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AT&T Businesses The Almighty Buck

AT&T Hit With $23 Million Fine For Bribing Illinois Lawmaker (techdirt.com) 48

Posted by BeauHD from the dirty-pool dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Techdirt: [AT&T] was fined $23 million for bribing a state lawmaker's ally in order to secure a key policy vote. According to a deferred prosecution agreement, the vote in question was a 2017 vote on Carrier of Last Resort (COLR) legislation that would have eliminated AT&T's obligation to continue to provide landline service to all state residents. AT&T of course wants to be free of having to provide dated landlines. Consumer groups are quick to note many of those landlines are used by old people who often can't afford (or don't understand how to use) cellular service, leaving them cut off from essential services and 911. They were also paid for on the back of millions in taxpayer subsidies, suggesting that taxpayers should have some say in the matter.

Instead of just making its case, AT&T used an intermediary lobbying firm to deliver $22,500 to former Illinois Speaker of the House Michael J. Madigan to influence his vote: "AT&T allegedly used a lobbying firm as an intermediary to make the payment and disguise its true purpose. US Attorney John Lausch's office filed a one-count criminal information in US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, charging AT&T Illinois with using an interstate facility to promote legislative misconduct. Former AT&T Illinois President Paul La Schiazza was indicted on five charges as a result of the same investigation."
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AT&T Hit With $23 Million Fine For Bribing Illinois Lawmaker More

AT&T Hit With $23 Million Fine For Bribing Illinois Lawmaker

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  • Rounding error (Score:5, Insightful)

    by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Wednesday October 19, 2022 @08:07PM (#62981529)
    We don't send them to jail because these are our ruling class. I get that.

    What I don't get is why does 42% of the country love being ruled over. Especially when they shout about freedom all day long.

    • Re:Rounding error (Score:5, Insightful)

      by jwhyche ( 6192 ) on Wednesday October 19, 2022 @08:43PM (#62981585) Homepage

      This goes right back to my 'hold them accountable' position by sending corp. officers to prison. So, they just get a fine and everyone walks away from the table as they hide behind corporate shields. Find someone in the home office, charge them, arrest them, and send them to prison for this. This shit will then stop.

      • Find someone in the home office, charge them, arrest them, and send them to prison for this.

        please mod the parent up.

        Lawmaker Michael J. Madigan should also go to prison.

      • Exactly. Either you can arrest a corp, put its officers in jail, or not allow them to contribute shit like this. The USA feels more like a banana republic every year.

    • It's always (D)ifferent (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 19, 2022 @09:43PM (#62981653)

      We don't send them to jail because these are our ruling class. I get that. What I don't get is why does 42% of the country love being ruled over. Especially when they shout about freedom all day long.

      Do the Democrats shout about freedom all day? Because according to the deferred prosecution agreement [justice.gov] they were bribing Michael Madigan [wikipedia.org] who is the Chair of the Democratic Party of Illinois and was formerly the Illinois Speaker of the House.

      Oddly, his party affiliation isn't mentioned in the linked article, which instead ends with an unrelated anecdote about Trump for some reason. I'm sure they didn't intend to mislead anyone, though.

      • One party is clearly in it 100% (Score:4, Funny)

        by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Wednesday October 19, 2022 @10:24PM (#62981723)
        for the ruling class. Another party is in it 50% for the ruling class. You are not a member of the ruling class. Nobody posting on /. is.

        When you're picking between a stale candy bar and a dog turd, you take the stale candy bar. It isn't healthy, but it keeps you alive. The dog turd just makes you sick.

      • Oddly, his party affiliation isn't mentioned in the linked article,

        I noticed that as well, very suspicious. It's not as though it was difficult to look him up though.

        When Obama was first elected he said his most important objective was to reform party financing (I can't remember exactly how he put it). He realised rather quickly that he was not going to be able to find a majority for that.

        So what do you have? A system where the candidate who spends the most almost always wins, and where a large part of t

      • Meh yea, you got that one. I do hate how conserves' gaslight anti semitic or even their own party corruption, but this one is defiantly on the democrats and the article does some slightly bias in that respect. That doesn't mean all you guys shit is honey and milk.

    • That is an zero bail crime

    • What I don't get is why does 92% of the country love being ruled over.

      Fixed that for ya'

      According to Pew Research*, only about 7-9% of the US are true independents and belong to neither the cult of the Red Jackass nor the cult of the Spray-tanned Elephant.

      If you think only the "thems" are bat-shit crazy, then you are one of the bat-shit crazies.



      * https://www.pewresearch.org/po... [pewresearch.org]

  • Can't afford cell service? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Gavagai80 ( 1275204 ) on Wednesday October 19, 2022 @08:32PM (#62981571) Homepage

    The bribe is shameful of course, and yes there are old people who refuse to learn how to use a flip phone. But there are no people in the USA who can afford landline service but can't afford cell service, because landline service costs way, way, way more.

    A landline is about $42/mo. Cell service with unlimited talk and text will run you $15/mo or less, you can even get some data for that. Or you can spend $5/mo for a pay as you go plan if you don't use it much. And if you're poor enough to be struggling to pay for it, you get it free through the Lifeline program anyway. A landline is never the economical decision.

    Something not mentioned, though, is people who live somewhere remote that doesn't receive a cell signal. They do need a landline, or satellite.

    • Cell service with unlimited talk and text will run you $15/mo or less, you can even get some data for that.

      The Ting Flex plan [tingmobile.com] is $10/month for unlimited talk and text + $5/GB 5G data.
      (They also have other plans that bundle "fast data" and unlimited ones that bundle some "fast data" ...)

      I use very little data (<100MB) and my monthly bill is $17.33.

      • There are also PSTN adapters for cell service that basically give you a POTS line on an RJ-11 jack for use with touch-tone phones. This is a really stupid situation that the law must have put AT&T in.
    • Any residence thats outside cell service likely doesnt have wire telephone service either. ATT should know better than to bribe officials in the US. Even a guy like Madigan, who is absolutely legendary for his level of corruption and his slipperyness even by chicago standards. but he’s a dying breed. This country is *mostly* clean. We broke the back of big-scale corruption in the early 1900s.
    • Uh ... there's only landline service where I live in hi-tech Boulder County Colorado. Why? You know - geophysical reality - mountains. No Starlink - canyons seem to accompany mountains - yeah, it's uncanny. Footnote: the local carrier, Centurylink, can only deliver 3.5 Mbps cuz the DSLAMs miles and miles away. I've paid $500/year for the last 30 years. A landline is the economical decision, and because of regulatory capture, it's a sad one.

    • You know WHY landline is so much more expensive? It seems many of those posting here don't understand how the system works. Power goes out, hurricane comes through, cell phones are gone. Even if they keep power, the towers are so oversubscribed good luck getting a call out when even 10% of the people around a tower are trying to use it. Land lines are battery backed, required to allow a majority of users to use their lines at the same time, etc. They are considerably more reliable. All of that

  • Just remember (Score:4, Insightful)

    by ArchieBunker ( 132337 ) on Wednesday October 19, 2022 @08:42PM (#62981581)

    All it takes is $22.5k to buy a lawmaker.

    • Seems very affordable. I'm shocked.
    • How is this bribe different from what lobbyists always do? Was it too small?
      • That's what I was thinking. I'm encouraged that there's actually a precedent now of calling this bribery.. I'm hoping it will make it easier to change the narrative when the next politician or lobbyist gets "caught" and uses the "but everyone is doing it" defense.

  • I guess the biggest mistake Al Capone made was he didn't setup a corporation to do his crimes!

  • The penalty for AT&T should have been much harsher - $23 million is chicken feed to them. But aside from that, what about the man who was bribed? He was in a position of public trust. If people like this faced non-Club-Fed prison time on a consistent basis for selling out their constituents and violating their oath of office, corporate bribery would be a lot less effective at subverting legislation and enforcement.

    BTW, as far as I'm concerned lobbying itself is a form of corporate bribery and ought to b

    • Madigan, the politician involved, is up on "racketeering and bribery charges" at this time. This was just added to those charges:

      https://www.justice.gov/usao-n... [justice.gov]

      People have already plead guilty in this situation, the AT&T thing is just a super clear example. AT&T was giving up Madigan, saving face, and doing so for cheap. I think "settlement" should start with "b" rather than "m"illions.

      But who would the money go to (that isn't already corrupt, in any event the net result is consumers just pay m

  • But (Score:5, Insightful)

    by sir_smashalot_3rd ( 8248420 ) on Thursday October 20, 2022 @02:28AM (#62982055)
    corruption is the official political system in the USA so what did these people do wrong then ? 99% of all politicians take bribes in the form of campaign finance contributions.

  • $23m. Uh huh. (Score:3)

    by fyngyrz ( 762201 ) on Thursday October 20, 2022 @05:54AM (#62982289) Homepage Journal

    [AT&T] was fined $23 million for bribing a state lawmaker's ally

    ...that's not even a slap on the wrist. It's a sloppy kiss on the cheek and a chuckle.

  • First, Carrier of Last Resort (COLR) legislation that was a result of this bribe should be stricken from the record. Fruit of the poison tree.

    Second, there should be jail time on two fronts. One person or persons for solicitation of the bribe. Then Michael J. Madigan for accepting the bribe. Add anyone that helped in the coverup of this bribe. Not house arrest, not parole. 6 months or more in a 6 x 8 concrete box. Then number of people harmed by this is greater than any petty street crime.

    Third, inves

  • Apparently he isn't getting away with it. From back in March '22:

    https://www.justice.gov/usao-n... [justice.gov]

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