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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsBroadband advisor picked by FCC Chairman Ajit Pai arrested on fraud charges
A broadband advisor selected by Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai to run a federal advisory committee was arrested last week on claims she tricked investors into pouring money into a multi-million dollar investment fraud scheme, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The advisor, Elizabeth Pierce, is the former chief executive of Quintillion, an Alaska-based fiber optic cable provider operating out of Anchorage. In her capacity as CEO, Pierce allegedly raised more than $250 million from two New York-based investment companies using forged contracts with other companies guaranteeing hundreds of millions of dollars in future revenue. Pierce resigned from Quintillion in August of last year, and she stepped down from her role in Pais Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee (BDAC) the following month.
As it turned out, those sales agreements were worthless because the customers had not signed them, US attorney Geoffrey Berman said in prepared remarks, as reported by the WSJ. Instead, as alleged, Pierce had forged counter-party signatures on contract after contract. As a result of Pierces deception, the investment companies were left with a system that is worth far less than Pierce had led them to believe. Pierce was trying to raise money to help build out a fiber optic system that would wire Alaska with high-speed internet and better help connect it to networks in other US states. Pierce was charged with wire fraud last Thursday and faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
Pierce was tapped by Pai in April of last year to be the chair of the BDAC, which he formed to accelerate the deployment of high-speed internet access, or broadband, by reducing and removing regulatory barriers to infrastructure investment. According to broadband industry news and advocacy website Stop the Cap, Pierce may have gotten on Pais radar by complaining about how cumbersome it was to bring internet access to parts of the country like Alaska.
https://www.theverge.com/2018/4/16/17245010/elizabeth-pierce-fraud-charges-bdac-fcc-ajit-pai
Eugene
(62,118 posts)...or something like that.
KT2000
(20,662 posts)Nice though that so much of this is coming out into the open.
riversedge
(71,047 posts)DarthDem
(5,265 posts)Now if they can just get the main slice himself. Easily one of the smarmiest, most anti-democratic, preening little weenies in Washington. Ted Cruz-level.
edhopper
(34,045 posts)all these evil assholes in high positions exposed.
And there is no one to stp their onslaught on our Democracy.
The shear volume of crap being piled on us is overwhelming.
In a less insane time any one of these scandals would be a major story.
Now, it is ignored.