See, kids? The universe kinda fixes itself.
The federal authorities have arrested former CEO of Quintillion, Elizabeth Ann Pierce on charges that she tricked investors into a $250 million fraud scheme. And, you may remember, Pierce was the person FCC head Ajit Pai tapped to run a broadband advisory panel. From the Wall Street Journal:
Elizabeth Ann Pierce, who served as CEO of Quintillion Networks LLC , allegedly convinced two investment companies that the firm had secured contracts for a high-speed fiber-optic system that would generate hundreds of millions of dollars in future revenue, the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office and FBI said Thursday. The system was pitched as one that would provide service in Alaska and connect it to the lower 48 states, authorities said.
Between May 2015 and July 2017, Ms. Pierce provided the two New York investment companies with forged broadband capacity sales contracts totaling about $1 billion to persuade them to invest in the fiber-optic system, according to a complaint unsealed Thursday in Manhattan federal court.
Pierce surrendered to the FBI last Thursday in New York. If convicted, she could face up to 20 years in prison. Notably, other Quintillion employees were the ones responsible for turning her in. Presumably, one of the customer’s whose names she forged to trick the investment firms.
Quintillion had this comment:
Quintillion values its partnerships with customers and investors and the alleged actions of Ms. Pierce are not aligned with how Quintillion conducts business. The ongoing investigation has not impacted Quintillion’s operations nor the quality of its services. Quintillion continues to move aggressively to extend its network and provide world-class telecommunications to Alaska and beyond.
If I were Ajit Pai, I’d probably be sweating bullets right now. Because his choice definitely isn’t reflecting terribly well on him right now.
Source: Gizmodo
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