Last month the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) announced that Premio Inc, a California-based company, has agreed to pay $1.7 million in criminal fines and restitution relating to charges of collusion and fraud in the FCC's E-rate program. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) pursuant to their regulations has suspended Premio from participating in the E-rate program and has started debarment proceedings against them.
The FCC stated, "in connection with the antitrust crime charged against Premio, the company admitted that it conspired with one or more vendors of equipment and services related to telecommunications, Internet access and/or internal connections to suppress and eliminate competition for E-rate projects in the West Fresno Elementary School District by allocating contracts and submitting fraudulent and non-competitive bids. More specifically, the company discussed prospective bids for the E-rate project with its co-conspirators, agreed with them who would serve as lead contractor and subcontractor on the project, and worked with consultants who awarded, or influenced the award of, contracts to the conspirators, and disqualified bids from non-conspirators. In connection with the mail fraud charged against Premio, the company admitted that it sought payment of more than $1 million in E-rate funding for telecommunications servers and related installation and maintenance it was purportedly going to provide to the Highland Park School District in California, when in fact it actually delivered ineligible video conferencing equipment."
The FCC suspension notice can be viewed at FCC Premio Suspension Notice.pdf
Individuals or companies that have been suspended or debarred can be viewed at https://www.usac.org/e-rate/resources/appeals-audits/suspensions-debarments
