(COLUMBIA, S.C.) – April 22, 2019 – South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson announced today that the State secured $78,723,031.53 in its share of the annual tobacco Master Settlement Agreement (“MSA”) Payment. In 1998, the Attorney General’s Office joined 45 other States, the District of Columbia, and five U.S. territories in settling claims with the then-four major U.S. cigarette manufacturers.  The MSA is the largest financial recovery in legal history.  Since the MSA was signed in November 1998, about 50 other tobacco companies have signed onto the MSA and are also bound by its terms.  The settlement imposes major restrictions…

(COLUMBIA, S.C.) – April 18, 2019 – Attorney General Alan Wilson announced today that South Carolina residents have received more than $1.4 million as part of a multistate settlement in a debt-buying case. South Carolina joined 41 states and the District of Columbia last December in reaching a $6 million settlement with Encore Capital Group Inc., one of the nation’s largest debt buyers, and its subsidiaries Midland Credit Management, Inc. and Midland Funding, LLC. Debt buying involves buying and selling overdue debts from creditors and other account owners. While the debt is often purchased for pennies on the dollar, debt…