Maryland Attorney General

Personal information of about 56,000 Maryland consumers was compromised when several former employees of LendingTree.com, an online mortgage lending exchange, gave three mortgage brokers unauthorized access to company databases, according to state records. Charlotte, N.C.-based LendingTree's internal security discovered the breach in early February, according to an April 17 letter sent to the Maryland attorney general's office. An investigation revealed that the former employees divulged passwords for company databases containing consumer information.

The state Senate gave preliminary passage to a bill yesterday that would make it a felony to counterfeit checks, letters of credit or other negotiable notes. In addition, the measure, which will be on the floor for a final vote this week, would allow a state's attorney or the Maryland attorney general to investigate and prosecute alleged misdemeanor or felony violations of the counterfeiting statute. A suspect could be prosecuted in any county in which any part of the crime occurred or where the victim lives or conducts business.

In a campaign to help reduce student drug use, cable television channels will air $1 million in free anti-drug public service announcements in the next year. The Cable Telecommunications Association of Maryland, Delaware and the District of Columbia announced yesterday that it is working with the Maryland attorney general's office and the Maryland State Department of Education on the campaign. Public and private school students in kindergarten through 12th grade throughout the state will be encouraged to create artwork to share their anti-drug message.

James J. Lyko, a former assistant Maryland attorney general who specialized in prosecuting environmental crimes, died of cancer Wednesday at St. Francis Medical Center in Trenton, N.J.A mass of Christian burial was being offered today at Our Lady of Sorrows Roman Catholic Church in Mercerville, N.J.Mr. Lyko was chief of New Jersey's Environmental Prosecutions Bureau since 1987."His greatest accomplishment was in working with his colleagues throughout the Northeast to persuade and motivate society to adopt a new standard of behavior respecting the environment," said New Jersey Attorney General Robert J. Del Tufo.

When Global Security Inc. advertises for new employees, the pitch is enticing: Come join a growing company and become an office manager for $15 an hour. No experience necessary.Applicants arrive to find a U.S. map studded with push pins from New York to California next to a message board saying, "You pick a city!" By selling fire extinguishers and other safety equipment, a company manual exhorts, you can "Walk The Road To Riches."The road instead almost always leads to a dead end of disappointment and debt, according to investigators and dozens of angry job applicants in Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania.

An unlicensed contractor has been fined $1,000 by the state of Maryland for dumping water contaminated with lead paint into a Fells Point storm drain.James Joseph Lucas, 34, who lives in the Butchers Hill neighborhood of East Baltimore, pleaded guilty to the charge in Baltimore District Court and was sentenced to pay the fine to the Maryland Clean Water Fund.The environmental crimes unit of the Maryland attorney general's office received a complaint Oct. 15 that outdoor paint was being stripped from brickwork at 1915 Bank St. in Fells Point.

Columbia-based AscendOne Corp. and its owner agreed to pay $4.5 million as part of a settlement of a multi-state investigation, the Maryland Attorney General announced Thursday. Maryland, the District of Columbia and 19 states accused AscendOne of performing debt management services without a license while working with nonprofit credit counseling agencies. Regulators also claimed AscendOne did not provide the credit counseling promised and that some consumers enrolled in debt management plans didn't benefit from them.

The Maryland attorney general's office next month expects to complete a review of sentences given to drunken drivers in Howard County to determine if judges here have been too lenient."

Maryland and eight other states have reached a $171 million settlement with an insurance company accused of inflating prices and fixing bids on commercial insurance policies, the Maryland attorney general's office said yesterday. Zurich American Insurance Co. has agreed to pay $151 million to the defrauded companies - with about $2.8 million paid to businesses in Maryland - to settle allegations of bid-rigging and price-fixing, said Kevin Enright, a spokesman for Maryland Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr. Zurich will pay an additional $20 million to the states for investigative costs.

A candidate for Maryland attorney general must be licensed and practice law in the state for 10 years, Maryland's highest court said yesterday. But critics predicted the main opinion will invite a flurry of court challenges to qualifications of future candidates. One of the four opinions issued warns that the main ruling could lead to a scenario in which judges, not voters, evaluate the qualifications of attorney general candidates. The case stems from a battle that ended in August with the Court of Appeals throwing Democrat Thomas E. Perez off the ballot.