OKLAHOMA CITY (March 15, 2023) - An Oklahoma contractor who took more than $190,000 from Oklahoma residents in exchange for construction projects he never completed pleaded guilty today to racketeering and embezzlement charges. Michael Hanson, 43, was charged with one count of racketeering, 29 counts of felony embezzlement and three counts of misdemeanor embezzlement.
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Press Releases and Articles
March 15, 2023
OKLAHOMA CITY (March 15, 2023) – Amid swirling allegations involving the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority (OTA), Attorney General Gentner Drummond today requested that state Auditor and Inspector Cindy Byrd conduct an investigative audit of the agency.
March 13, 2023
OKLAHOMA CITY (March 13, 2023) – Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond announced today that his office has cleared a sizable backlog of Open Records requests that dated back to years before he took office. The announcement comes during Sunshine Week, an annual and nationwide celebration of access to public information and open government.
March 10, 2023
OKLAHOMA CITY (March 10, 2023) – Attorney General Gentner Drummond led attorneys general from 20 states today in filing an amicus brief asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear an important case involving the liberty of religious organizations to select their ministerial leaders.
The brief supports a faith-based Colorado school in arguing that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit misapplied the First Amendment doctrine known as the “ministerial exception” when it allowed a federal lawsuit filed by a former teacher and school chaplain to proceed against the school.
March 10, 2023
OKLAHOMA CITY (March 9, 2023) - Attorney General Gentner Drummond warned Oklahoma residents today about the pitfalls of illegal robocalls as part of National Consumer Protection Week. The week, which runs March 5-11 this year, is designated for helping people understand their consumer rights and avoid frauds and scams.
March 9, 2023
OKLAHOMA CITY (March 9, 2023) - Attorney General Gentner Drummond today named as his first assistant attorney general Amie Ely, a former federal prosecutor with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. In her new role, Ely will oversee the agency’s solicitor general, general counsel, and the heads of the office’s civil and criminal divisions.
March 6, 2023
OKLAHOMA CITY (March 6, 2023) - Attorney General Gentner Drummond is encouraging Oklahoma residents to be on the lookout for contractor fraud, especially in the wake of last month’s tornadoes and severe storms. Drummond’s warning is part of National Consumer Protection Week, a time designated for helping people understand their consumer rights and avoid frauds and scams. The week runs March 5-11 this year.
Drummond said the weeks that follow damaging storms and tornadoes are a common time for contractor fraud to occur.
February 28, 2023
OKLAHOMA CITY (Feb. 28, 2023) - Attorney General Gentner Drummond, along with Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch, Delaware Attorney General Kathleen Jennings and attorneys general representing 33 other states, sent a letter to Congressional leaders this week informing them of an alarming issue with the National Human Trafficking Hotline and requesting their assistance to preserve the critical joint federal-state effort to end trafficking.
February 27, 2023
OKLAHOMA CITY (Feb. 27, 2023) - A former Oklahoma City physician, charged in 2016 with 29 felony counts and one misdemeanor, pleaded guilty last week to Medicaid fraud and multiple drug offenses. Harvey Jenkins operated Aria Orthopedics in south Oklahoma City, where he prescribed large volumes of opioids and other narcotics from January 2010 to February 2015.
His plea is the result of an investigation conducted by the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit.
February 23, 2023
OKLAHOMA CITY (Feb. 23, 2023) –Attorney General Gentner Drummond today withdrew an opinion issued by his predecessor, stating that the Opinion “misuses the concept of religious liberty by employing it as a means to justify state-funded religion.”