Jail-Time for Fraudulent Former Chair of FCC Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee

By B.N. Frank

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is supposed to protect the public by regulating the telecom industry. It has a long history of employing people who do the exact opposite.

The current “Race for 5G” has made this much worse. The telecom industry has provided no scientific evidence that 5G is safe and there is research that already proves it isn’t (see 1, 2). Despite increased opposition and warnings from a variety of sources (including the U.S. Navy), The FCC is still forcing it on Americans anyway.

The FCC is also under investigation for collusion because of forced 5G and lawsuits (see 1, 2) have been filed as well. It’s not surprising that one of these folks has finally ended up in the pokey.

From Arstechnica: “Ex-chair of FCC broadband committee gets five years in prison for fraud”

Elizabeth Ann Pierce was CEO of Quintillion, an Alaskan telecom company, when she lied to two investment firms in New York in order to raise $270 million to build a fiber network. She also defrauded two individual investors out of $365,000 and used a large chunk of that money for personal expenses.

Pierce, 55, pleaded guilty and last week was given the five-year prison sentence in US District Court for the Southern District of New York, US Attorney Geoffrey Berman announced. Pierce was also “ordered to forfeit $896,698.00 and all of her interests in Quintillion and a property in Texas.” She will also be subject to a restitution order to compensate her victims “at a later date.”

Pierce’s industry experience helped her land the top spot on Pai’s broadband advisory committee in April 2017. But she left Quintillion in July 2017 as her scheme unraveled, and she resigned from the FCC advisory panel. Pai appointed a new chair for his committee two months later; he thanked Pierce for her service, saying she did “an excellent job” chairing the committee and “wish[ed] her all the best in her future endeavors.”