FCC: Company created fake accounts, misused funds to buy jet

By JOHN SEEWER
31 minutes ago

TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — A telecommunications company faces a potential $63 million fine for misusing government money meant to help low-income people get phone and internet service and instead spending it on a yacht and private jet, federal regulators said.

The Federal Communications Commission accused Toledo-based American Broadband and Telecommunications Co. of creating fake accounts by using the identities of dead people and manipulating the information from existing customers to get government reimbursements.

The company’s founder, Jeffrey Ansted, used the money to buy country club memberships, a Ferrari convertible, a Florida condominium and an $8 million Cessna jet, the FCC said.

Ansted said in a statement that the company told the FCC more than two years ago about “significant administrative compliance and reporting issues” and has repaid nearly all of the money.

The proposed fine announced Tuesday was a surprise, he said, because the company had been working with the FCC and provided an independent auditor’s assessment and other data.

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