Cuccinelli Involved in Conflict of Interest in Lawsuit?

It looks like Virginians may be seeing another example of Ken "Kookinelli" Cuccinelli believing that he is above the laws and rules that apply to everyone else.  How so?  A company in which Cuccinelli has made his principal financial investment is involved in litigation with the Commonwealth of Virginia in which Virginia is seeking $700,000, yet Cuccinelli has not removed himself from the case nor has he hired outside counsel.  And - perhaps not unsurprisingly - the case has languished for 19 months.   Any other lawyer in Cuccinelli's position would have removed himself/herself from the case.  But not Kookinelli.  Such rules and ethical standards don't apply to him apparently.  The Virginian Pilot looks at the situation.  Here are highlights:

A lawsuit against the state of Virginia by a nutritional supplement maker whose stock comprises Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli's total investment portfolio is raising questions about the Republican's potential conflicts of interest.

Henrico-based Star Scientific Inc. sued Virginia's Department of Taxation in Mecklenberg Circuit Court in July 2011 over a $700,000 tax dispute with the state. A deputy attorney general filed an answer to the complaint the following month. There have been no new motions, pleadings, filings or hearings in the case since.

The issue comes as the conservative attorney general — who is unchallenged for the Republican gubernatorial nomination this year — fends off critics, particularly Democrats, over his refusal to resign his current office to run for governor. His decision ends a tradition observed by six attorneys general since 1985 who resigned to campaign for governor, including current Gov. Bob McDonnell.

Paul Campsen, a private attorney in Norfolk for whom tax litigation is a specialty, said he seldom sees tax cases languish the way the Star Scientific lawsuit has. If plaintiffs don't push them along, then the government to which the disputed tax bill is due usually moves more quickly to recover its money.

The delay, however, viewed alongside Cuccinelli's financial ties to the plaintiff, exposes Cuccinelli to criticism on the ethical question of whether to recuse himself and his office from the case by hiring a private law firm to litigate it, something the office has done regularly for any number of reasons.

"I think in a case like that, it's probably better for the attorney general to step out of it," Tobias said.

Campsen said he believes the decision to step aside and hire outside counsel should have been an easy one for Cuccinelli, given his direct financial interest in the company.  "To me this isn't just the appearance of a conflict, it is a conflict of interest," he said. "This looks bad and this smells bad."

Gottstein dismissed suggestions that Cuccinelli or his staff had shown Star Scientific preferential treatment.

Gottstein also said it would be almost impossible for the office to operate if it bowed out of any case where its attorneys owned stock in widely traded public companies. For instance, he said, employees may own stock in Virginia-based utility giant Dominion, which is also among the largest contributors to political campaigns in the state, "yet the OAG is involved as opposing counsel in large Dominion Power rate cases."

Even though Cuccinelli's Star Scientific holdings are appearing widely in news accounts, staff lawyers with the attorney general's office will continue to handle the Star Scientific tax lawsuit.

Gottstein's comparison of other staff attorneys with Cuccinelli is ridiculous.  Those attorneys do what they are directed to do.  Kookinelli, on the other hand is the one who tells the rest of the AG staff what to do.  The man is an arrogant menace and needs to be defeated in November.