Elizabeth Ann Pierce, the former CEO of Quintillion, a telecommunications firm building a subsea and terrestrial fiber network in Alaska, has been arrested and charged with fraud by U.S. federal authorities.
The allegations accuse Pierce with a scheme to use forged guaranteed revenue contracts to fraudulently induce investors to invest more than $250 million in the fiber optic cable network in Alaska. The faked documents reportedly assured that Quintillion would collect hundreds of millions of dollars in future revenue, but proved to be worthless. The fraudulent activity is said to have occurred between 2015 and 2017.
U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said: “To realize her plan to build a fiber optic system that would service Alaska and connect it to the lower 48 states, Elizabeth Ann Pierce allegedly convinced two investment companies that she had secured signed contracts that would supposedly generate hundreds of millions of dollars in guaranteed future revenue from the system. As it turned out, those sales agreements were worthless because the customers had not signed them. Instead, as alleged, Pierce had forged counterparty 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.”
In a statement, Quintillion says it “self-reported” last year to the U.S Department of Justice when it became aware of the alleged actions and that it is cooperating with authorities. The company says the ongoing investigation has not impacted its network operations. An interim CEO, George Tronsrue III, was appointed last August when Pierce abruptly resigned.
In December 2017, Quintillion announced the activation of commercial service on its new subsea fiber optic cable system serving five northern Alaska communities: Utqiaġvik, Wainwright, Point Hope, Nome, and Kotzebue.
Installation of the Alaska Arctic portion of the international Quintillion Subsea Cable System was completed in early October.
Quintillion’s subsea and terrestrial fiber optic network spans 1,400 miles, including a subsea trunk line from Prudhoe Bay to Nome with branching lines to the five communities.
Quintillion is aiming to extend its Arctic subsea cable system westwards to Asia (phase 2) and then eastwards to Europe (phase 3).
In July 2015, Quintillion Subsea Holdings awarded a turnkey contract to Alcatel-Lucent for the design and construction of a submarine cable system in Alaska from Prudhoe Bay to Nome.
