Attorney General James Provides More Than $385,000 To Nassau County Police Department From Lexisnexis Settlement 

Attorney General James Provides More Than $385,000 to Nassau County Police Department from LexisNexis Settlement

LexisNexis Resold Millions of Dollars Worth of Crash Reports Without Paying New York State Agencies Their Required Share; AG Secured $1.7 Million for New York

NASSAU COUNTY– Attorney General Letitia James today presented the Nassau County Police Department with a check for $385,256 as part of a multistate settlement reached with LexisNexis Risk Solutions and several of its affiliates (LexisNexis) for defrauding state law enforcement agencies out of more than $2.8 million. LexisNexis deliberately failed to pay those agencies agreed-upon fees – $900,000 in New York alone – for the resale of car crash reports. New York’s share of the settlement is approximately $1.7 million, or 30 percent of the total $5.8 million multistate settlement.

“Our local law enforcement agencies were deprived of desperately needed funds that they were owed,” said Attorney General Letitia James. “Because of this settlement, we will recoup more than one million dollars for our state. And I am proud to be able to return these funds to the agencies and communities that deserve them.” 

“Our brave law enforcement officers will be better equipped to keep us save thanks to this settlement victory,” said Nassau County Executive Laura Curran. “We are grateful to Attorney General James for her continued defense and advocacy on behalf of our residents.”

“Today’s reimbursement in the form of a check for more than $385,000 from Attorney General James from the LexisNexis suit will be used to fight crime and continue to keep Nassau County one of the safest communities in the United States,” said Nassau County Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder. “I would like to congratulate and thank the Attorney General and the dedicated investigators for a job well done in the recovery of these funds through the New York False Claims Act.”

As part of the settlement, the Attorney General’s Office is providing funds to 121 local law enforcement agencies throughout New York State that were denied rightful payment.

Law enforcement agencies generate reports of automobile crashes, which are purchased by individuals and insurance companies for use in claims adjustments. Companies, like LexisNexis, enter into agreements with law enforcement agencies to obtain crash reports and resell them to customers, agreeing to pay a fee to those agencies every time a report is sold.

LexisNexis defrauded law enforcement agencies in New York and other states by paying law enforcement agencies for only the first crash report sold, and not for each subsequent report resold, as their contracts required. In particular, the investigation found that from June 2012 through May 2019, LexisNexis fulfilled customer crash report requests by searching its database and – if it had previously sold the requested report to another customer – would resell the report without paying the contracted agency its agreed-upon fee for the new sale. LexisNexis would then omit the new sale from reports of sales it was contractually obliged to provide to the agencies. As a result, LexisNexis generated monthly reports for the agencies that falsely understated total crash report sales, and deprived New York State law enforcement agencies of sales fees they were entitled to receive.

As part of the settlement, LexisNexis will pay the fees it previously evaded and will discontinue its fraudulent resale practices.

The investigation began after New York State, and the additional parties involved in the settlement, received information from a former LexisNexis employee who came forward as a whistleblower and filed a report under the New York False Claims Act and the acts of the other jurisdictions involved. The New York False Claims Act allows private persons to file civil actions on behalf of the government, and to share in any recovery.

The New York State Attorney General’s Office conducted this investigation in coordination with the states of Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Tennessee, and the City Solicitor of Baltimore.

The Attorney General’s investigation of LexisNexis was led by Assistant Attorney General Laura Jereski of the Taxpayer Protection Bureau, which is overseen by Bureau Chief Thomas Teige Carroll and Deputy Bureau Chief Scott J. Spiegelman. The Taxpayer Protection Bureau is a unit of the Economic Justice Division, which is headed by Chief Deputy Attorney General for Economic Justice Christopher D’Angelo.