Attorney General James Wins Case Against Central New York Ski Resort Owner for Illegally Shutting Down Competition

 

Judge Rules Intermountain’s Anticompetitive Tactics Violated Antitrust Law

New York Attorney General Letitia James won her case against Intermountain Management (Intermountain) when a judge ruled the ski resort owner illegally stifled competition after it purchased and shut down Toggenburg Mountain, its main competitor. In October 2022, Attorney General James sued Intermountain, alleging it illegally created a monopoly in the Syracuse market, causing skiers to suffer higher prices and more crowded mountains and facilities due to the lack of competition. In addition, Attorney General James alleged that Intermountain’s “no-poach” provision, which prevented Toggenburg’s owners from hiring Intermountain employees, was anticompetitive and illegal. In a ruling granting the Office of the Attorney General’s (OAG) motion for summary judgment, the court found both of Intermountain’s anticompetitive tactics violated New York’s antitrust law.  

“Syracuse skiing families and workers long benefited from fierce competition among their local ski mountains, but this experience went downhill fast after Intermountain bought Toggenburg,” said Attorney General James. “Intermountain paid a premium price to destroy competition because its owners knew they could raise prices and profit more with a monopoly. Now Intermountain’s anticompetitive scheme is put on ice. I will always take action to protect consumers and workers from corporate monopolies who try to profit by shutting down the competition.” 

In 2021, Intermountain, which owns and operates two ski resorts in the Syracuse area, Labrador and Song Mountains, purchased and immediately shut down its only competitor, Toggenburg Mountain. Intermountain then publicly announced that it would insert a deed restriction barring future buyers from using Toggenburg as a ski resort ever again, ensuring it would be the only ski operator in the Syracuse area. At the same time, Intermountain paid the sellers of Toggenburg to sign a non-competition agreement, prohibiting them from competing within a 30-mile radius for five years. The agreement even prevented the sellers from attempting to hire Intermountain employees. 

In October 2022, Attorney General James sued Intermountain, alleging its tactics illegally stifled competition and created a monopoly in the Syracuse market that harmed consumers. The lawsuit alleged that Intermountain partners Peter Harris and Richard Sykes collaborated on the anticompetitive scheme to buy Toggenburg and establish their monopoly for years, approaching Toggenburg’s owner John Meier repeatedly, inviting him to drinks at private social clubs, meals at local restaurants, and even staging a “faux buy” where they approached him through a third party.  

In a ruling granting OAG’s motion for summary judgment, Judge Robert E. Antonacci II ruled that Intermountain’s acquisition of Toggenburg was an agreement to allocate markets that violated New York’s antitrust law by reducing options for season pass skiers and stifling competition. The court found that Intermountain purchased and shut down Toggenburg to drive up its profits by eliminating choice for consumers. The court also found that the “no-poach” agreement lacked any valid justification, and instead was meant to suppress competition. The court announced that further proceedings would be scheduled to decide the appropriate remedy for Intermountain’s anticompetitive conduct. 

NYC’s Crisis Management System Interventions Reduced Gun Violence by 21%, Comptroller Lander’s Report Finds

 

In a new report, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander found that the New York City Crisis Management System’s (CMS) Community Violence Intervention (CVI) programs reduced gun violence by 21 percent where it was deployed, leading to 1,567 fewer shootings citywide between 2012 and 2024.  

While the comprehensive report, The Cure for Crisis, highlights the success of community-based CVI programs, it also uncovered major management deficiencies that hinder efforts to improve public safety and prevent gun violence: a lack of coordination, insufficient tracking of data and outcomes, rampant delays by the Adams Administration in processing payments, and insufficient technical assistance and support for CVI providers.  

“Our report confirms what many have long known: community-led solutions are a critical part of the cure to our gun violence epidemic,” said New York City Comptroller Brad Lander. “Beginning with Public Advocate Jumaane Williams’ advocacy more than a decade ago, New York City implemented and expanded these life-saving solutions to neighborhood gun violence – and the results are clear, in fewer shootings and lives saved.  

“But our report also shows that we can and must do better,” Lander continued. “To secure a safer city, City Hall needs to provide better oversight and coordination, launch a real-time CVI dashboard to track outcomes, engage community members more effectively, and stop paying providers an average of 255 days late.” 

“I’ve been proud to have Comptroller Lander as a partner in public safety for over a decade. His efforts through this report to further fund and integrate Crisis Management and other prevention programs into our city’s public safety infrastructure will build on the clear success these programs have had in preventing violence and promoting community health,” said Public Advocate Jumaane Williams. 

While the report underscores that CMS’s CVI programs effectively curb incidents of gun violence in localized communities, it warns that persistent issues—including payment delays, lack of centralized coordination, technical assistance, and inconsistent oversight—hamper progress. 

The key findings in the analysis reveal:  

• CMS reduced shootings by 21%, or an average of 7.4 shootings, in precincts with CVI programs, contributing to a 9.8% citywide reduction from 2012–2024. 

• Five percent of city blocks account for a disproportionate share of shootings, concentrated in hotspots like the South Bronx, East Harlem, Brownsville, and East New York. Pandemic-driven surges revealed emerging hotspots, even as areas with robust CVI programs saw long-term declines. 

• Data gaps and inconsistent leadership limit the city’s ability to fully evaluate CMS effectiveness, despite its proven success. 

• CMS providers face long and growing payment delays: Average wait times for reimbursements surged from 130 days in 2016 to 255 days in 2024—a 96.5% increase. 

In 2012, under the leadership of then-City Council Member Jumaane Williams, New York City established the CMS. The program equips trusted community members with resources to mediate conflicts, prevent retaliation, and address the root causes of violence through a public health approach. Today, CMS encompasses over 20 CVI organizations that combat gun violence through de-escalation, conflict mediation, and social service delivery. 

To understand the historical context for gun violence in New York City, the Comptroller’s Office conducted a spatial and temporal analysis of all 23,298 shooting incidents across New York City over the past 19 years and examined trends across all 77 police precincts and all 41 CVI service areas—a novel, dual-layered approach that goes beyond previous studies. This report presents the most up-to-date analysis by using 2024 data to reflect neighborhoods where the City recently expanded CMS while providing nuance to identify critical gaps in order to optimize outcomes. 

In addition, the Comptroller’s Office analyzed vendor payment data from the Department of Youth and Community Development’s (DYCD) Office of Neighborhood Safety—where the CMS program is currently housed—to assess the financial and operational challenges facing CMS providers between Fiscal Years 2016 and 2025, including approximately 1,400 payment requests from 112 contracts totaling $192 million.  

Though CMS has demonstrably reduced shootings, City Hall’s lack of oversight, inadequate data-driven strategies, coverage gaps, funding inconsistencies, and bureaucratic inefficiencies constrains its impact.  

The report proposed recommendations to City Hall and the City Council:  

• Improve the City’s management & coordination of CMS, including strengthened oversight: Create a dedicated team to improve the City’s management and coordination of CMS, standardize data collection and reporting, and provide technical assistance and capacity-building for CVI Organizations.  

• Launch a real-time CVI dashboard: The City should provide CVI organizations with real-time access to shooting data, crime trends, public health data, socioeconomic data, and available community resources through a Unified CVI Dashboard. The City should facilitate data-sharing between NYPD and CVI groups while protecting privacy. Additionally, if the City chooses to continue using ShotSpotter, it should leverage ShotSpotter’s Data for Good program to provide its data to CVI groups.  

• Deploy a Data-Driven Community Engagement Strategy through Monthly “NeighborhoodStat” Meetings: The monthly meetings should go beyond NYCHA public housing and apply it to all precincts with active CVI programs, creating a structured forum for collaboration between violence interrupters, community organizations, NYPD precinct commanders, and local residents.  

• Take a data-driven approach to expanding capacity and efficiency of CVI: The City should conduct regular studies of CVI programs and establish a rapid-response improvement mechanism with insights from the real-time data dashboard, monthly coordination meetings, and a reimagined NeighborhoodStat. The City should also expand CMS into high-risk areas without coverage, such as Harlem, Inwood, Washington Heights and Longwood, and increasing funding and staffing in Brownsville, Northern Harlem, East Harlem, and the South and Central Bronx, where shootings remain frequent despite CMS presence.  

• Close payment delays: Adopt a formal 90-day reimbursement timeframe policy for City contractors, including CVI providers, to prevent delays in critical funding. The City must fulfill the longstanding promise to launch ContractStat, a public tracking system for contract delays, in order to ensure transparent and accountable funding timelines. 

MAYOR ADAMS ANNOUNCES NEW APPOINTMENTS TO RENT GUIDELINES BOARD

 

Doug Apple to Serve as New Chair of Board, Reed Jordan and Alex Armlovich to Join as Members  

New Appointees Bring Decades of Experience Across Government, Nonprofit and Private Sector, Focused on Ensuring New York City Remains Affordable for Working-Class Families 

New York City Mayor Eric Adams today appointed Doug Apple as the new chair of the Rent Guidelines Board, along with Reed Jordan and Alex Armlovich as new members to the board. Together, the new appointees bring decades of experience across government, nonprofit, and private sectors. The new appointees reflect the Adams administration’s commitment to making New York City the best place to raise a family by protecting affordable housing and making it more accessible for working-class New Yorkers.

“To address the housing crisis head-on, we must invest in creating new, affordable housing, while protecting renters from being priced out of our city,” said Mayor Adams. “My appointees to the Rent Guidelines Board bring decades of experience in housing and urban planning across the government, nonprofit, and private sectors. Together, we remain focused on one singular mission: ensuring New York City remains an affordable place for working-class families. Our administration will continue to build housing at a record pace, hold bad, predatory actors accountable, and fight on behalf of tenants.”

“The Rent Guidelines Board has the important yet challenging task of both protecting tenants from infeasible rent increases, and ensuring rent stabilized buildings are equipped to sustain operations and be maintained as quality, affordable housing,” said New York City Executive Director for Housing Leila Bozorg. “I'm confident that Doug Apple as newly appointed chair, along with Reed Jordan and Alex Armlovich as new members, will draw on their decades of housing experience across sectors when evaluating the factors and complex decisions that come before the board each year.”

“Rent stabilized housing is an essential part of the New York City housing market, and its preservation requires delicately balancing tenant affordability while ensuring buildings have sufficient income to support operations,” said RGB Chair Apple. “I thank Mayor Adams for entrusting me with this responsibility and look forward to working closely with my fellow board members to carry out the Rent Guideline Board's mission.”   

“Throughout my career, I have been committed to ensuring that New York City remains affordable and fair for all,” said RGB Member Reed Jordan. “I am honored to serve as a public member of the Rent Guidelines Board. I look forward to collaborating with the entire Board to thoroughly analyze the data and gather robust public input in order to make informed decisions that affect New Yorkers across all five boroughs.”

“As a former rent stabilized tenant, I know how much secure tenancy matters — not just financially, but emotionally, for my neighbors and friends in stabilized homes,” said RGB Member Alex Armlovich. “Having read the RGB's excellent staff reports for over a decade in my housing policy research career, I'm excited and honored to now work with the Board directly. I plan to follow the data while keeping the lived experience of New Yorkers in mind to serve all stakeholders and ensure a bright future for rent stabilized housing.”

The Adams administration had made significant investment and policy changes to empower tenants and hold bad landlords accountable. Last year, Mayor Adams announced the formation of the Tenant Protection Cabinet, an interagency effort formed to coordinate across agencies to better serve tenants by creating pathways to renter-focused programs and services, and to ensure safe and fair housing conditions. Mayor Adams has also taken strong enforcement action against landlords who do not properly maintain their properties — obtaining over $4 million and the appointment of a 7A administrator (an individual appointed by a court to operate privately-owned buildings that have conditions that are dangerous to the tenants' life, health, and safety) against a single landlord with a portfolio of buildings. This is in addition to the New York City Housing Preservation and Development’s (HPD) continued efforts to stop bad landlords through their Tenant Anti-Harassment Unit, and special enforcement programs that target buildings with the worst physical conditions from the Emergency Repair Program to the Alternative Enforcement Program. The Adams administration has taken on Source of Income discrimination by investing $2.3 million to crack down on the landlords, owners, and real estate brokers who refuse to rent to current or prospective tenants seeking to pay rent with housing assistance vouchers, subsidies, or other forms of public assistance. In August 2024, the New York City Commission on Human Rights announced a $1 million housing discrimination settlement — the largest civil rights settlement in city history — against Parkchester Preservation Management. Under Mayor Adams’ leadership, the Public Engagement Unit (PEU) also launched a live operator tenant helpline to provide immediate support to New York tenants who face potential eviction, landlord harassment, or unacceptable living conditions. New Yorkers seeking support from the PEU Tenant Helpline can call 311 and be referred to a live operator. 

Since entering office, Mayor Adams has made historic investments to create and preserve affordable housing and ensure more New Yorkers have a safe, affordable place to call home. In June 2024, City Hall and the New York City Council agreed to an on-time, balanced, and fiscally-responsible $112.4 billion Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 Adopted Budget that invested $2 billion in capital funds across FY25 and FY26 to HPD and the New York City Housing Authority’s (NYCHA) capital budgets. In total, the Adams administration has committed $24.5 billion in housing capital in the current 10-year plan as the city faces a generational housing crisis. In July 2024, Mayor Adams announced back-to-back record breaking fiscal years in both creating and connecting New Yorkers to affordable housing. Last December, Mayor Adams celebrated the passage of “City of Yes for Housing Opportunity,” the most pro-housing proposal in city history that will build 80,000 new homes over 15 years and invest $5 billion towards critical infrastructure updates and housing investments. Last spring, the city celebrated the largest 100 percent affordable housing project in 40 years with the Willets Point transformation.

This year, Mayor Adams is doubling down on his commitment to building more affordable housing across the five boroughs. Last month, Mayor Adams and the New York City Economic Development Corporation announced the next phase of an ambitious, bold new vision for Coney Island, Brooklyn that will deliver 1,500 new homes and invest in the reconstruction of the historic Riegelmann Boardwalk. Additionally, Mayor Adams and HPD celebrated an $82 million investment to put homeownership within reach for more New Yorkers by expanding the HomeFirst Down Payment Assistance Program. Finally, the Adams administration has advanced several bold, forward-looking projects, including reimagining Gansevoort Square to build mixed-income housing, building 100 percent affordable housing at the Grand Concourse Library in the Bronx, advancing the 388 Hudson development to provide hundreds of critically-needed affordable housing units, and kicking off public review on the Midtown South Mixed-Use plan to create nearly 10,000 homes — all follow-up announcements to this year’s State of the City.

Housing Database Update Shows City Completed Nearly 34,000 New Homes in 2024

 

Driven by Expiration of 421-a Tax Program in 2022, Most New Homes Completed in a Year Since 1965

 

Newly Permitted Housing Down Slightly from Recent Years, Showing Ongoing Need for Action to Address Housing Crisis

Department of City Planning (DCP) Director Dan Garodnick announced the update of the DCP Housing Database through the end of 2024, along with new tools to visualize housing production across New York City. 33,974 new homes were completed in 2024, reflecting the surge of permitting in 2022 prior to the expiration of the 421-a tax program – the most units completed in a single year since 1965. However, only 15,626 new homes received permits, a slight decrease from 2023, and pre-existing geographic disparities in housing production continued, with 10 community districts permitting as much housing as the other 49 combined. The passage in December of City of Yes for Housing Opportunity, the most pro-housing zoning change in New York history, sets the city up to reverse these trends and achieve more equitable housing growth. 

 

“2024 was a banner year for housing production in New York, but we can’t rest on our laurels. That’s why the historic passage of City of Yes was so important, and why we’ll keep working to deliver the housing that New Yorkers need,” said DCP Director Dan Garodnick. “This updated, detailed data illustrates the progress we are making towards accomplishing our housing goals, and the work that remains to build a fairer, more affordable city.” 

DCP also released two interactive visualization tools:  

• NYC Housing Production Snapshot, 2024, breaking down housing production and the housing production pipeline, citywide and by borough 

• Where is housing being added in New York City?, showing granular housing production at the community district, City Council district, and neighborhood tabulation area (NTA) level 

 

These tools reveal deeply uneven housing production across the city: 19 community districts permitted fewer than 100 homes, with Manhattan Community District 2 (Greenwich Village, Hudson Square, Little Italy, NoHo, SoHo, West Village) and 12 (Inwood, Washington Heights) seeing net-negative units permitted. And even as the city reached record housing production in recent history in 2024, 13 community districts completed fewer than 200 new homes, with Manhattan Community District 5 (Union Square, Flatiron, Gramercy, Midtown South, Times Square) adding only 19 new homes. The Midtown South Mixed-Use Plan, which is currently in the public review process, could bring a needed boost to a portion of Manhattan Community District 5 where zoning today largely bans new housing.  

 

The DCP Housing Database is the most reliable aggregated database of housing production in New York City, drawing on NYC Department of Buildings-approved housing construction and demolition jobs. It includes the three primary construction job types that add or remove residential units: new buildings, major alterations, and demolitions, and can be used to determine the change in legal housing units across time and space. 

During Maple Month, Governor Hochul Highlights New York’s Thriving Maple Industry

Governor’s FY26 Executive Budget Proposes Funding for Marketing and Research To Further Grow the Maple Industry and Help New York Become the Leading Maple Innovator

Encourages New Yorkers to Participate in Special Promotions Throughout March and Maple Weekends March 22-23 and March 29-30

New York State Ranks Second in the Nation in Maple Production

Maple Production Increased to 846,000 Gallons in 2024, Up Nearly 100,000 Gallons of Maple Syrup from 2023 Season

Governor Kathy Hochul today encouraged New Yorkers to support their local maple producers during Maple Month. The Governor highlighted New York’s upcoming Maple Weekends events and activities, which will take place March 22-23 and March 29-30, along with other special events and promotions throughout the month. New York State continues to rank second in the nation in maple production, and in 2024, maple production increased to 846,000 gallons, up nearly 100,000 gallons of maple syrup from the 2023 season. Recognizing the importance of the maple industry to New York’s agricultural economy, Governor Hochul proposed additional funding in her FY26 Executive Budget to further grow the maple industry and help New York become the leading maple innovator.

“Maple Month is officially underway, offering New Yorkers from every corner of the State the chance to support the hardworking producers of this sweet agricultural crop,” Governor Hochul said. “New York State has a long history with this delicious crop, and continues to be home to a thriving community of maple producers making some of the most delicious and innovative maple products in the world. I encourage all New Yorkers to participate in Maple Weekends to sample some of the world-class items that New York’s maple community has to offer.

As part of the kickoff to Maple Month, New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets Commissioner Richard A. Ball visited Shadow Hill Maple Farm, a family-owned farm in Ontario in Wayne County, for an annual maple tree tapping to highlight New York’s maple industry and encourage visitors to participate in Maple Weekends. In addition to Maple Weekends, Shadow Hill Maple Farm is open every weekend in March for sampling of a variety of maple products, tours of the facility to see how sap is collected, and to learn how maple syrup is made. Shadow Hill Maple Farm is a part of the New York State Grown & Certified program, which promotes New York farms that adhere to a higher standard for food safety and environmentally friendly practices.

More than 100 maple producers participate in the NYS Grown & Certified program, which verifies New York's agricultural producers and growers who adhere to food safety and environmental sustainability standards. Find a current list of maple producers who are a part of the NYS Grown & Certified program.

New York State Agriculture Commissioner Richard Ball said, “As the first agricultural crop of the year, the maple season provides a sweet way to usher in New York’s delicious harvest season. Thanks to our dedicated maple producers, including those who are in our NYS Grown & Certified program, New York continues to be a top maple producer in the country, contributing tremendously to our local communities and economies. I encourage New Yorkers to find a nearby, local producer hosting Maple Weekend activities to find out more about the syrup-making process, taste some delicious New York products, and support this unique industry!”

Maple Weekends

Throughout the month of March each year and the last two weekends of the month in particular, maple farms across the state open their doors to the public to provide a chance to taste pure maple syrup, right from the source, and experience the unique family tradition of making maple syrup in New York State. Producers offer tours and pancake breakfasts, sell maple products, and demonstrate the syrup-making process, which includes the traditional system of hanging buckets on trees or more modern methods of production using vacuum systems to increase the yield of sap per tree. A searchable list of Maple Weekend events is available at mapleweekend.nysmaple.com.

Maple Promotions

New York’s Taste NY Markets across the state are highlighting unique local maple products and producers during the month of March, with product specials, giveaways, and more. The Western NY Welcome Center is offering a maple gift basket giveaway and a maple product scavenger hunt, with visitors getting 10 percent off the maple products they find in store. The Capital Region Welcome Center will have a sampling event on March 28, featuring pancakes by Phoenicia Diner and Jourdin’s Maple Syrup. Additionally, the Mohawk Valley Welcome Center is doing a gift basket giveaway, and the Adirondacks Welcome Center will feature educational displays from the Upper Hudson Valley Maple Association with information about the history of maple production and modern production techniques. Visit your local Taste NY Market to take part in their Maple Month celebrations! Find a market in your region. 

Attorney General James Sues National General and Allstate Insurance for Failing to Protect New Yorkers’ Personal Information

 

National General’s Poor Data Security Allowed Online Bad Actors to Steal the Driver’s License Numbers of More Than 165,000 New Yorkers in Back-to-Back Breaches

New York Attorney General Letitia James today filed a lawsuit against several insurance companies doing business as National General and Allstate Insurance Company (Allstate) for failing to protect New Yorkers’ personal information from cyberattacks. In 2020 and 2021, National General suffered a pair of back-to-back data breaches that exposed the driver’s license numbers of more than 165,000 New Yorkers. The Office of the Attorney General (OAG) alleges that following the first breach, National General failed to notify impacted consumers and neglected to determine whether sensitive information was exposed elsewhere in its system, which allowed for a second, larger breach to occur months later. Attorney General James alleges the two breaches were a result of National General’s failure to implement reasonable data security measures, both before and after Allstate assumed control of its data security operations. Attorney General James is seeking penalties for National General’s failure to institute reasonable data security safeguards and notify consumers, and an injunction to stop any continued violations. 

“National General’s weak cybersecurity emboldened hackers to steal New Yorkers’ personal data, not once but twice in two separate cyberattacks,” said Attorney General James. “National General mishandled New Yorkers’ personal information and violated the law by failing to inform them that their data was stolen. It is crucial that companies take cybersecurity seriously to protect consumers from fraud and identity theft, and my office will always hold those who fail to do so accountable.”

In 2020, attackers began targeting National General’s online quoting websites, which provide consumers with instant auto insurance quotes. These websites were designed to automatically display consumers’ full driver’s license numbers in plain text with minimal input, a flaw that bad actors were able to take advantage of to access consumers’ private information. The first breach, which affected two public-facing websites, exposed the driver’s license numbers of nearly 12,000 individuals, including more than 9,100 New Yorkers. Due to inadequate monitoring and the websites’ lack of protections against automated attacks, National General failed to detect the breach for two months.

Upon discovering the breach, National General failed to alert the consumers whose data was exposed or notify the appropriate state agencies. The company also continued to leave driver’s license numbers exposed on a separate quoting website for independent insurance agents, which was also weakly protected. Attackers then targeted this system in a second, far larger breach, which National General detected in February 2021. This attack compromised the personal information of an additional 187,000 consumers, including the driver’s license numbers of roughly 155,000 New Yorkers. National General’s data security failures continued after The Allstate Corporation acquired National General and Allstate took control of National General’s data security function.

Driver’s license numbers are valuable to cyber-criminals and can be used to commit various forms of fraud, including identity theft and government benefits fraud. Under New York law, companies that own or license New Yorkers’ private data must take appropriate steps to secure it. Attorney General James alleges that National General violated state consumer protection and business laws by failing to secure sensitive information, misrepresenting its data security practices to customers and consumers, and failing to notify affected consumers of the initial breach.

This is Attorney General James’ latest effort to hold auto insurance companies accountable for failing to secure consumers’ data. In December 2024, Attorney General James secured $500,000 from auto insurance company Noblr for failing to protect the personal information of more than 80,000 New Yorkers as part of a data breach. In November 2024, Attorney General James and New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) Superintendent Adrienne A. Harris secured $11.3 million from GEICO and Travelers Insurance for having poor data security, which led to the personal information of more than 120,000 New Yorkers being compromised.

Canadian Man Sentenced to 25 Years for Destruction of Energy Facilities in North and South Dakota

 

Cameron Monte Smith, 50, a citizen of Canada, was sentenced today 150 months in federal prison followed by three years of supervised release for two counts of destruction of an energy facility, one act in the District of North Dakota and one act in the District of South Dakota. Smith was also ordered to pay $2.1 million in restitution.

According to court documents, on Sept. 11, 2024, Smith pleaded guilty to the two offenses where he admitted to damaging the Wheelock Substation, located near Ray, North Dakota, in an amount exceeding $100,000, in May 2023. The Wheelock substation is operated by Mountrail-Williams Electric Cooperative and Basin Electric Power Cooperative.

Smith also admitted to damaging a transformer and pumpstation of the Keystone Pipeline located near Carpenter, South Dakota, in an amount exceeding $100,000, in July 2022. Smith damaged the Wheelock substation and the Keystone Pipeline equipment by firing multiple rounds from a high-power rifle into the equipment resulting in disruption of electric services to the North Dakota customers and resulting in disruption of the Keystone Pipeline in South Dakota.

Sue Bai, head of the Justice Department’s National Security Division; Acting U.S. Attorney Jennifer Klemetsrud Puhl for the District of North Dakota; U.S. Attorney Alison Ramsdell for the District of South Dakota; and Assistant Director David J. Scott of the FBI's Counterterrorism Division made the announcement.

The FBI investigated the case with valuable assistance from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Williams County (North Dakota) Sheriff’s Office, the South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation, the Clark County (South Dakota) Sheriff’s Department, and the Beadle County (South Dakota) Sheriff’s Department.