Inmate Advocacy Group Cites GTL 'Corruption' Case, Seeks Broader FCC Investigation
The Human Rights Defense Center urged an FCC probe and action in light of "corruption involving Global Tel*Link, the country's largest provider of Inmate Calling Services (ICS), and others as alleged" by Mississippi's attorney general. HRDC noted its prior filings…
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on a GTL paid consultant charged in federal court with bribing a Mississippi correctional official to retain the company as the state's sole ICS provider. The consultant pled guilty, agreed to a $200,000 forfeiture, was fined $100,000 and sentenced to five years in prison, the inmate advocacy group said in a filing Thursday in docket 12-375. It said Mississippi's AG filed a civil action Feb. 8 against GTL, the consultant and the Mississippi correctional official alleging "one of the largest and longest running criminal and civil conspiracies in Mississippi government history," including "bribery, kickbacks, misrepresentation, fraud, concealment, money laundering and wrongful conduct." GTL allegedly "paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in so-called 'consulting fees,'" which "were used to pay bribes and kickbacks" to the Mississippi correctional official, HRDC wrote. ICS providers "actively resist legitimate public records requests for documents," HRDC wrote. "This case is typical of prison corruption cases in that the corruption is rarely if ever detected by audits, contract reviews or any other purported 'checks and balances' systems. The FCC should develop stringent requirements for transparency within the ICS industry to detect and deter corruption of this nature." The group asked the FCC to use its subpoena power to investigate ICS provider "consultant" lobbying for exclusive contracts, and at a minimum, require all providers to identify all paid consultants and compensation. GTL didn't comment Friday.