Consumer Protection or Retirement Plan for State Attorney General?
Tomthecoinguy
Posts: 851 ✭✭✭✭
Many of you are familiar with the Draconian MN coin dealer law. It was the pet project of the Attorney General of the state of MN at the time, Lori Swanson. She really pushed the law through, there is no doubt it would not have been law without her.
The law was terribly written, no one can really understand what it means, or who it applied to. The MN agency in-charge of enforcing it uses the vagueness in the law to generate revenue. (I do not mention the agency's name because they have google alerts setup to flag any time they are mentioned on the internet). What the agency does is they accuse an honest business of violating the law, even if they didn't and or have no evidence to support their position. The company hires an attorney to represent them in front of this agency. The attorney advises them that it is cheaper to pay them off in what is called a "Consent Agreement" than it is to fight it. The consent agreement usually comes with a $10,000 fine, and can be more. In addition the party either has to agree to stop selling to MN customers, or register with the department. The law is really just a way to have the coin industry fund additional government bureaucracy.
The excuse when the law was put through was it was a response to some crooked coin dealers. Although since they went to the big telemarketers to help them write the law it is doubtful that was their real motives. I always figured Ms. Swanson's real motives were to expand government, and to get herself some publicity, but now I wonder if it was a retirement plan.
In 2018 Ms. Swanson failed to get endorsed by her party for re-election as AG. She used this as an excuse to switch the the MN Governors race. She was the front runner for a time but then a scandal broke where she was pressuring her government employees to work on her campaign. https://theintercept.com/2018/08/06/lori-swanson-minnesota-attorney-general-governor-race/ She then tanked at the primary polls and failed to get the Democrat endorsement for Governor.
So what is she doing today? She started a law firm that specializes in representing people before the agency she helped expand with the bullion law! So did she have the foresight to pass a law that protects people from her future clients or was the law just a retirement plan for her all along? https://swansonhatch.com/commercedepartmentmatters
Comments
While the word "coin" does show up here, I see this topic going down the Hershey highway over time.
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No question this is on-topic, the law has had a huge impact on our industry in MN. If other states implement a similar law it could be big trouble.
Its impossible to know if she foresaw herself starting a law firm that specializes in representing people before the agency she helped expand at the time as it would seem that her intentions were to continue to nurse off the government teat. However once that free ride ended it certainly would not take a brain surgeon to see this as a lucrative avenue for her to exploit.
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Sickening.
A man with a briefcase can steal millions more than any man with a gun. - Don Henley
White collar is alive and well.
I doubt it was premeditated. Dealing with state agencies is a pain in general. Unless your case is high profile, if Minnesota is like my state, it will be assigned to a newer lawyer sometimes with as little as a year of legal experience. The filings are often sloppy requiring multiple hearings to fix and decide disputes. Courts are loathe to award sanctions and attorney's fees against the individual government lawyers as liberally as they would against a private attorney and states hide behind immunities. Courts are supposedly neutral, but many judges hate to be reversed and will give the state every benefit of the doubt knowing it has virtually unlimited resources to appeal. That sounds like a retirement plan from hades and no one's dream job.
Sounds like dirty dealings to me.
Do some politicians self serve legislation?.....Uh yeah! Peace Roy
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Onerous laws should be fought politically, since that is their origin....Energize some politician that needs votes to make the fight public, pointing out the bad parts and how it hurts 'the little guy'....Cheers, RickO
Typical government bureaucrats. Only worried about self preservation.
If your client actually fights it it would be a retirement job from hades. However, you tell your client what you just said in the post about how it would be a lossing battle with 50K+ in legal fees. Then you tell the client I can negotiate a good deal with my buddies, and get you off with say 10K. Then you walk away with a couple grand in legal fees for not a lot of work. Nice work if you can get it.
Sounds reasonable to me but it doesn't seem to work that way in Minnesota
It is quite common for politicians to later work as consultants or lobbyists as they have a lot of government experience. Ideally government functions in a way that doesn't require ex-politicians for citizens to get things done. But sadly that is often not the case. I don't think it was premeditated, just a natural, yet unfortunate outcome of our political system.
Some will rob you with a six-gun
And some with a fountain pen
Woody Guthrie
Unfortunately, with the MN political climate there is no chance of a repeal. When ICTA tried to make changes, the only thing they could get through actually made things worse for many. The fix will have to be fought in the courts, stay tuned.