NextiraOne, a networking equipment and services vendor, was sentenced Thursday to pay more than US$4.5 million in fines and restitution for defrauding a U.S. government program intended to bring the Internet to schools and libraries in poor areas, the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) announced.The charges against NextiraOne, based in Houston, included defrauding schools at the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota by overbilling for networking equipment funded by the U.S. E-Rate program, the DoJ said. The E-Rate program, administered by the private Universal Service Administrative Co. on behalf of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, has come under fire in the U.S. Congress in recent years after numerous reports of fraud and abuse.NextiraOne, a subsidiary of Platinum Equity, defrauded the E-Rate program and the Oglala Nation Educational Coalition member schools by inflating equipment prices, submitting false and fraudulent invoices for payment, and failing to install and deliver certain equipment and services originally billed to the E-Rate program, according to charges filed in U.S. District Court in South Dakota.NextiraOne cooperated in the investigation, and under a plea agreement has agreed to continue to do so, the DoJ said. NextiraOne will pay a $1.9 million criminal fine, and a civil settlement filed Thursday requires NextiraOne to forfeit more than $2.6 million for uncompensated work previously performed at other school districts. There was no answer at NextiraOne’s Houston headquarters Friday morning.Also this week, the DoJ announced an indictment against Cynthia K. Ayer, a former technology director of Bamberg County School District One in South Carolina, on E-Rate-related fraud charges. A South Carolina grand jury on Wednesday charged Ayer with 10 counts of mail fraud and two counts of wire fraud for allegedly funneling E-Rate money to a company she owned. The E-Rate program, sometimes called the “Gore tax” after E-Rate champion and former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, subsidizes Internet access, telecommunications services and internal communications networks to schools and libraries in poor areas. The program was created by Congress in the Telecommunications Act of 1996, and its $1.9 billion annual budget is funded by telecommunications carriers through the federal Universal Service Fund. Including Thursday’s charge, 11 people and 10 companies have been charged as part of the DoJ Antitrust Division’s ongoing investigation into fraud and anticompetitive conduct in the E-Rate program. Six companies and three people have either pleaded guilty or have entered civil settlements.-Grant Gross, IDG News ServiceCheck out our CIO News Alerts and Tech Informer pages for more updated news coverage. Related content feature Key IT initiatives reshape the CIO agenda While cloud, cybersecurity, and analytics remain top of mind for IT leaders, a shift toward delivering business value is altering how CIOs approach key priorities, pushing transformative projects to the next phase. By Mary Pratt May 30, 2023 10 mins IT Strategy IT Leadership opinion Managing IT right starts with rightsizing IT for value While there are few universals when it comes to saying unambiguously what ‘managing IT right’ looks like, knowing how to navigate the limitless possibilities of IT is surely one. By Thornton May May 30, 2023 6 mins Digital Transformation IT Strategy IT Leadership brandpost Designing the campus of the future starts with high-quality 10Gbps connectivity By Huawei May 30, 2023 4 mins Network Architect Networking Devices Networking feature Red Hat embraces hybrid cloud for internal IT The maker of OpenShift has leveraged its own open container offering to migrate business-critical apps to AWS as part of a strategy to move beyond facilitating hybrid cloud for others and capitalize on the model for itself. By Paula Rooney May 29, 2023 5 mins CIO 100 Technology Industry Hybrid Cloud Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe