A special committee of independent board members has completed a CenturyLink cramming investigation without revealing evidence to conclude that any member of the company’s management team engaged in fraud or wrongdoing with regard to consumer sales, service and billing procedures and practices. The investigation stems from accusations by a former CenturyLink employee of widespread ‘cramming’ fraud by the carrier.
Over the past six months, the special committee, together with independent counsel from O’Melveny & Myers LLP and forensic data analysts, collected and searched more than 9.7 million documents as well as 4.3 terabytes of billing data consisting of over 32 billion billing records; they also interviewed more than 200 current and former company employees.
CenturyLink Cramming Investigation
According to CenturyLink, the investigation also found that company management did not condone or encourage cramming, and the evidence did not show that cramming was common.
In a press release, CenturyLink said that it maintains specific policies and procedures that prohibit and are designed to prevent and deter cramming. When instances of cramming were found to have occurred, the company took reasonable actions to discipline employees. However, the company’s investment in consumer sales monitoring was not sufficiently effective in proactively detecting and quantifying potential cramming.
“The company accepts the special committee’s findings and conclusions,” said CenturyLink CEO Glen Post in a prepared statement. “The investigation confirmed my long-held belief that there was no fraud or wrongdoing at the company and that cramming was neither widespread nor condoned. However, we know there have been times when we haven’t provided our customers the experience they deserve. We have identified a number of areas where we can improve the customer experience and have already made significant progress in addressing those areas.”
