Indictment Charges Sprint Employees Defrauded Telecommunications Company

Press Release, Aug 22, 2006

The crimes are alleged to have occurred from November 2000 to July 2002 in Johnson County, Kan., while Genova and Drew were Sprint employees

Kansas City, Kan. – Two Sprint employees working secretly for a high tech consulting firm helped it get the upper hand in contract negotiations with the Overland Park-based telecommunications company, a federal indictment filed here today charges.

Leslie Genova, 45, Lee’s Summit, Mo., Mary Drew, 43, Cleveland, Mo., Daniel Coffey III, 54, Middlebury, Vt., and William Collum, 48, Florence, Texas, are charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and 10 counts of wire fraud. The crimes are alleged to have occurred from November 2000 to July 2002 in Johnson County, Kan., while Genova and Drew were Sprint employees and Coffey and Collum were doing work under contract for Sprint.

“The indictment states that Ms. Genova used a false name during negotiations on teleconference calls so fellow Sprint employees would not recognize her, and Ms. Drew remained silent during teleconference calls so her voice would not be recognized,” said U.S. Attorney Eric Melgren.

According to the indictment:

– Coffey was the founder of a software development company called Four Corners Telecommunications Corp (Four C), which had offices in Overland Park and Burlington, Vt.

– Collum joined Four C in the summer of 2001.

– Coffey was retained by Sprint as an independent contractor to work on the Sprint ION (Integrated On-Demand Network) project, which sought to provide customers with simultaneous voice, video and data services through a single telephone line. Collum also worked as an independent contractor with Sprint on the ION project at the same time as Coffey.

– In late 2000, a bid was submitted to Sprint on behalf of Four C to implement a network management system based on software developed by Coffey and two unindicted co-conspirators.

– In December 2000 Sprint hired Four C to provide computer consulting services.

– In spring 2001, while Coffey and the unindicted co-conspirators were doing consulting work for Sprint, they began negotiations on an amendment to the contract between Sprint and Four C, which they knew could be worth $4 million to $6 million. Read more at kansascity.fbi.gov