PIKEVILLE, Ky. (WMDJ) – A Pikeville attorney is being accused in a lawsuit of engaging in a scheme to swindle the 3M Company through lawsuits filed regarding the company’s dust masks.

The Appalachian News-Express is reporting that attorney Glenn Martin Hammond along with two other attorneys in Texas and Mississippi, were working together with others to cheat 3M, exploit coal miners and burden the courts with cases that should have never been filed in the first place.

According to the lawsuit, defendants solicited coal miners to join cookie-cutter complaints claiming that 3M was to blame for the black lung disease and other injuries and coached them to lie about those allegations.

3M is requesting that the court rule against the attorneys for compensatory damages and financial gains.