AG Watch

“We have literally sued companies located all around the world.”-Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox defends Michigan’s enforcement of the MSA

With that finely tuned legal insight, Mike Cox filed suit against the Big Tobacco firms in order to make them pay up their MSA protection fee. If any reader thinks that we’re exaggerating Cox’s position, read on:

“The tobacco companies have withheld almost $30 million from Michigan to compensate them for their loss of market share. As the companies know very well, this deduction does not apply to Michigan since we have diligently enforced the law against all of their competitors. I intend to continue to aggressively pursue every case referred to my office, no matter how small or how far I need to go to reach a non-compliant company. In exchange, I expect the tobacco companies to abide by their agreement with Michigan and pay everything that they owe,” Cox said.

Great! Big Tobacco and American state governments have taken aim at global small tobacco companies. No wonder Americans are so beloved overseas.

And the top reason Cox lists for the need for MSA money?

“But I am particularly concerned as we enter the graduation season to see the tobacco companies shorting our students who count on this money for their merit scholarships.”

Straight out of the original settlement’s listed purposes, verbatim, right? Probably not.

But, Michigan grads, not to worry! Mr. Cox just reeled in $1.5M from Wal-Mart. Mr. Cox notes happily, “The Wal-Mart settlement…is the largest ever negotiated by the Attorney General’s office and is more than all previous item pricing settlements combined, dating back to 1999.”

Scholarships will abound, we assume. Still, maybe grads should worry a bit: if the AG hit machine keeps rollin’, the students might gets scholarships, but in four years, fresh college grads will find goods more expensive and jobs less plentiful.