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New Jersey businessmen sentenced to jail for e-Rate fraud

The former co-owners of a New Jersey computer services provider each have been sentenced to 27 months in prison on charges of conspiracy to defraud the federal e-Rate program, which helps bring internet access to schools and libraries, PC World reports. Benjamin Rowner and Jay H. Soled, former owners of DeltaNet, also were sentenced to pay $271,716 each in restitution to the Universal Service Administrative Co. (USAC), which administers the e-Rate for the Federal Communications Commission. Rowner and Soled, working with Leonard Douglas LaDuron, conspired to defraud the e-Rate by submitting false and misleading statements and concealing material facts from USAC, the Justice Department said. The conspiracy, which ran from 1999 to 2003, reportedly affected at least 13 schools across the country. LaDuron, former owner of Serious ISP, Myco Technologies, and Elephantine, was sentenced on Dec. 16 to serve 57 months in jail and to pay $238,607 in restitution. LaDuron’s mother, Mary Jo LaDuron, fraudulently represented herself as an independent consultant for school districts and steered e-Rate contracts to companies owned by her son, Rowner, and Soled, the Justice Department alleged. Mary Jo LaDuron plead guilty to making false statements in July…

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