AT&T Hit With $23 Million Fine For Bribing Illinois Lawmaker

In just the last decade or so AT&T has been fined $18.6 million for helping rip off programs for the hearing impaired; fined $10.4 million for ripping off a program for low-income families; fined $105 million for helping crammers" rip off their customers; fined $60 million for lying to customers about the definition of unlimited" data; and accused of ripping off U.S. schools for decades.

The company's also no stranger to using sleazy lobbying to get whatever it wants, whether that's less competition, fewer consumer protections, rubber stamped mergers, or gigantic tax breaks that serve no useful public purpose. The vast, vast majority of the time the company faces absolutely no repercussion for its dodgy lobbying practices, especially those on the state level.

That luck recently ran out in Illinois, where the company was fined $23 million for bribing a state lawmaker's ally in order to secure a key policy vote. According to a deferred prosecution agreement, the vote in question was a 2017 vote on Carrier of Last Resort (COLR) legislation that would have eliminated AT&T's obligation to continue to provide landline service to all state residents.

AT&T of course wants to be free of having to provide dated landlines. Consumer groups are quick to note many of those landlines are used by old people who often can't afford (or don't understand how to use) cellular service, leaving them cut off from essential services and 911. They were also paid for on the back of millions in taxpayer subsidies, suggesting that taxpayers should have some say in the matter.

Instead of just making its case, AT&T used an intermediary lobbying firm to deliver $22,500 to former Illinois Speaker of the House Michael J. Madigan to influence his vote:

AT&T allegedly used a lobbying firm as an intermediary to make the payment and disguise its true purpose. US Attorney John Lausch's office filed a one-count criminal information in US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, charging AT&T Illinois with using an interstate facility to promote legislative misconduct. Former AT&T Illinois President Paul La Schiazza was indicted on five charges as a result of the same investigation.

As somebody that has covered AT&T for 22 years now, I know this kind of dirty pool happens pretty much constantly. In many states, AT&T all but owns the entirety of the state legislature, routinely literally writing state telecom policy and legislation. The vast, vast majority of the time, AT&T sees absolutely no penalty for the behavior, making this a rare occurrence.

AT&T's no stranger to these kinds of tactics on the federal level either. In the last five years alone the company managed to secure a massive $42 billion tax break in exchange for doing nothing, gutted the FCC and its consumer protection authority, eliminated both net neutrality and broadband privacy rules, and is currently helping to gridlock the nomination of FCC nominee Gigi Sohn.

All to protect its regional telecom monopoly, stall competition, and ensure U.S. consumer protection enforcement is a feckless mess. You don't get to enjoy six straight years of captured federal lawmakers without breaking more than a few of the nation's already extremely pathetic lobbying rules (like that time AT&T paid Trump fixer Mike Cohen $600k to gain inside access to the Trump White House).