Attorney Tom Schroedter with Hall Estill represented Oklahoma Industrial Energy Consumers (OIEC), an association of OG&E’s large power users, as an intervenor in Oklahoma Gas and Electric Co.’s application for Corporation Commission approval of a rate hike.

In a release, the firm said that Oklahoma Gas and Electric Company’s industrial customers will realize significant benefits from the largest single rate reduction ever awarded a state electric utility following the Oklahoma Corporation Commission’s approval of a settlement in mid-June.

The firm has offices in Tulsa, Oklahoma City, Denver, Northwest Arkansas and Oregon.

The firm’s release continues:

The commission’s order approved a settlement agreement which provides for a large rate reduction and a one-time refund to OG&E customers resulting from federal income tax law changes. Large industrial consumers will realize meaningful savings and avoid cost increases as a result of the rate case settlement. OIEC worked with the Oklahoma Attorney General’s office in advocating for and negotiating this significant decrease which results in fair and reasonable rates for OG&E customers.

“It is tremendously rewarding to work on this historic settlement which provides such substantial savings for industries and businesses across the state,” said Schroedter.

Beginning in July 2018, OG&E customers received a rate reduction of $64 million along with a one-time refund of $18.5 million that appeared as a credit on the July bill.

“We are fortunate to have outstanding attorneys like Tom who work diligently on behalf of our clients to represent the interests of Oklahoma’s industries,” said Mike Cooke, Managing Partner for Hall Estill. “Tom is a fabulous asset to our clients and brings a great depth of industry knowledge and unmatched enthusiasm to our team.”

Schroedter has practiced at Hall Estill for over 25 years and has built his legal career around Energy & Natural Resources and Utilities Law.

Reuters reports that the former chief executive of Energy XXI Ltd agreed to settle civil charges that he failed to disclose to investors more than $10 million in personal loans obtained from company vendors and a candidate for the company’s board, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said.

John D. Schiller Jr. didn’t admit or deny the charges, but he settled with the SEC by paying a $180,000 penalty and agreeing not to serve as an officer or director of a public company for five years, the SEC said.

The Reuters article explains: “The SEC alleged Schiller maintained an extravagant lifestyle using a leveraged margin account secured by his shares in the oil and gas producer. When oil prices tumbled in 2014 and he was faced with margin calls, Schiller accepted more than $7.5 million in personal loans from companies that did business with Energy XXI, the SEC claimed.”

Read the article.

George Callas, who served as senior tax counsel to Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and was one of the chief architects of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), has joined the Steptoe & Johnson LLP’s Government Affairs & Public Policy and Tax Groups. He will serve as a managing director in Steptoe’s Washington office.

Callas is a 15-year Capitol Hill veteran who spent most of that time working on tax issues at the committee level and for Republican leadership. As senior tax counsel to Ryan since 2015, Callas worked as lead staff negotiator for House Republicans on the three major tax packages that were enacted into law during Ryan’s tenure. Along with the TCJA, which Ryan personally thanked him for shepherding upon signing the legislation in December 2017, Callas led the charge on the Protecting Americans against Tax Hikes Act of 2015 and the tax title of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018, the firm said in a release.

Previously, Callas served seven years on the House Committee on Ways and Means, including as chief tax counsel, where he worked closely with former Chairmen Dave Camp, Paul Ryan, and current Chairman Kevin Brady. In 2012, Roll Call recognized him as “One of Five Hill Aides to Know” in tax. During his tenure as chief tax counsel, Callas also worked on the revenue aspects of several pieces of trade legislation. Callas’s Hill experience also includes time spent on the Senate side, serving as legislative director and senior advisor to Sen. George Voinovich, and a position as counsel to the House Budget Committee.

“George is one of the most influential tax staffers on the Hill,” said Steptoe Chair Phil West, who also leads the firm’s tax department. “Along with his strong technical tax skills, George has been recognized for his ability to translate the technical aspects of tax policy into concise and straightforward language that legislators, Treasury officials, and business executives understand. He will provide great value to clients, from large multinational corporations to trade associations, in navigating the new tax laws and the rulemakings that lie ahead.”

Micah Green and Scott Sinder, who co-lead the firm’s Government Affairs and Public Policy Group, added: “George’s experiences both technically and politically at the committee level and in the speaker’s office, have given him unique insights not only into how tax laws are negotiated and enacted, but also the intent of the Congress on virtually every section of the most significant tax reform legislation to pass Congress in over three decades. Such deep and recent experiences and insights will provide tax clients valuable perspective on tax regulatory, legislative, and planning strategies as this new law is implemented and continually reviewed.”

Callas remarked: “Since reaching a decision to leave the Hill, I’ve explored a number of opportunities with law, lobbying and accounting firms. Steptoe is the right fit. With a stellar tax practice and equally strong public policy shop, it is the combination of everything I was looking for to shape and grow a comprehensive tax policy and legislative practice.”

Callas earned his B.A. and his J.D., with honors, from the University of Florida, where he served as the senior managing editor for the Florida Journal of International Law. He also received an LL.M. in taxation from the University of Florida. Before transitioning to Capitol Hill, Callas spent several years at KPMG as a senior tax associate.

The Tennessean reports that the U.S. Senate voted 70 to 23 on Thursday to confirm Paul Ney as the general counsel for the Department of Defense.

Ney, of Nashville, has worked for the past two years in the Tennessee attorney general’s office where he currently serves as chief deputy attorney general. In that role, he coordinated and supervised legal work for all of the office’s divisions, writes reporter Michael Collins

As Defense Department general counsel, he will be involved in issues involving personnel, conduct and other matters.

Read the Tennessean article.

A recent Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals decision confirmed that waiver defenses can defeat government demands for strict compliance with contract requirements, reports Cohen Seglias Pallas Greenhall & Furman.

Authors Maria L. Panichelli and Alissandra D. Young explain that the Board found in Appeal of American West Construction, LLC that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had effectively waived the right to enforce a construction contract specification.

“This meant that the government could not recover from the contractor the difference in the price it paid for the original specification and the lower amount spent by the contractor to perform the deviation,” they write. “In a world where the government often has the right to strictly enforce contract requirements and hold contractors financially responsible for any deviation, this decision is a big win for construction contractors.”

Read the article.

The Washington Post reports that tormer top executives at ITT Educational Services, the parent company of defunct ITT Technical Institute, have settled fraud cases with the Securities and Exchange Commission, avoiding a trial slated to begin Monday.

ITT chief executive Kevin Modany and former chief financial officer Daniel Fitzpatrick were chagred with civil fraud in 2015 for allegedly deceiving investors about high rates of late payments and defaults on student loans backed by the company, writes Danielle Douglas-Gabriel.

Although they didn’t admit or deny any wrongdoing, they agreed to pay penalties of $200,000 and $100,000, respectively. The agreement bars them from serving as officers and directors of public companies for five years.

Read the Washington Post article.

The Merrill Lynch unit of Bank of America Corp. agreed to pay a $42 million fine under a settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for misleading brokerage customers about which firms processed their trades, according to a Reuters report.

Reporters Lisa Lambert and Jonathan Stempel write that Merrill “fell far short of the standards expected of broker-dealers in our markets,” preventing customers from making informed decisions about their orders and broker-dealer relationships, according to Stephanie Avakian, co-director of the SEC enforcement division.

“The SEC said the masking ran from May 2008 to May 2013, and that Merrill kept it hidden after it ended. It said Merrill falsely told customers that more than 15.8 million orders worth over $141 billion had occurred in-house,” according to the reporters.

Read the Reuters article.

The Dallas Morning News is reporting that Dallas-based Texas Coastal Energy Company defrauded 80 oil and gas investors out of more than $8 million, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the stock market regulator.

The SEC alleges the company, its co-founder, Jefferey Gordon, and his sales representatives misrepresented the company’s finances, exaggerated a geologist’s background and inflated the reserves and expected production of its wells in Texas and Kansas, according to reporter Jeff Mosier.

“In an offering fraud, people who seek to steal investors’ hard-earned money will often use cold calls and inflated promises to carry out their schemes,” said Shamoil T. Shipchandler, director of the SEC’s Fort Worth regional office. “Their self-serving statements are no substitute for an investor’s due diligence.”

Read the Dallas News article.

A lawsuit accusing the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs of failing to pay overtime to nurse practitioners and physician assistants since December of 2006 has been certified as a class action, according to a web post by Androvett Legal Media & Marketing. The certification is listed as an opt-in class, opening the door for more plaintiffs.

Class representatives Stephanie Mercier, Audricia Brooks, Deborah Plageman, Jennifer Allred and Michele Gavin brought the lawsuit on behalf of nurse practitioners and physician assistants from VA facilities across the country. Attorneys estimate as many as 10,000 VA employees nationwide ultimately could be represented in the class action.

According to the lawsuit, nurse practitioners and physician assistants were required to process electronic and computer patient records after work hours using VA facility computers, laptops and sometimes their own personal home computers without compensation. The work is vital to the treatment of patients and is considered mandatory by VA supervisors.

Provost Umphrey attorneys Michael Hamilton of the firm’s Nashville office and Guy Fisher in the Beaumont, Texas, office are among the attorneys working on the lawsuit along with counsel David Cook and Clement Tsao of Cincinnati’s Cook & Logothetis, LLC, Douglas Richards of Lexington, Kentucky and Robert Stropp of Mooney Green, P.C. in Washington, D.C.

“These are medical professionals who are taking care of our veterans,” said Hamilton. “If we aren’t paying them properly, what sort of statement does that make about the importance of caring for those who watched over us and our rights?”

“Ultimately, it’s about patient care,” said Cook. “We need to do our utmost for those who have put on the uniform and defended our rights. And, we can start by properly paying the medical professionals who care for them when they need it.”

Courthouse News Service reports that Education Secretary Betsy Devos need not provide full debt relief to more than 60,000 defrauded students, but she must stop collecting on their loans, a federal judge said in court Monday.

A proposed class of borrowers had asked U.S. Magistrate Judge Sallie Kim to revive an Obama-era policy that promised full debt forgiveness to students defrauded by the now-defunct, for profit Corinthian Colleges, according to reporter Nicholas Iovino.

Kim sided with the federal government’s position that returning to the “status quo” means delaying processing claims for debt relief, not going back to the Obama-era policy of forgiving all loan debt. She acknowledged that borrowers will still suffer harm to their credit and interest growing on their loans, even though she has ordered the government to stop collecting.

Read the CNS article.

A federal bank regulator that has fined Wells Fargo more than $500 million over its creation of unauthorized accounts and other consumer abuses has found evidence of sales practice problems at other large and midsize banks — but is refusing to name those institutions, reports the Los Angeles Times.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency found “bank-specific instances of accounts being opened without proof of customer consent” as part of a review of more than 40 banks spurred by the Wells Fargo scandal, according to reporter James Rufus Koren.

But an agency spokesman said the agency will not be naming the banks where it found potentially unauthorized accounts or providing details on banks’ specific conduct.

Read the LA Times article.

A former aide to embattled EPA director Scott Pruitt who has come under scrutiny for getting a significant pay bump has been hired to a position with the Oklahoma Workers’ Compensation Commission, reports KFOR-TV.

The commission voted unanimously to hire Sarah Greenwalt as the agency’s new general counsel.

“Greenwalt made headlines after she received a 52 percent raise, bringing her salary to $164,200 while at the Environmental Protection Agency before Pruitt reversed it amid public outcry,” according to the report.

Read the KFOR article.

The Washington Times is reporting that the Supreme Court over the next month is poised to upend the way the country picks representatives to Congress, decide whether the First Amendment protects people who refuse to do business with same-sex couples and rule on whether President Trump’s tweets can be used in court to derail his agenda.

Reporter Alex Swoyer sees the case for some blockbuster rulings that will signal to lower courts how they should treat the unorthodox Trump.

“The biggest test comes on the president’s travel ban. His opponents have begged the justices to hold Mr. Trump’s campaign-era tweets against him, saying his comments about Muslims taint the travel policy he announced once he took office,” writes Swoyer.

Read the Washington Times article.

Law firm partnerships fiercely guard against disclosing what they pay their principals, points out Bloomberg Law. But partners must disclose compensation when opting for a government appointment.

“Top partners at major law firms can earn between $3 million to $10 million, according to compensation experts, while even career government lawyers with long service records rarely make more than $250,000,” writes reporter Elizabeth Olson.

As an example, the article reports that Dan M. Berkovitz, a partner at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Door, listed $1.18 million in partnership income for 2017 and a few months of 2018. Berkovitz was recently appointed one of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s commissioners.

And Robert Khuzami created waves a few months ago when he disclosed $11.1 million in partnership income over about a year’s period as a partner in Kirkland & Ellis’s white-collar practice. He is a deputy attorney general in the Southern District of New York.

Read the Bloomberg article.

The new director of the Federal Trade Commission’s consumer protection unit, a watchdog with broad investigative powers over private companies, stands out even in an administration prone to turning over regulatory authority to pro-industry players, reports The New York Times.

Andrew M. Smith was part of the legal team that in 2012 defended AMG Services, the payday lender founded by the convicted racketeer Scott Tucker, whose predatory practices against impoverished borrowers eventually led to a $1.3 billion court-ordered settlement, the biggest in the commission’s history, , according to reporters Glenn Thrush and Jack Nicas.

Because of his representation of companies like Facebook, Uber and Equifax, banks, lenders and credit-reporting agencies — all companies with matters before the commission — he will have to recuse himself from dozens of cases.

Read the Times article.

The NRA called on a self-described “aging Jewish hippie” who doesn’t own a gun and who frequently defends drug defendants to speak at the organization’s recent annual convention — because he’s a drug attorney who understands how the nation’s Byzantine drug laws could threaten gun owners.

Gerry Goldstein said he was as surprised as anyone to receive the invitation, reports The Dallas Morning News.

Reporter David Tarrant writes that federal law could cause pot users to lose their right to carry firearms, even in states where marijuana possession is legal. And the NRA could see a natural alliance between gun rights activists and people like Goldstein.

The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives recently sent a letter to all federally licensed gun dealers, stating: “Any person who uses or is addicted to marijuana, regardless of whether his or her state has passed legislation authorizing marijuana use for medical purposes … is prohibited by federal law from possessing firearms or ammunition.”

Read the Dallas News article.

The Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice recently announced a settlement of criminal charges against Knorr-Bremse AG and Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp. for having maintained agreements not to compete for each other’s employees, according to Locke Lord.

Authors Stephen P. Murphy and Joseph A. Farside Jr. write that one executive went so far as to state in an email that no-soliciting was a “prudent cause for both companies” and that the companies would “compete in the market.”

In announcing the settlement, an assistant AG noted that the criminal complaint was part of a broader Antitrust Division investigation into agreements not to compete for employees, typically known as no-solicit or no-poach agreements.

Read the article.

Agreements among companies to not hire each other’s workers are more risky than ever, warns Pepper Hamilton LLP in a post on its website.

“The DOJ’s Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division, Makan Delrahim, stated on January 19 that the division has criminal cases targeting these agreements in the works,” the post says. “Meanwhile, lawsuits challenging no-poach agreements in technology, entertainment, health care and other industries have settled, sometimes for hundreds of millions of dollars. The DOJ announced its latest settlement, a civil settlement with two rail equipment suppliers, on April 3, underscoring that it did not bring criminal charges only because the suppliers ended their agreements before the FTC and DOJ issued guidance on ‘no-poach’ agreements in October 2016.”

The article concludes with some actions that firms should take to identify and limit their exposure.

Read the article.

Image by firedoglakedotcom

Reuters reports that Wells Fargo & Co. has been offered a penalty of $1 billion by regulators to resolve outstanding investigations related to auto insurance and mortgage lending abuses, the third-largest U.S. bank by assets said on Friday.

The news agency previously had reported that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency were preparing a fine of up to $1 billion for Wells Fargo’s auto insurance and mortgage lending abuses.

“The U.S. Federal Reserve has also imposed restrictions on the bank’s growth, forbidding it to expand its balance sheet beyond 2017 levels until it makes internal changes that addressed its board and risk management,” according to the latest Reuters report.

Read the Reuters article.

Former Federal Trade Commission officials have been pulling out their calculators in recent weeks trying to figure out just how big a fine the commission could levy against Facebook for its latest privacy mishaps, The Washington Post reports.

White former FTC chairman William Kovacic joked that the potential fine could total “more money than there is on the planet,” it’s unlikely the FTC would levy a fine so large that it would imperil the future of Facebook, report Craig Timberg and Tony Romm.

They write that David Vladeck, a former FTC director of consumer protection who oversaw the consent decree with Facebook, says he expects the commission to find new violations in light of the company’s revelations last week. Vladeck estimates the probable fines in the vicinity of $1 billion, a record for FTC privacy fines.

Read the Post report.