Marlink to Change Employee Vetting in FCC Enforcement of 'Team Telecom' Agreement

Marlink will pay a $175,000 fine and revise its controls of non-U.S. employees' access to its domestic infrastructure and some customer information under a consent decree with the FCC, announced Thursday. The commission said its investigation found that the satellite communications company didn't submit 186 foreign employees to DOJ for vetting before giving them access to U.S. communications infrastructure and customer information, as it was supposed to under a mitigation agreement that was a condition of its FCC licensing. Marlink's plan in the settlement includes setting up procedures for compliance with obligations concerning its foreign employees' access to domestic communications and communications infrastructure. The FCC said the Marlink consent decree was its first-ever enforcement of a mitigation agreement made with the Committee for the Assessment of Foreign Participation in the U.S. Telecommunications Services Sector ("Team Telecom").