NEC Admits To Ripping Off Schools Through E-Rate Program

MAurelius writes "The New York Times (regist. req'd) is reporting that NEC now admits to ripping off multiple low-income school districts by connecting them to the internet with equipment more advanced and expensive than necessary. Several orders of magnitude more expensive. All paid for by telephone rate-payers. That would be you."

Comments

Re:Why is no one going to jail?

[Dun Malg]

NEC then sent a bill to the E-Rate administrators, a quasi-governmental agency for tens of millions of dollars more than the actual cost of the equipment.

If someone robs a bank overnight (no people harmed) and takes 10 million dollars the shit would hit the fan.

You're comparing apples and oranges. Inflated billing isn't "robbery". It's fraud. If someone sent an excessive bill to a bank, it'd be fraud as well and, if they plead guilty and paid double the amount in fines and restitution, they'd get away without jail time also. NEC didn't send people to break into schools to steal money. Feel free to argue "it's the moral equivalent of robbery" or that "fraud oughtta be punished like robbery" if you like, but law isn't about people's opinions. NEC is getting what any individual person would for the same crime.