On February 28, 2023, the United States Department of Justice issued a press release announcing that seven defendants who pled guilty in 2020 to defrauding the E-rate program were issued criminal sentences ranging from 24 months to one year in prison and millions in restitution.
In the case, the DoJ notes that E-rate applicants “never received millions of dollars’ worth of these items and services for which the defendants billed the E-Rate program,” that “the schools and the defendants requested hundreds of thousands of dollars of sophisticated technology that served no real purpose for the student population,” and that defendants “held themselves out as independent consultants working for the schools in truth worked for and were paid by other defendants who controlled vendor companies.”
The DoJ’s press release may be viewed here.
