Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Pleasure to welcome back to the program. Nebraska Attorney General
my Kilters Mike, good morning.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Hey, good morning, Gary.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Yeah, I want to get your I want to get
your take. And I know this was strictly a federal operation, uh,
the enforcement action my ICE here in Omaha the other day.
Does the state have any any reaction, any any responsibility
whatsoever in these enforcement actions?
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Yeah, that's a good question, Gary, I would say not
a lot. I think you know, ICE is a federal agency.
They're following federal directives, they're following federal law, They're doing
their job. Our expectation is that people let them do
their job, that they don't get in the way of office.
So certainly that they don't assault officers to commit a
federal crime by attacking them or obstructing their work. Do
(00:47):
you see that in some other places? Not so much
in Nebraska thankfully so far so we don't generally the
Attorney General's office at least that's not something that we
directly coordinate with them, but certainly we support their efforts.
I want to make sure federal law enforcement officers have
the clearance to do the work that they need to do.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Right, and you you are one I think of twenty
five attorneys general around across the country who signed a
letter and support of law enforcement in LA. Well, we've
seen the mayhem out there, so.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
That's good, absolutely well, And I'll tell you, I mean
it's we need strong leadership. Gary. We saw it with LA,
we saw it in Minneapolis, we've seen it in Portland.
We see what happens when you have a failure of
the really effeckless leadership up and down the command structure.
And we just don't have that in the same way
in Nebraska, which I think is we should all be
grateful for because look what happens when you've got that
(01:36):
chaos and disorder.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
So it's one more thing relative to our state because
you are, I think it's fair to say, the chief
law enforcement officer of the state of Nebraska, and you're
close work closely with the governor. Are you aware of
any preparations relative to what might happen Saturday? They're supposedly
going to be these demonstrations all over the country what
they're calling the No King's Day in protest of Donald Trump,
(02:00):
and they could morph into anti ice, anti law enforcement protests.
Is there are state element here in terms of being prepared.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Yeah, here's what I could say, Gary. I could say, well,
my expectation, at least in Nebraska, is that the people
who are going to exercise the First Amendment right to
assemble are going to do so peacefully. Yes, But I
can also say we've got great leadership within the law
enforcement ranks and Governor Pillin, and I think that I
don't expect it to become get out of hand, but
(02:30):
we've got good leadership that will be in place, and
I think prepared for those kinds of eventualities.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Okay, I want to get to this lawsuit too, because
this just broke. You are a lot of people have
Tea Moo, they like Team MoU on their phones. They
buy cheap stuff apparently with t MoU this app but
you file a lawsuit against them for that. I have
a copy of the charges here. It's basically defrauding Nebraska's right.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Yeah, that's exactly right. And for people who don't know,
Teams basically an Amazon competitor to your point, that sells
really really cheap goods. And as you know, Gary, very
few things in life are free or at such a discount.
And here there's really two big things we found in
our investigation. The first is that there's really rampant, widespread
theft of intellectual property. We found rip off shirts for
(03:19):
the Nebraska Cornhuskers and runs a WWC. There's probably a
rosy digitos shirt out there somehow.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
I'm the one that sent them out there.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Yeah, So that's one. But the second thing I think
this is so important for Nebraska to know is that
the way that the app is designed, even though even
though it goes through the App store, checks on Google
and Apple, is it is malware and it once it's installed,
sort of has the mind of its own, and it
can access basically every corner of your smartphone. That includes
(03:51):
your text messages, It includes your app listing, your location,
it can access your microphone and of course all of
that data goes to Fimu is a Chinese company to
mainland China, which then we know goes to the Chinese
Communist Party. So it is none of this is disclosed.
You know, doesn't say hey, you know you can get
a prive dollar coaster, but also we're going to access
all your text messages. So it's not only a consumer
(04:13):
protection issue, which is why we sued, but also as
national security and geopolitical information, because we know China is
trying to get as much intelligence on the United States
as it can, and I think this kind of information
that from millions of Americans is I think is very disturbing.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Well, the language in the lawsuit is violations of the
Consumer Protection Act and Uniform Deceptive Trade Practices Act. If
I'm hearing you, Mike, if they had disclosed, if they
disclosed everything that they're doing, we wouldn't have a problem, right,
or we might have a problem, but it wouldn't be illegal.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
It would be a much different case. Now they disclosed
everything they did, we're doing Gary, none of these apps
wouldn't have been approved on the app store. Well, but
part of the reason they I'm.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
Sorry, Mike, but what about when we you get these
pop ups that say agree or disagree, and people just
scan right down through all of the agree stuff and
then hit I agree. But isn't it in there? Didn't
they put all that in there?
Speaker 2 (05:12):
You could go so our teams, I we encourage everyone
to read those disclosures. I know most people do not.
Our team maybe one of the few sets in Nebraskas
who did. We actually went through all our disclosures and
you could see them. The complaint we actually went through
is said, do they say this, and the truth is
they don't. Okay, in part, I think because people could
read it, but also a part you can't get through
(05:33):
these app stores and get approved unless you actually follow
the rules. And here's one thing about Timu that I
think is very alarming. If you get an app on
an app store like Spotify, you know, if you update it,
if there's an update, you got to do that update
through the app store. You know, you get a little notifications.
Teamu is designed to update directly with their own service,
which means they can actually add new code without having
(05:54):
any of the guardians at the gate Apple or Google
be even aware that that new code is being installed.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
What about I mean, I'm concerned enough about the Chinese
Communist Party connection, but what about these these fake products
that they're selling. Can you get them to knock that off?
Speaker 2 (06:11):
That's what we're gonna try to do. I mean, it's
it's almost if there's any prominent brand in the state
of Nebraska, you can almost find a rip off in there.
And it's not just the brands, although that's that's significant,
it is also they have all sorts of other claims
to try to entice people to buy their products that
are not true. So for instance, they say, hey, shop local,
shop local. So they'll say these these shirts are local,
(06:33):
which to you and me, means hey was produced in
Omaha or Lincoln or Holders or somewhere. But all it
means is it could have been produced in China or
somewhere else. It's just in a local warehouse. They also
we allege that they've got some green washing claims or
we have some green washing claims, which essentially says, hey,
we're gonna do all these great things for the environment.
In this case, they're going to plant these millions of trees.
But when we look at it, we're like, we don't
(06:54):
think that's even remotely what's happening right now. So there's
just a lot of deception, and that's where our office
comes in and that's why we follow the suit.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
Well, good luck with that. Say on another matter, just
out of left field here, speaking of you know, just
being in a warehouse somewhere. You know, you're familiar with
what happens many times in the beef industry where it'll say, uh,
produced in the USA, but it's actually not. Can we
do anything about that. I don't know absolutely, I don't
(07:24):
know all the details about that. But this is a business,
the beef state here, we didn't we need to have
that not happen.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Well, we've looked into mislabeling. If you've got a specific
instance there, Gary, if you want to be a whistle
blower here right on the air, yes, sir, we're happy
to If you've got evidence, we'll look into it. But
that's what our job is. Look, I'm a big free
market person. Let's let companies compete. But companies have to
do it honestly. They have to label their products honestly.
They have to tell the truth. And if they do that, hey,
(07:51):
there's no role for us to really get involved. But
that's not what's happening here, and maybe not in that
beef labeling instance.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
What are you doing running a cal calf operation.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
You're not running I'm not running anything. I just hate
the deception. That's all. Okay, Mike, thanks always good to
have you on. Nebraska Attorney General Mike Kilters
Pleasure to welcome back to the program. Nebraska Attorney General
my Kilters Mike, good morning.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Hey, good morning, Gary.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Yeah, I want to get your I want to get
your take. And I know this was strictly a federal operation, uh,
the enforcement action my ICE here in Omaha the other day.
Does the state have any any reaction, any any responsibility
whatsoever in these enforcement actions?
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Yeah, that's a good question, Gary, I would say not
a lot. I think you know, ICE is a federal agency.
They're following federal directives, they're following federal law, They're doing
their job. Our expectation is that people let them do
their job, that they don't get in the way of office.
So certainly that they don't assault officers to commit a
federal crime by attacking them or obstructing their work. Do
(00:47):
you see that in some other places? Not so much
in Nebraska thankfully so far so we don't generally the
Attorney General's office at least that's not something that we
directly coordinate with them, but certainly we support their efforts.
I want to make sure federal law enforcement officers have
the clearance to do the work that they need to do.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Right, and you you are one I think of twenty
five attorneys general around across the country who signed a
letter and support of law enforcement in LA. Well, we've
seen the mayhem out there, so.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
That's good, absolutely well, And I'll tell you, I mean
it's we need strong leadership. Gary. We saw it with LA,
we saw it in Minneapolis, we've seen it in Portland.
We see what happens when you have a failure of
the really effeckless leadership up and down the command structure.
And we just don't have that in the same way
in Nebraska, which I think is we should all be
grateful for because look what happens when you've got that
(01:36):
chaos and disorder.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
So it's one more thing relative to our state because
you are, I think it's fair to say, the chief
law enforcement officer of the state of Nebraska, and you're
close work closely with the governor. Are you aware of
any preparations relative to what might happen Saturday? They're supposedly
going to be these demonstrations all over the country what
they're calling the No King's Day in protest of Donald Trump,
(02:00):
and they could morph into anti ice, anti law enforcement protests.
Is there are state element here in terms of being prepared.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Yeah, here's what I could say, Gary. I could say, well,
my expectation, at least in Nebraska, is that the people
who are going to exercise the First Amendment right to
assemble are going to do so peacefully. Yes, But I
can also say we've got great leadership within the law
enforcement ranks and Governor Pillin, and I think that I
don't expect it to become get out of hand, but
(02:30):
we've got good leadership that will be in place, and
I think prepared for those kinds of eventualities.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Okay, I want to get to this lawsuit too, because
this just broke. You are a lot of people have
Tea Moo, they like Team MoU on their phones. They
buy cheap stuff apparently with t MoU this app but
you file a lawsuit against them for that. I have
a copy of the charges here. It's basically defrauding Nebraska's right.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Yeah, that's exactly right. And for people who don't know,
Teams basically an Amazon competitor to your point, that sells
really really cheap goods. And as you know, Gary, very
few things in life are free or at such a discount.
And here there's really two big things we found in
our investigation. The first is that there's really rampant, widespread
theft of intellectual property. We found rip off shirts for
(03:19):
the Nebraska Cornhuskers and runs a WWC. There's probably a
rosy digitos shirt out there somehow.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
I'm the one that sent them out there.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Yeah, So that's one. But the second thing I think
this is so important for Nebraska to know is that
the way that the app is designed, even though even
though it goes through the App store, checks on Google
and Apple, is it is malware and it once it's installed,
sort of has the mind of its own, and it
can access basically every corner of your smartphone. That includes
(03:51):
your text messages, It includes your app listing, your location,
it can access your microphone and of course all of
that data goes to Fimu is a Chinese company to
mainland China, which then we know goes to the Chinese
Communist Party. So it is none of this is disclosed.
You know, doesn't say hey, you know you can get
a prive dollar coaster, but also we're going to access
all your text messages. So it's not only a consumer
(04:13):
protection issue, which is why we sued, but also as
national security and geopolitical information, because we know China is
trying to get as much intelligence on the United States
as it can, and I think this kind of information
that from millions of Americans is I think is very disturbing.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Well, the language in the lawsuit is violations of the
Consumer Protection Act and Uniform Deceptive Trade Practices Act. If
I'm hearing you, Mike, if they had disclosed, if they
disclosed everything that they're doing, we wouldn't have a problem, right,
or we might have a problem, but it wouldn't be illegal.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
It would be a much different case. Now they disclosed
everything they did, we're doing Gary, none of these apps
wouldn't have been approved on the app store. Well, but
part of the reason they I'm.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
Sorry, Mike, but what about when we you get these
pop ups that say agree or disagree, and people just
scan right down through all of the agree stuff and
then hit I agree. But isn't it in there? Didn't
they put all that in there?
Speaker 2 (05:12):
You could go so our teams, I we encourage everyone
to read those disclosures. I know most people do not.
Our team maybe one of the few sets in Nebraskas
who did. We actually went through all our disclosures and
you could see them. The complaint we actually went through
is said, do they say this, and the truth is
they don't. Okay, in part, I think because people could
read it, but also a part you can't get through
(05:33):
these app stores and get approved unless you actually follow
the rules. And here's one thing about Timu that I
think is very alarming. If you get an app on
an app store like Spotify, you know, if you update it,
if there's an update, you got to do that update
through the app store. You know, you get a little notifications.
Teamu is designed to update directly with their own service,
which means they can actually add new code without having
(05:54):
any of the guardians at the gate Apple or Google
be even aware that that new code is being installed.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
What about I mean, I'm concerned enough about the Chinese
Communist Party connection, but what about these these fake products
that they're selling. Can you get them to knock that off?
Speaker 2 (06:11):
That's what we're gonna try to do. I mean, it's
it's almost if there's any prominent brand in the state
of Nebraska, you can almost find a rip off in there.
And it's not just the brands, although that's that's significant,
it is also they have all sorts of other claims
to try to entice people to buy their products that
are not true. So for instance, they say, hey, shop local,
shop local. So they'll say these these shirts are local,
(06:33):
which to you and me, means hey was produced in
Omaha or Lincoln or Holders or somewhere. But all it
means is it could have been produced in China or
somewhere else. It's just in a local warehouse. They also
we allege that they've got some green washing claims or
we have some green washing claims, which essentially says, hey,
we're gonna do all these great things for the environment.
In this case, they're going to plant these millions of trees.
But when we look at it, we're like, we don't
(06:54):
think that's even remotely what's happening right now. So there's
just a lot of deception, and that's where our office
comes in and that's why we follow the suit.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
Well, good luck with that. Say on another matter, just
out of left field here, speaking of you know, just
being in a warehouse somewhere. You know, you're familiar with
what happens many times in the beef industry where it'll say, uh,
produced in the USA, but it's actually not. Can we
do anything about that. I don't know absolutely, I don't
(07:24):
know all the details about that. But this is a business,
the beef state here, we didn't we need to have
that not happen.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Well, we've looked into mislabeling. If you've got a specific
instance there, Gary, if you want to be a whistle
blower here right on the air, yes, sir, we're happy
to If you've got evidence, we'll look into it. But
that's what our job is. Look, I'm a big free
market person. Let's let companies compete. But companies have to
do it honestly. They have to label their products honestly.
They have to tell the truth. And if they do that, hey,
(07:51):
there's no role for us to really get involved. But
that's not what's happening here, and maybe not in that
beef labeling instance.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
What are you doing running a cal calf operation.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
You're not running I'm not running anything. I just hate
the deception. That's all. Okay, Mike, thanks always good to
have you on. Nebraska Attorney General Mike Kilters
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