LIBOR submissions to benefit Deutsche Bank’s trading positions; (b) attempted to influence other banks’ LIBOR submissions in a manner intended to benefit Deutsche Bank’s trading positions; and (c) received communications from inter-dealer brokers and external traders attempting to influence Deutsche Bank’s LIBOR submissions.  At times, Deutsche Bank LIBOR submitters and supervisors expressly acknowledged and indicated they would work to implement the requests they received.

Given this conduct, Deutsche Bank LIBOR submitters and management had strong reason to believe that Deutsche Bank’s and other banks’ LIBOR submissions did not reflect their true borrowing rates (as they were supposed to do pursuant to published guidelines) and that the LIBOR rates submitted by the banks did not reflect the actual borrowing costs of Deutsche Bank and other panel banks.

Deutsche Bank employees did not disclose these facts to the governmental and not-for-profit counterparties with whom Deutsche Bank executed LIBOR-referenced transactions even though these rates were material terms of the transactions.

Government entities and not-for-profit organizations in Utah and throughout the U.S., among others, were defrauded of millions of dollars when they entered into swaps and other investment instruments with Deutsche Bank without knowing that Deutsche Bank and other banks on the U.S. Dollar (USD)-LIBOR-setting panel were manipulating LIBOR.

Governmental and not-for-profit entities with LIBOR-linked swaps and other investment contracts with Deutsche Bank will be notified if they are eligible to receive a distribution from a settlement fund of $213.35 million.  The balance of the settlement fund will be used to pay costs and expenses of the investigation and for other uses consistent with state laws.

Deutsche Bank is the second of several USD-LIBOR-setting panel banks under investigation by the State Attorneys General to resolve the claims against it and has cooperated with the investigation.  The Utah Attorney General’s Office benefits from the information and evidence provided by corporations that timely cooperate with the Attorney General’s investigations. Such cooperation can facilitate civil enforcement efforts, including the distributions of funds for victims of the offense.

In addition to Utah, the states joining the  Deutsche Bank  settlement include: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.  The investigation into the conduct of several other USD LIBOR-setting panel banks is ongoing.

 

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