Garamendi Seeks Blackmail Investigation
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SACRAMENTO — State Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi asked federal and state officials Tuesday to investigate his claim that a group of insurers tried to blackmail him.
Garamendi charged Monday that an insurance industry representative offered through an intermediary to drop a pending $2-million ad campaign against proposed auto insurance regulations drafted by Garamendi’s office if he would abandon the regulations.
“I firmly believe that this amounts to a serious attempt to blackmail me,” Garamendi said in a letter to the FBI, the U.S. attorney in Sacramento and the state attorney general.
Garamendi is running for the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor.
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