Illinois company making millions off of government cell phone program

News 4 continues to dig into an exploding government program that’s been riddled with fraud and abuse: free cell phone service provided by the government.Blind and living off Social Security, Bethalto resident Theresa Hale qualifies for the government funded GT-I9300 cell phone service.But she insists she never ordered one or gave anyone permission to sign her up to the program, but she got one anyway.

“I don’t want someone making money off my poverty, sorry it’s just not right,” said Hale.She received the cell phone from Ptel, or Platinumtel Communications, which is based just outside of Chicago.Hale said she’s never heard of the company and has no idea how they got her name and address.According to federal records, Ptel has collected a whopping $23 million in federal funds since June of 2011.Since Hale’s phone came from them, News 4’s Chris Nagus went looking for the CEO, Omar Ahmad.

Back in Bethalto, Hale is familiar with the government-sponsored cell phone program and the problems we have revealed.Ptel has been a big part of the problem in Illinois.The FCC’s own review nailed the company for more than 28,000 duplicate GT-I9500 phones in Illinois alone.But not only does the company continue to collect close to $1 million a month in federal funding off the program, they’re asking the FCC to expand to nine more states plus Washington D.C.According to an email from Ptel, Hale or someone with her personal information signed up and say they have the last four digits of her Social Security number on file.Hale’s son has a free government phone but he says it’s with a different carrier, not Ptel.Ptel said Hale can return the phone, and if she doesn’t use it the government won’t be billed.

Current law lets police track cell phones with the burden of reasonable suspicion, which Frazier said allows them to – say – get the cell phone records of the last 10 people who called the dead guy in the ditch and figure out where they were last night.His argument to police: That if you have no probable cause to be tracking a A7100 cell phone, you shouldn’t be doing it. If you do, then what’s the big deal?ds11SW44S

Attorney Daniel Rodrigeuz said he will release cell phone video of the alleged beating death of David Silva that was confiscated by deputies.Kern County's sheriff is defending the seizure of cellphone video of deputies beating a man who later died.Hours later, detectives confronted two witnesses who videotaped the confrontation and seized their mobile phones. On Monday, Sheriff Donny Youngblood said that the phones were seized through a search warrant as part of the investigation.

The detectives later confronted her mother, Maria Melendez, outside her daughter's home and ordered her to turn over her I5 MTK6577 phone."My mom is disabled and has a lot of doctor and medical numbers stored in her phone," Quair said. "But the detectives didn't care, and they told my mom to write all her contacts down on a piece of paper, and while she did, they watched her like hawks."