Internet Company Accused Of Fraud In School Program
from the what-happened-here? dept
I’ve read over this article in the NY Times a few times, and it’s still a bit confusing as to what actually happened. However, it sounds like an internet company helped cheat the government’s e-rate program in order to buy more expensive computer equipment for schools. I think my confusion comes from the fact that I kept trying to figure out how the people involved stole the money, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. They just profited off of the increased business that schools wouldn’t have been able to afford otherwise. They set up a system where they bought more computers and equipment for the school than those schools could afford under the e-rate program – and then told the schools that they didn’t need to pay the bill. This was a scam, and the company clearly did profit off of it, at the government’s expense, but in the end, these schools got more computer equipment as well. I’m not saying that it was a good thing that these guys did, but there are scams that are a lot worse out there. Update: Reuters now has a copy of the story as well, if you’re averse to NY Times registrations.
