Attorney General Jim Hood has announced that the State of Mississippi has settled its claims with Global Tel*Link Corporation for $2.5 million dollars.
“I am pleased with Global Tel*Link for cooperating and quickly resolving this matter with the State’s taxpayers,” said General Hood. “As a company that continues to contract with the State, Global Tel*Link quickly approached our office seeking settlement after the Epps scandal. Due to their cooperation, we have now resolved this matter.”
This settlement ends the second of 11 civil actions the Attorney General filed on February 8, 2017, accusing 10 people and 12 out-of-state businesses of using alleged “consultants” as conduits to pay bribes and kickbacks to then-Commissioner Epps for the awarding and retention of Mississippi Department of Corrections contracts. All of this defrauded the state through what the AG calls a pattern of misrepresentation, fraud, concealment, money laundering and other wrongful conduct all connected to former MDOC boss Christopher Epps.
In relation to this scandal, Attorney General Jim Hood has recovered $4.5 million dollars.
“We will continue to aggressively pursue these remaining cases not only to disgorge these other companies and individuals of their ill-gotten profits, but also the value of the public contracts. Before this is over, companies that aren’t willing to do right by Mississippi taxpayers will wish they never heard the word ‘consultant’ or ‘bribe’ in the state of Mississippi, said General Hood. “Corporations who play these illegal games with Mississippi taxpayers’ money should take note that the state of Mississippi will get its money back and then some.”
