Willis surprised by Minnesota AG’s lawsuit

Upon hearing that Minnesota Attorney General Michael Hatch filed a lawsuit against Willis on Tuesday, the brokerage issued a statement saying the allegations that it has not provided all the information requested by Hatch "came as a complete surprise".Willis says it has been providing information to Hatch’s office since last December as part of the ongoing investigation into industry practices and broker compensation. "We made several attempts to discuss the scope of the Attorney General’s request, which seek extremely voluminous information on a global basis within a short time frame. Mr. Hatch’s office has consistently refused to engage in such a discussion," a Willis statement says. The broker says in other states where investigations of a similar nature are underway, it has had such discussions with authorities. Willis says it has not yet reviewed the "nearly 400 pages" of the complaint filed by Hatch, and had no advance warning of the filing. "We would have appreciated the opportunity to discuss these concerns with Mr. Hatch directly in an effort to resolve them in a constructive and professional manner. Instead, Mr. Hatch chose to call the press and simultaneously file this motion, which contains a number of inflammatory and inaccurate statements of fact relating to our company. We are frankly appalled and offended."Willis says it does not want to "pick a fight" with Hatch and would like to have discussions about what information he wants provided, but if necessary it will deal with the matter through the courts.