4 days ago
Wealthy owner of Florida telecom firm gets 5 years for fleecing $110M from U.S.
The wealthy owner of a major South Florida telecommunications company was sentenced on Thursday to five years in prison and ordered to pay about $110 million to the U.S. government for fleecing a federal program known as 'Lifeline' that provides discounted phone services to low-income customers.
Issa Asad, CEO of Q Link Wireless LLC, and his Dania Beach-based company pleaded guilty last year to conspiring to defraud the U.S. government program, including theft of public funds, before U.S. District Judge Rodolfo Ruiz in Miami federal court.
At the same time, Asad, 52, of Southwest Ranches, also pleaded guilty to bilking a government loan program meant to help struggling businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Under the terms of the plea deals with prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney's Office, Asad and Q Link agreed to pay back the Federal Communications Commission in one of the largest financial penalties in the agency's history. Court records show they have paid almost all of the $110 million in restitution to the FCC. Also, Asad paid a criminal penalty of $17.5 to the government, representing his ill-gotten income from Q Link's Lifeline phone services scam.
Asad also paid about $1.8 million in restitution to the Small Business Administration for laundering loan proceeds that his company received from the Paycheck Protection Program during the pandemic. He admitted to using that fraudulent money for construction on his new home, and more than $140,000 on property taxes, jewelry and donations to a local university.
Asad must surrender to federal prison authorities in two months, Judge Ruiz ordered on Thursday.
This was not Asad's first brush with the law.
In 2014, Asad was charged with murder in connection with driving his Mercedes over a groundskeeper at his Dania Beach business following a dispute over $65 in pay for lawn services. Five years later, Asad pleaded no contest to misdemeanor culpuable negligence and was given one year of probation in Broward Circuit Court, according to court documents. Asad was also ordered to pay a $225 fine.
Court records provided no explanation for the dramatically different outcome in the criminal case. But while the case was pending, the groundkeeper's family sued Asad over her brother's death in civil court, ending in a confidential settlement before the murder charge was substantially reduced to a misdemeanor.
In Miami federal court, Asad and his company admitted to a longtime scheme to defraud the FCC's Lifeline program. It makes everyday communications services more affordable for low-income customers by providing deep discounts on certain monthly cellphone service, broadband internet service and bundled voice-broadband packages purchased from participating telecom provider.
Asad and Q Link, represented by the law firm Kobre & Kim, admitted that they purposely conspired to defraud the FCC program between 2012 and 2021 by providing false information about their Lifeline customers and making repeated false claims for government reimbursement, according to a factual statement filed with their plea agreements. They also admitted to retaining Lifeline funds that they were not entitled to receive and deceiving the FCC about the company's compliance with program rules.
'Upon learning that the FCC was investigating their Lifeline billing, Q Link and Asad created and provided false records to the FCC to conceal the scam and to continue collecting reimbursement,' according to a sentencing memo filed by prosecutors Elizabeth Young and John Shipley. 'As part of this plan, they simply manufactured cellphone activity on behalf of Q Link customers who were not using their cellphones.
'At no point did Q Link amend past Lifeline claims for customers who were not using their cellphones or return any of the Lifeline payments (something they could have done),' they wrote in the memo.
The case, filed last year, was investigated by the FCC, IRS, U.S. Postal Inspection Service and Special Inspector for Pandemic Recovery.
