INDIANAPOLIS-- The FBI is reportedly interviewing individuals about Indiana’s controversial vaping law that requires suppliers of e-liquids be approved through essentially one firm, TheIndianapolis Star reported.
According to the report, agents with the FBI have interviewed at least two lawmakers and a manufacturer of e-liquids.
“They asked me if I knew of anything anyone might have gotten out of this legislation,” said state Sen. Phil Boots, R-Crawfordsville, who told the Star that he talked to an agent last month. “I think that’s what they’re looking at—Did someone in the legislature gain from the legislation?”
Boots has expressed concerns about the legislation, but said he wasn’t aware of any lawmakers who benefited financially from it.
The law gave only a handful of e-liquid producers control of the Indiana market, shutting out dozens of other manufacturers that had operated in the state, according to TheIndianapolis Star. Lawmakers passed the measure in 2015 and amended it this year.
The FBI has also interviewed Evan McMahon, an e-liquid producer and leader of Hoosier Vapers, a consumer and industry organization based in Indianapolis, which opposes the law.
“They didn’t say who they were investigating, but they said they were looking at antitrust and corruption,” McMahon said.
Agents wanted to know which legislators and lobbyists were “cheerleaders” of the legislation, he said.
Sen. Vaneta Becker, R-Evansville, who ultimately opposed the vaping law, confirmed the FBI interviewed her. She said she was asked about the legislative process, the report said.
FBI Special Agent Wendy Osborne declined to comment, saying the agency does not confirm or deny investigations.
The new regulations require any company that wants to produce e-liquid for sale in Indiana to be certified by a security firm, but because of how the law was written, only one security firm in the entire country qualified to perform the work, Lafayette, Ind.-based Mulhaupt’s Inc. The company has approved only six producers while turning away many others. Mike Gibson, co-owner of Mulhaupt’s, did not immediately respond to a message from TheIndianapolis Star. A seventh manufacturer was awarded a permit after a federal judge recently ruled in its favor, the report said.
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