Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Nextel Hit With $300K In Billing Fraud- JSD's Philip O'Donnell, Chief Internal Investigator "Nextel had people who were circumventing the system".

From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 17 Sep 2003 17:34:39 -0400

Nextel Hit With $300K In Billing Fraud- JSD's Philip O'Donnell, Chief Internal
Investigator "Nextel had people who were circumventing the system".

Timmy's Billing system fails again. He has repeatly bragged how much money the
Amdocs billing system has saved Nextel but when you drill down on the issue major
fraud still exists, this time to the tune of $300K.

Instead of owning up Nextel switches to CYA mode as demonstrated below.

Sean Hughes, a spokesman for Reston, Va.-based Nextel, expressed surprise at the
statement.
"We are not aware of any allegations of impropriety on behalf of Nextel," Hughes
said.

This time Nextel has Sen. John C. Astle, an Annapolis Democrat and a member of the
audit committee on their case so they won't be "Blowing Him Off" like they
normally do normal customers.

This brings me back to the famous "How Business gets Done"

- With Crooks On The Inside!

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Nextel Hit With $300K In Billing Fraud- JSD's Philip O'Donnell, Chief Internal
Investigator "Nextel had people who were circumventing the system"

Ex-workers investigated in theft of Md. phones
Juvenile Services official says indictments expected
By Michael Dresser
Sun Staff
September 17, 2003

The Maryland attorney general's office and Baltimore police are investigating
former employees of the Department of Juvenile Services in the theft of 300
cellular phones that were used to run up more than $300,000 in calls billed to the
state, officials said yesterday.

Philip A. O'Donnell, chief internal investigator for the Juvenile Services
Department, told legislators that "several serious felony indictments" are
expected shortly.

The disclosure was made at a meeting of the General Assembly's Joint Audit
Committee, where legislators were briefed on a scathing audit of the troubled
department's financial controls and contract oversight.  O'Donnell said he was
contacted in February by Aberdeen city police, who had recovered two laptop
computers that belonged to the agency.

He said information in the computers alerted officials to the missing cell
phones.  By calling the cell phone numbers, his investigators determined that the
equipment was in the hands of people other than state employees.  "We determined
that major criminal activity was taking place," said O'Donnell, who is acting
assistant secretary of the department's Office of Professional Responsibility and
Accountability.

He added, "Everybody who is a suspect has been terminated."
The attorney general's office declined comment yesterday.
Billing dispute

The theft has led to a dispute between the state and its vendor, Nextel
Communications, over the bills for the unauthorized calls made on the stolen
phones.  The department has paid the company $42,000 for the calls, auditors said,
while Nextel has billed the state for an additional $267,000.

Officials said the state is talking with Nextel lawyers about recovering some of
the money that has been paid.
"There's culpability on both sides. We had employees who were circumventing the
system. Nextel had people who were circumventing the system," O'Donnell said.

Sean Hughes, a spokesman for Reston, Va.-based Nextel, expressed surprise at the
statement.
"We are not aware of any allegations of impropriety on behalf of Nextel," Hughes
said.
He said the company is open to discussing billing issues with the state as it
would with any customer.
Sen. John C. Astle, an Annapolis Democrat and a member of the audit committee,
said the cell phone theft shows that the department "didn't have the internal
audit functions working well enough."

He said he was not as concerned about the cell phones as he was about other
findings by legislative auditors.
Lack of oversight

Among those was that the department had gone two years during the Glendening
administration without monitoring the performance of its vendors.

Peter J. Klemans, who led the audit team, said the employees who normally would
have overseen contracts were shifted to other priorities by then-Secretary Bishop
L. Robinson from July 2000 to early last year.

Klemans said the department, which spends about $65 million a year on private
contractors, was left with no mechanism to verify that vendors were providing
services -- including medical, educational and psychiatric care of juveniles.
 Department officials said they have since resumed contract oversight.

http://www.sunspot.net/news/local/bal-md.juvenile17sep17,0,5179747.story?coll=bal-local-headlines