Broadband Adviser Picked by FCC Chairman Ajit Pai Arrested on Fraud Charges

[image: Ethan Miller/Getty Images]

By Nick Statt, The Verge | 

A broadband adviser selected by Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai to run a federal advisory committee was arrested last week on claims she tricked investors into pouring money into a multimillion-dollar investment fraud scheme, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The adviser, Elizabeth Pierce, is the former chief executive of Quintillion, an Alaska-based fiber optic cable provider operating out of Anchorage. In her capacity as CEO, Pierce allegedly raised more than $250 million from two New York-based investment companies using forged contracts with other companies guaranteeing hundreds of millions of dollars in future revenue. Pierce resigned from Quintillion in August of last year, and she stepped down from her role in Pai’s Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee (BDAC) the following month.

PAI PICKED PIERCE LAST YEAR TO CHAIR HIS NEWLY CREATED BROADBAND ADVISORY GROUP

“As it turned out, those sales agreements were worthless because the customers had not signed them,” US attorney Geoffrey Berman said in prepared remarks, as reported by the WSJ. “Instead, as alleged, Pierce had forged counter-party signatures on contract after contract. As a result of Pierce’s deception, the investment companies were left with a system that is worth far less than Pierce had led them to believe.” Pierce was trying to raise money to help build out a fiber optic system that would wire Alaska with high-speed internet and better help connect it to networks in other US states. Pierce was charged with wire fraud last Thursday and faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

Pierce was tapped by Pai in April of last year to be the chair of the BDAC, which he formed “to accelerate the deployment of high-speed internet access, or broadband, by reducing and removing regulatory barriers to infrastructure investment.” According to broadband industry news and advocacy website Stop the Cap, Pierce may have gotten on Pai’s radar by complaining about how cumbersome it was to bring internet access to parts of the country like Alaska.

In a statement issued last week, Quintillion says it began cooperating with the Department of Justice as soon as allegations against Pierce surfaced last year. “Quintillion became aware of the situation regarding the alleged actions of Ms. Pierce last year, took swift action and self-reported to the Department of Justice (DOJ). Quintillion has been cooperating fully with the authorities during this ongoing investigation,” reads the company’s press release on the charges. The company goes on to say that “the ongoing investigation has not impacted Quintillion’s operations nor the quality of its services,” and that it “continues to move aggressively to extend its network and provide world-class telecommunications to Alaska and beyond.”

The post Broadband Adviser Picked by FCC Chairman Ajit Pai Arrested on Fraud Charges appeared first on The Sleuth Journal.

Health Ranger Will ‘Water Down’ Political Videos To Avoid YouTube Censorship

It’s nothing new – another YouTuber has been threatened with a ban for saying things that YouTube dislikes. Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, has recently released an alarming video declaring he’s going to “water down” his political commentary to avoid being silenced.

Adams runs the website NaturalNews.com and has often been critical of the government and the pharmaceutical industry, prompting YouTube to threaten to silence him. In his video, titled Sobering Health Ranger ANNOUNCEMENT For YouTube Fans, Adams details just how bad censorship in America has become.

Adams’ video comes on the heels of Twitter’s “purge” of non-leftist accounts, leading many to believe social media is intentionally silencing dissenting views. The death of free speech is imminent.

“Ok, major announcement for the YouTube channel,” Adams says to begin his video. “The Health Ranger YouTube channel will no longer be able to post many politically oriented commentary podcasts because YouTube threatened to shut down the channel if we continue to expose FBI corruption, the fake science lab of the FBI, fake race crime hoaxes, or any other content that the fragile snowflake leftists do no like.”

This should concern everyone, regardless of political affiliation. Free speech shouldn’t be up for debate, and humans should be willing to hear an opposing point of view. Being offended isn’t an option. You either use your free speech to say something back or ignore the speech you dislike (like you do with government corruption and democrats killing kids overseas).

“It’s pretty obvious at this point that YouTube censors or moderators are very very biased people and very psychologically fragile people, beause they openly allow death threats against President Trump, right? They openly allow death threats against the FCC Commissioner; Pai is his name. They openly allow all kinds of death threats or bullying aginst Christians or against heterosexuals or against white males in particular. This is openly allowed all over YouTube. But if you’re a conservative speaker you’re going to be censored.”

Adams also clearly states he isn’t just conservative. He considers himself a “free thinker.” He says he often holds views that are libertarian, progressive, and conservative.

“As a result [of censorship by YouTube] the Health Ranger channel will have to be, sadly, watered down on YouTube to be just the positive commentary…if that’s what you wanna hear, if that’s your life, that, you don’t want reality, you don’t want intelligent commentary…except Trump; Trump is horrible [sarcasm can be heard in the video], than that’s YouTube.”

But Adams does have some good news amidst YouTube’s threats of censorship.

“We are very close now to finishing our own new video system or video hosting system, which will be open to other voices that are being censored including conservative voices, and progressive voices, and libertarian voices. It is in essence competeing with YouTube, but of course, more from an independent media point of view. And we’re close to launching this.”

Although Adams doesn’t have a domain name for the new site yet, he says anyone can go there to hear criticism of the government that is often shut down. Plus he plans on posting more “natural health” and nutrition videos which could be a huge benefit to others.

YouTube can have whatever policy they want, the problem is that they are not applying their rules equally across the board.

Censorship is the antithesis of freedom.

Video: Leftists Embrace Domestic Terrorism, Call For Assassination Of FCC Chairman Ajit Pai Over Repeal Of Net Neutrality Rules

The Federal Communications Commission voted Thursday to “dismantle” Obama-era rules that regulated the businesses that connect Americans to the internet in a move that the left has breathlessly attacked since its announcement.

The so-called net neutrality regulations were supposedly put in place to prohibit broadband providers from blocking websites and or charging consumers for higher-quality services or to watch certain content such as Netflix.

“The action reversed the agency’s 2015 decision, during the Obama administration, to have stronger oversight over broadband providers as Americans have migrated to the internet for most communications. It reflected the view of the Trump administration and the new F.C.C. chairman that unregulated business will eventually yield innovation and help the economy,” reported The New York Times.

“It will take weeks for the repeal to go into effect, so consumers will not see any of the potential changes right away. But the political and legal fight started immediately. Numerous Democrats on Capitol Hill called for a bill that would reestablish the rules, and several Democratic state attorneys general, including Eric T. Schneiderman of New York, said they would file a suit to stop the change.”

While The New York Times noted that the “legal fight” has started immediately, they failed to even acknowledge the numerous calls for violence against the Republican chairman of the FCC that included direct threats of assassination.

“I hope a dark web assassin kills Ajit Pai,” one of the disgusting Tweets read. “Can someone please kill this subhuman scum? read another.

As Infowars.com reported, “Does net neutrality cripple innovation or encourage it? Ultimately the FCC would vote to release the internet back to its pre-Obama days in the wild, but more death threats against FCC Chairman Ajit Pai weigh in on Twitter. It’s the way the left operates now as they embrace domestic terrorism unchecked in the face of our Republic.”

One can only imagine what the mainstream media would be doing if Trump supporters openly called for the death of a Democratic politician….