A consumer’s group urging the Oklahoma Supreme Court to overturn a more than 25-year old rate case approved in a bribed vote for then Southwestern Bell Telephone company has come up with a plan to divide the $16 billion dollars it wants.
Oklahomans Against Bribery, made up of some of the six who have filed suit with the State Supreme Court against ATT announced a settlement plan laying out how $15.75 billion in refunds could be distributed.
In a recent release following a filing with the Supreme Court, the group proposed $10,000 per ATT landline customer since 1989, the date of the PUD 260 bribed 2-1 vote taken by the Corporation Commission. The proposal includes $2 billion over ten years for teacher pay raises and $1 billion for the state’s Rainy Day Fund. It also suggests $500 million each to Tinker Air Force Base and $500 million for other Department of Defense installations and Federal Executive Agencies in the state.
The Department of Defense and the FEA were parties were to the original ATT rate case, advocating a refund of the millions in excess revenues to ratepayers. Last year, the two federal groups attempted to join a rehearing of the case by the Corporation Commission. But Commissioners Dana Murphy and Todd Hiett denied the motion to join the case.
Now with the case before the State Supreme Court, there are reports that some top leaders of the FBI and the Department of Justice are paying close attention to what happened in the legal matter.
Former Oklahoma City FBI special agent in charge Bob Ricks is one of the six who filed suit with the Oklahoma Supreme Court. He was in charge of the FBI investigation that led to the bribery convictions of the late Corporation Commissioner Bob Hopkins and a SW Bell attorney. Both did time in prison in connection with the $10,000 bribe.