That’s why protecting kids is so important to him — and, these days, that means helping to keep them safe online.

Our kids aren’t yet old enough to use the Internet, but we talk to parents every day who are worried about what their children are doing — and who might be targeting them — in cyberspace.

Beau recently visited Camp Barnes near Frankford to equip a group of 10-to-13-year-old boys with some online safety skills. To date, Beau and his department have spoken to over 25,000 students all over Delaware on the importance of Internet safety.

He talked about some simple guidelines they can follow to avoid exposing their personal information or interacting with dangerous strangers. And he reminded them that there are resources in place to help them deal with cyber-bullying.

I hope you’ll take a moment to read an article about his visit that ran in the Coast Point newspaper.

Keeping kids safe online requires that we all work together. As Beau’s wife, I couldn’t be more proud of the work he’s doing. And as a Delawarean — and a mother of two — I’m so glad that he’s on the job.

Thanks for your support,

Hallie Biden

P.S. — Click here to read more about Beau’s online safety tips for kids.

A scam notification, directing recipients to contact a “clearance officer” to get their winnings, also says falsely that the contest is “promoted and sponsored by the Delaware State Government,” Biden said in a news release. Anyone who receives such a notification should call the Attorney General’s Consumer Hotline at (800) 220-5424, he said.

All Delaware Lottery games are based on buying tickets, none involve computer balloting and no winners are notified by e-mail.

Using state lottery graphics, “these scammers have gone to great lengths to convince victims they’re legitimate,” Biden said.

“But if consumers are aware, they’ll see right through it,” he said. “If you didn’t buy a lottery ticket, you didn’t win the lottery.”

Read the whole article >>

Beau said, “One of the best things about living in Delaware is that we are blessed with wonderful natural resources, including beautiful parks and trails that my family – like your families and so many others — frequently enjoy.”

He thanked the various parties that worked to move the project forward, noting “this trail shows how good things happen when government works with citizens who care.”

Beau’s commitment to the natural resources of our state has been steadfast throughout his term as Attorney General. Working with DNREC, measures proposed by the AG’s office in 2008 have enhanced penalties against illegal pollution and violations in state parks, and strengthened anti-dumping laws across Delaware. You can read about the TrashStoppers program put in place by DNREC and the Department of Justice at WHYY here.

At the event, Beau was joined by Mark Chura of Delaware Greenways, Dennis Markatos-Soriano of the East Coast Greenway Alliance, Richard Killingsworth of Nemours Health and Prevention Services, David Small from DNREC, Charles Salkin from the Division of Parks and Recreation, and State Senator Harris McDowell from Wilmington.

For more, see coverage from the Delaware State News, reprinted below.

Man charged with double-billing state

Wilmington-based Golt took more than $25,000, officials say

By Logan B. Anderson, Delaware State News

DOVER — A Wilmington-based Dela ware Family Court service provider has been charged with theft, falsifying records and other charges after court officials and the state auditor’s office discovered that it had allegedly bilked the state for more than $25,000.

Last year, officials discovered that Golt Adjustment Services Inc. allegedly double billed New Castle County Family Court for services delivered between December 2008 and July 2009.

The vendor worked for the Division of Child Support Enforcement serving legal papers to clients.

“Special investigators from the attorney general’s fraud division arrested William O. Golt on Aug. 11 and charged him with four counts of felony theft, one count of misdemeanor theft, and five counts of falsifying business records, a misdemeanor,” said Jason P. Miller, a spokesman with the Delaware Department of Justice. Family Court officials first discovered the discrepancy in April 2009 and reported their findings to the Office of the Auditor of Accounts.

“Family Court found what they thought were some questionable billings,” said R. Thomas Wagner Jr., the state’s auditor.

“ They called us and we found that there was double billing going on. In essence, the state was paying for the delivery of the same documents twice.”

In the auditor’s report, released on Aug. 19, the auditor recommended the state try to recover the $25,871 Mr. Golt’s company allegedly took from the state.

What the auditor’s office found was evidence that Mr. Golt allegedly sent bills to the Division of Child Support Enforcement and Family Court administrators.

The auditor’s office also said the “family court’s internal controls concerning the review and approval of invoices received from vendors for this service was inadequate.”

“It was caught early on in the process,” Mr. Wagner said. “ The good news is that it was caught, it was caught by family court, we put it together and referred it to the Attorney General’s Office and they did their thing. The system works.”

Mr. Golt will appear in court on Monday. He was released on $20,000 unsecured bond following a bail hearing at Justice of the Peace Court 20.

Though the alleged incident was dis covered in 2009 and an arrest was made on Aug. 11, the auditor’s office waited to release its report until after the state’s Department of Justice completed its investigation.

“By doing these preventative measures we caught something that could have wound up costing a lot more money,” Mr. Wagner said.

Staff writer Logan B. Anderson can be reached at 741-8230 or landerson@newszap.com.

Beau said that “career criminals do not belong in our communities, they belong behind bars where they cannot be a threat to public safety.” Beau and his team of prosecutors are committed to to ensuring that victims will receive the justice they deserve — and that criminals will be held accountable for their crimes.

For more, check out coverage from the Dover Post, reprinted below.

Career Dover criminal sentenced to life in prison

Dover, Del. — Attorney General Beau Biden announced Aug. 26 that Dover resident Dallas Drummond has been sentenced to life in prison as a “habitual offender.”

Following a two-day trial in Superior Court, a Kent County Jury last month convicted Drummond of burglary, theft by false pretense, theft and criminal trespass. After his conviction, prosecutors petitioned the court to declare Drummond a “habitual offender” and Superior Court Judge Robert B. Young did so Aug. 26, sentencing him to the mandatory term of life in prison without parole.

Drummond, 31, a registered sex offender, has been arrested more than 70 times and has been charged with more than 100 criminal offenses. He has failed to complete probation multiple times and has previously been convicted of rape, assault, burglary, conspiracy, harassment, endangering the welfare of a child, failure to register as a sex offender, criminal impersonation and other offenses.

The Attorney General’s office argued that Drummond is a substantial risk to the community and a danger to his family and to society.

“Career criminals do not belong in our communities, they belong behind bars where they cannot be a threat to public safety,” Biden said.

On Jan. 19, 2009, Drummond broke into the Smyrna apartment of his estranged wife, who had previously obtained a “no contact order” against him, and stole a computer, which he later sold. While free on bail awaiting his July trial for these offenses, he was arrested on April 14 and charged with committing a rape which occurred in April 2009. He has been in prison since his April 2010 arrest.

“The Department of Justice is committed to protecting the citizens of Delaware from violent habitual criminals like Dallas Drummond, and when appropriate we will seek to have these criminals incarcerated for life so that they can’t further victimize Delawareans,” said Deputy Attorney General R. David Favata, who prosecuted this case.

Under Delaware law, offenders convicted of three separate violent felonies can be declared a “habitual offender” and sentenced to the mandatory term of life in prison without parole. Prosecutors sought that declaration and today’s sentence based on Drummond’s previous convictions for rape (March 1998) and second-degree burglary (March 2000) and his July 2010 conviction for second-degree burglary.

In a statement, Beau said that “this punishment fits the crime, and we will continue to prosecute identity thieves with the focus their victims deserve.”

Punishing thieves who steal the identities of Delawareans — and helping victims recover — was one of Beau’s top priorities when he ran for Attorney General in 2006, and he has followed through over the past four years. In addition to targeting identity thieves, Beau worked to implement an Identity Passport in Delaware, which helps victims of identity theft prove who they are to authorities as they work to undo the damage done by the theft. This is one of many areas where Beau is using new crime-fighting strategies to protect Delawareans from new kinds of crime.

For more, check out the coverage in The News Journal, reprinted below.

Delaware courts: ID theft puts Phila. woman in prison

by Terri Sanginiti — A Philadelphia woman who was arrested in December on identity theft charges will spend a year in prison after pleading guilty earlier this month.

Courtney Henry, 28, pleaded guilty on Aug. 11 to identity theft and theft of more than $1,500.

She was sentenced to a year in prison followed by a year’s probation by Superior Court Judge John Babiarz, who also ordered her to have no contact with the victim.

The judge also ordered Henry to repay the $22,600 she stole from the victim.

“This punishment fits the crime, and we will continue to prosecute identity thieves with the focus their victims deserve,” state Attorney General Beau Biden said Tuesday in announcing Henry’s sentence.

Between Dec. 8 and Dec. 14, Henry went to several Wachovia Bank branches with forged withdrawal slips bearing the account number of an actual customer and withdrew large amounts of money.

On Dec. 14 at the Wachovia branch on Naamans Road, Henry presented fake identification belonging to the victim and tried to withdraw $7,900.

But the teller became suspicious and called police, who arrested her.

Prior to her arrest, Henry had withdrawn $22,600 from the victim’s account at other Wachovia branches.

Pernell Stroman, 24, pleaded guilty to the first-degree murder of Julie Gricol, the state Attorney General’s Office said. Stroman also pleaded guilty to first-degree burglary and a weapons charge.

“Nothing can change the fact that Julie Gricol was taken senselessly and brutally from her family,” state Attorney General Beau Biden said in a statement. “That is why her killer will spend the rest of his life behind bars.”

Stroman faces life in prison when sentenced by Superior Court Judge John Parkins in November.

Gricol was found by friends with her throat slit just before noon on June 11, 2009, in the bed of her West 22nd Street apartment. A bloody knife was found on the floor next to the bed.

Read the whole article >>

In the late afternoon, Beau joined Russ McCabe, the 36th representative district candidate for state representative, for door-knocking in downtown Milton. Russ, a life-long Sussex County resident and former state archivist, pledges to be the strong voice the 36th district needs in the State House. For more details on his campaign, head over to his website.

Beau joins Russ McCabe in Milton.

Beau, as always, enjoyed getting the opportunity to meet and interact with the voters of Milton.

In the evening, Beau joined police officers from across the state for the Concerns of Police Survivors (COPS) 5K in Wyoming. Beau has a tremendous appreciation for the sacrifices and commitment of Delaware’s police officers, whom Beau has described in the past as “the tip of the spear” in the ongoing battle to reduce crime and protect Delaware’s families. Colonel Robert Coupe, Superintendent of the Delaware State Police, ran the race alongside the Attorney General.

Tomorrow the campaign will be marching in the Middletown Peach Festival Parade — hope to see you there!

-The Campaign Team

“These important reforms direct significant new federal resources to protect consumers’ interests and give states new authority to enforce consumer financial protections,” Biden said.

“Reckless behavior in recent years has caused pain that is still being felt around kitchen tables in every corner of our state. With this new law, we now have stronger state and federal oversight of the financial industry and more protections for Delawareans who invest their hard-earned money.”

Specifically, the Wall Street reforms do the following:

Read the whole article >>

For more, check out this article from The Dover Post, reprinted below, report and audio from WDEL.com, and coverage in The News Journal.

AG’s Office secures second criminal indictment in investment fraud case
Wilmington, Del. — The Securities Unit of the state Attorney General’s Office has obtained an indictment against a Michigan man for allegedly swindling a New Castle County resident out of more than a quarter-million dollars.

Patrick A. Wiley, age 43, of Detroit, Mich., was charged Tuesday, Aug. 17 with securities fraud, selling unregistered securities, theft, and racketeering, state Department of Justice spokesman Jason P. Miller said.  The indictment arises out of an investment recovery scam allegedly perpetrated by Wiley against a New Castle County victim from October 2005 to November 2007.

“We are particularly disturbed by crimes that use trust and confidence as a means to an illegitimate end,” Attorney General Joseph R. “Beau” Biden III said. “The victim in this case has lost over $300,000 in a con game. With deep sympathies for her loss, we remind all Delawareans that any deal that sounds too good to be true probably is.”

The investment recovery scam grew out of an investment scam that the victim had fallen prey to in early 2005.  At that time, Darren Dobson, a New Castle County resident, persuaded the victim to invest in a “joint trading venture” that supposedly involved several wealthy persons in London, England.  Dobson claimed that a $50,000 investment would yield a return of $10 million by June 2005.  The victim invested in this venture by wiring $45,000 to a company called VFG Management, LLC in Tampa, Fla., the entity through which the London partners were supposedly operating the joint trading venture.

In June 2005, when the promised investment return failed to materialize, the victim contacted others who were believed to have invested in the venture, including Wiley.  Wiley claimed he had information regarding the principals involved and that he would pursue them to obtain the victim’s promised investment return.   On numerous occasions between October 2005 and November 2007, Wiley solicited funds from the victim to defray the cost of his efforts, including trips that he was supposedly taking abroad for meetings with the London trading partners and their attorney.  During that time period, the victim wired more than $276,000 to Wiley on 61 separate occasions.  The victim never received the promised investment return or the investment principal.

The indictment announced today by the attorney general follows a New Castle County Grand Jury indictment in February of Darren Dobson, 45, of Charlotte, N.C., on charges of securities fraud, the sale of unregistered securities and the transaction of business as an unregistered agent.  Trial in that case is scheduled for September.

The Attorney General’s Office, through its Securities Unit, enforces the Delaware Securities Act, which regulates the sale of investment products and the activities of investment professionals in Delaware.  The unit investigates and prosecutes securities fraud and licensing violations by investment brokers and advisers.

Delaware investors are encouraged to report suspected incidents of investment crime and fraud by calling the Attorney General’s Securities Fraud Hotline at 302-577-8424.