The State of Indiana and the Intelenet Commission have agreed to pay close to $8.3 million as a civil settlement in connection with an E-rate fraud investigation.
The U.S. Department of Justice stated today that the Intelenet Commission "…provided false information to the E-Rate program and otherwise violated the program's requirements, including charging inflated prices for services provided to Indiana schools and libraries, falsifying invoices, disregarding the requirement that the schools and libraries make co-payments for the expenses charged to the E-Rate program for the services, and engaging in non-competitive bidding practices….."
According to a Funds For Learning analysis, the Intelenet Commission has not applied for E-rate support for the last two years and have not received any disbursements since Funding Year 2003. Since the inception of the program they applied for over $55 million and have received $47 million in commitments and have used a total of $21.5 million.
The Department of Justice announcement can be viewed at DoJ Intelenet News Release