OCC’s Anthony Pleads With House Committee to Reopen Bell Case, Listen to FBI Tapes

Longtime Oklahoma Corporation Commissioner Bob Anthony continued his efforts on Monday to breathe life into the refund case involving the 1989 Southwestern Bell bribery litigation. Commissioner Anthony urged the House General Government Oversight and Accountability Committee to pursue reopening the case which was recently dismissed by the same regulatory agency of which he is a member.

“There is ample legal authority to reopen and rehear the merits of this cause,” said Anthony, at the public committee meeting. “Other people say you can’t reopen this cause. In my humble opinion, you don’t have to reopen it because it was never closed. Bribed votes don’t count.”

The Commission dismissed the case in September of 2016. The dismissal hindered the actions of a small high-profile group seeking $16 billion in refunds due to the payoffs.

As reported in several articles by OK Energy Today, the bizarre case stems from the 1989 bribed vote by the late Commissioner Bob Hopkins. Anthony has contended that the original bribery by Southwestern Bell attorney Bill Anderson began when Anderson was a Commission staff attorney during the 1960s. Anderson took bribes from the telephone company and subsequently became a company employee who paid bribes to Commissioner Hopkins. Ultimately, both Anderson and Hopkins received a federal conviction and prison sentence for their actions.

During Monday’s testimony, Commissioner Anthony encouraged state legislators to listen to the infamous FBI tape recordings that contained evidence of payoffs, fraud and cover-ups by Southwestern Bell’s attorneys, lobbyists and executives. In 1992, Anthony admitted working directly with the FBI to investigate corruption at the regulatory agency.