Note the FCC document says ETCs, not ISPs. And the Sandwich Isles USF abuse clearly must have taken place before the Connect America Fund was even created, so citing it as an example of ISP abuses is misleading. But that’s what Jon Brodkin does at Ars, write an ISP-bashing article every couple weeks to keep his angry followers angry.
From: Eric Kuhnke Sent: Thursday, October 22, 2015 3:17 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [AFMUG]ISPs “reminded” to not use government money for alcohol and vacations Sounds like this guy ruined it for everyone. Since 2002, Sandwich Isles Communications has collected $242,489,940 from the federal Universal Service Fund to serve no more than 3,659 customers. 2 During that same time, Albert Hee, the owner of Sandwich Isles’s parent company Waimana Enterprises and affiliate ClearCom, apparently used the company as his family’s personal piggy bank. For example, the companies apparently paid $96,000 so that Hee could receive two - hour massages twice a we ek; $119,909 for personal expenses, including family trips to Disney World, Tahiti, France, and Switzerland and a four - day family vacation at the Mauna Lani resort; $736,900 for college tuition and housing expenses for Hee’s three children; $1,300,000 for a home in Santa Clara, California for his children’s use as college housing; and $1,676,685 in wages and fringe benefits for his wife and three children. 3 That’s not all. When the FCC last looked at Sandwich Isles’s corporate expenses, our staff found tha t it was spending $5,460,973 more on corporate operations each year than similarly sized companies, with significant management and leasing fees to affiliated companies (like Waimana and ClearCom) that benefited Hee and his family. 4 On top of all that, sev en years ago, Sandwich Isles dropped a $1.9 - million - a - year lease it had with an independent undersea cable network in favor of a $15 - million - a - year lease for a cable network built by ClearCom and owned by Paniolo LLC. 5 Unsurprisingly, Paniolo is itself ow ned by Blue Ivory LLC, which is wholly owned by Blue Ivory Hawaii Corporation, which in turn is owned by private trusts of Hee’s three children. 6 What is worse, Sandwich Isles appears to no longer be paying what it owes to Paniolo — yet is still collecting payments from other rural telephone companies as if it were. On Thu, Oct 22, 2015 at 1:14 PM, Steve <[email protected]> wrote: Already trying to control the money. This is why we opted out of getting involved in any form of Government program. It just allows them to keep their fingers up your ass and use you as a puppet. http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/10/isps-reminded-to-not-use-government-money-for-alchohol-and-vacations/ Internet service providers who accept government funding in exchange for providing Internet access in rural areas were "reminded" this week that they're not allowed to use the money for food, alcohol, entertainment, personal travel, and other expenses unrelated to providing Internet access. The Federal Communications Commission issued a public notice with a "non-exhaustive list of expenditures" that cannot be reimbursed. The list includes all of the above as well as political contributions, charitable donations, scholarships, payment of penalties and fines, club membership fees, sponsorships of conferences and community events, gifts to employees, and personal expenses of employees and family members "including but not limited to personal expenses for housing, such as rent or mortgages."
