Inter-Tel Technologies pleaded guilty and agreed to pay a $1.7 mi...

Inter-Tel Technologies pleaded guilty and agreed to pay a $1.7 million criminal fine and $7 million in settlement and restitution in an E-rate program bid rigging and wire fraud case. The Dept. of Justice and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Francisco said Inter-Tel was charged with seeking to defraud the E-Rate program at Mich. and Cal. school districts. In San Francisco, the company was charged with “inflating bids, agreeing to submit false and fraudulent documents to hide the planned installation of ineligible items and submitting false and fraudulent documents to defeat inquiry into the legitimacy of the funding request.” The San Francisco case was highlighted in a House Commerce Committee hearing (CD July 23 p7) in which the school district’s superintendent was lauded for blowing the whistle on the scheme. Inter-Tel, NEC Business Network Solutions, which pleaded guilty in May, and several other companies were involved.