Daniel Linville Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Broadband Funding Theft Case Sparks Fraud Alert

As the state embarks on a massive, federally-funded broadband project, a Morgantown internet service provider is facing federal broadband fund theft charges.

The criminal case alleges that Timothy Chad Henson, owner of Monongalia County internet service provider Clearfiber, Inc., defrauded the federal government for more than a quarter million dollars.

William Ihlenfeld, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of West Virginia, said according to court documents, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Community Connect Program offered grants to eligible applicants providing broadband services to rural areas. On behalf of Clearfiber, Henson applied for, and was awarded, $1.96 million to offer high-speed internet services in Monongalia and Marion counties.

Henson is charged with submitting false invoices to receive more than $340,000 in reimbursement, then transferring $322,900 into another bank account for his personal use.

“The way it works is they don’t simply give you all of the money,” Ihlenfeld said. “The grant is awarded, and then you submit invoices, and then the USDA reimburses you for those invoices that you’ve submitted. What Mr. Henson is alleged to have submitted fabricated invoices, at least 30 of them, for a variety of cable and fiber and broadband companies that operate in and around West Virginia.”

Ihnelfeld said Henson extended his fraudulent schemes outside the state as well.

“He created a document that appeared to be an invoice from a company in North Carolina,” he said. “Hensen submitted it to the USDA and then he was reimbursed for what was indicated on that invoice. The reality of it was that he didn’t actually obtain fiber optic cable from that company. He didn’t obtain services from another company down the road. Instead he fabricated the invoices. He received reimbursement from the grant and then he kept the money for himself.”

Ihlenfeld said the schemes also included ordering thousands of dollars of fiber optic cable from one company.

“Then he turned around and very quickly sold it to another company,” Ihlenfled said. “He didn’t pay the first company for the cable, so they were left holding the bag. They didn’t receive the $209,000 they should have. Hensen turned around and sold it to someone else and pocketed the money that he gained from the sale.”

Ihelnfeld said it’s not just cable companies and taxpayers victimized here, but rural customers who never got intended internet service.

“We’re back to square one with some of these homeowners who don’t have access to broadband,” Ihlenfeld said. “This has been a problem for a long time in our state and there’s a lot of money that is coming in from the federal government to try to help and address this.”

He’s referring to the $1.2 billion federally funded “last mile” broadband project, involving numerous internet service providers. Last mile programs mean helping providers install cable to hook up rural customers, going the “last mile” from established service to their homes.

Del. Daniel Linvlle, R-Cabell, and chair of the House Committee on Technology and Infrastructure, said project fraud safeguards include multiple steps to insure that invoiced work has occurred.

“As we’re actually giving out any of these grants, that money is not transferred until services are actually performed,” Linville said. “So, we’re able to say, look, as you build these things, send us the invoices, and then we will make sure that, that has actually occurred, and then send out the grant dollars for only those portions which have actually happened. We actually have spot checks that are going on as we do these grants to make 100 percent sure that we’re actually getting what it is that we’ve paid for.”

Ihlenfeld hopes the Clearfiber case creates a red flag of fraud due diligence. But, with millions of dollars coming in, and remembering the massive fraud with COVID-19 federal funds, he said he fears the worst.

“With the enormous amounts of money that are going to be thrown at broadband in West Virginia and across the country, we will see more cases, like we have here with Timothy Hansen,” Ihlenfeld said. “I think we can take steps, and the holders of the money can take steps, to make it much more difficult for fraud to occur by engaging in very thorough due diligence and not trusting any invoice and verifying every invoice, and then following up and making sure that the work is actually being done, as it’s been promised.”

Ihlenfeld said there is a tentative plea agreement reached in the case including restitution and prison time.

“He has to face the United States District Court judge who is going to be asked by the government, by me, to impose a lengthy jail sentence,” Ihlenfeld said.

Henson is scheduled for an initial appearance on May 29 before U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael John Aloi. He faces up to 10 years in federal prison.

Hurdles To Broadband Connectivity On This West Virginia Morning

On this West Virginia Morning, to have broadband connectivity for all of West Virginia within five years, there are progress and time markers that must be met. We talk with a lawmaker and stakeholder about meeting those markers.

On this West Virginia Morning, to have broadband connectivity for all of West Virginia within five years, there are progress and time markers that must be met to get all of the $1.2 billion federal dollars to complete the work.

In a recent episode of The Legislature Today, Randy Yohe sat down with House Technology and Infrastructure Committee Chair Del. Daniel Linville, R-Cabell, and Broadband Consultant Charlie Dennie to discuss meeting those markers.

West Virginia Morning is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting which is solely responsible for its content.

Support for our news bureaus comes from Shepherd University.

Eric Douglas is our news director and producer.

Listen to West Virginia Morning weekdays at 7:43 a.m. on WVPB Radio or subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode. #WVMorning

Meeting W.Va.’s Broadband Needs

On this episode of The Legislature Today, Randy Yohe sits down with Del. Daniel Linville, R-Cabell, and Broadband Consultant Charlie Dennie to broadband connectivity for West Virginians.

On this episode of The Legislature Today, Senate President Craig Blair, R-Berkeley, and other members of the upper chamber held a press conference to discuss the recent pause on new permits for liquefied natural gas exports. Briana Heaney has the story.

In the House, the House Committee on Energy and Manufacturing discussed a bill that would prevent publicly sourced air pollution data from being used in lawsuits and regulatory proceedings.

Also, in the House, a resolution regarding a constitutional amendment over a woman’s reproductive rights is under consideration.

In the Senate, the Senate Education Committee quickly moved along five bills, many of which updated existing educational programs. One bill would add another university to the list of eligible institutions for the Promise Scholarship. Chris Schulz has more.

And, the full Senate approved and sent one bill to the House. It would permit wineries to serve wine without serving food, and it would also permit wine to be served at festivals. The Senate advanced eight other bills. Two of these bills, if passed without amendments, will head to the governor’s desk. Briana Heaney has more.

Advocates from across the state gathered at the state capitol Thursday to bring attention to sexual violence. Emily Rice has the story.

Finally, in meeting the plan to have broadband connectivity for all of West Virginia within five years, there are progress and time markers that must be met to get all the $1.2 billion federal dollars to complete the work. Randy Yohe sits down with Del. Daniel Linville, R-Cabell, and Broadband Consultant Charlie Dennie to talk about meeting those markers.

Having trouble viewing the video below? Click here to watch it on YouTube.

The Legislature Today is West Virginia’s only television/radio simulcast devoted to covering the state’s 60-day regular legislative session.

Watch or listen to new episodes Monday through Friday at 6 p.m. on West Virginia Public Broadcasting.

State Agency Email Preservation Policies Under Review

Ongoing court cases involving West Virginia’s corrections and foster care agencies have raised concerns on retaining state agency emails as litigation evidence. Lawmakers are now getting responses in their attempt to ensure that needed emails are not lost.

A federal, class-action lawsuit filed in 2019 regarding the state’s foster care system has plaintiffs seeking sanctions. The case includes allegations of deleting emails of former state officials with the state Department of Health and Human Resources.

During recent legislative interim meetings, Del. Amy Summers, R-Taylor, the House Health and Human Resources Committee chair, questioned the incoming secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Cynthia Persily. Summers noted that Persily said department leaders were unaware of Office of Technology policies regarding email preservation.

“Secretary Persily said they did not know that the Office of Technology had a policy to dump out accounts once people left, ” Summers said. “That makes me assume that [former] DHHR Secretary Bill Crouch, [former] Interim DHHR Secretary Jeff Coben, and [former] DHHR Deputy Secretary Jeramiah Samples emails have all been purged.”

Since that period, lawmakers have divided DHHR into three cabinet agencies, beginning in June 2024.

Persily responded that the department is working closely with the Office of Technology to establish protocols to ensure nothing like this happens again. Summers asked the chair of the House Technology and Infrastructure Committee, Del. Daniel Linville, R-Cabell, to follow up.

In a related case/issue, the state settled part of a class-action lawsuit last week over conditions at the Southern Regional Jail. The $4 million settlement came after a federal magistrate said there was intentional destruction of email and documents demanded in evidence discovery. Two state corrections leaders were fired after the magistrate’s ruling. Following all that, the Justice Administration said the missing emails were discovered in a different place.

Linville told his committee members he would forward a letter from the Office of Technology detailing the present process and pending improvements. He said the letter was requested and received to make sure that “anytime the state is experiencing litigation, we don’t lose emails.”

The letter noted that on a daily basis, there are half a million emails received and 125,000 sent from the Office of Technology domain. Linville said the procedure to close a state employee’s account requires the agency to submit a “Deprovison Form.”

“When a person leaves state government for whatever reason, or even transfers to a different department of state government, their email is closed after 30 days, and then there’s an additional 20 days or so,” Linville said. “That’s a total of 50 or 55 total days wherein you can recover any emails that that person had while being employed by state government.”

The letter said if litigation is anticipated by an agency, leadership or counsel can request a legal hold on specific email accounts. The letter also stated that the Office of Technology, at the governor’s request, is developing an updated form and process for these requests. Linville said the process update may refer to cleaning up technical jargon, referring to specifics communicated to the Office of Technology as to what is to be preserved.

“Sometimes it’s all the emails an individual got, sometimes it’s emails that have a particular subject or key phrase in it,” Linville said. “And then, over what period? Is it all that are presently there, and any that may come in the future? Or is it just those which are under some certain date range? There are certainly improvements needed to that process.”

Summers said email preservation policies need to be measured as to the employee’s status.

“You can’t store everything, but you have to have a way that emails are deleted,” she said. “If you have the top level people in an agency, I think you might want to make sure there’s a different policy for retention with those individuals.”

Linville said there should be a comprehensive plan, all across the government and its different agencies, regarding email preservation.

“I look to address this in legislation next year, and begin to change what our default is,” Linville said. “That 30-day policy may be fine for a heavy equipment operator with the Division of Highways, but perhaps not for a director level or secretary of an agency.”

The Office of Technology letter noted an internal default. It said once provided to an agency, production data – as in emails – is not retained. The letter said it is the responsibility of the agency to manage and maintain the information in line with its legal strategy.

First Medal of Valor Awards Granted To Seven First Responders

Seven first responders received the state’s first round of Medal of Valor awards during a ceremony Wednesday afternoon.

The state legislature created the award, and the board that grants it, in 2021.

“Too often, they’re underpaid. Too often, they’re underappreciated,” Gov. Jim Justice said during the ceremony. “We need to do something about that, don’t we? And we need to show them, not only that we appreciate them, and that they’re deserving of fair wages, but we also need to show them just how much that we will never forget them.”

The Medal of Valor was created to be awarded to firefighters, emergency medical services personnel and law enforcement “who distinguish themselves conspicuously by gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of their lives above and beyond the call of duty in the performance of their duties,” according to state code.

Del. Daniel Linville, R-Cabell, helped present the award in honor of Woody Williams, who requested the state create it.

“He wanted this honor removed from the political process,” Linville said. “He didn’t want one person to be able to award the state’s highest honor. He wanted it to follow the process that the Medal of Honor follows nationally.”

This year’s recipients include Patrolman Cassie Johnson, Corporal Marshall Bailey, Trooper Eric Workman, Deputy John Westfall, Sergeant Thomas E. Baker III and firefighters John Dean Forbush and James W. Spencer.

Five of the recipients, including Johnson, Bailey, Workman, Baker and Forbush were granted the award posthumously. Their families were in attendance to accept the award on their behalf.

Mainframe Failure Shuts Down DMV, DHHR Computer Systems

West Virginia’s Department of Motor Vehicles and the Department of Health and Human Resources were among the state government agencies affected by a computer system outage on Tuesday.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Update, July 21, 2022 1:46 p.m.

Update, July 22, 2022 1:01 p.m.

West Virginia’s Department of Motor Vehicles and the Department of Health and Human Resources were among the state government agencies affected by a computer system outage on Tuesday.

House Technology and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Del. Daniel Linville, R-Cabell, said that two mainframe parts failed at the same time.

“The parts were not available for the both of them here in town,” Linville said. “Because of that very unfortunate set of circumstances, multiple parts had to be ordered, and get here as quickly as possible.”

Both the DMV and DHHR, which includes the WV PATH family support system, offered alternative methods to receive services.

Linville said the state owns and houses the hardware and power systems for its mainframe operations. He said if the computer system were transferred to external servers, there would be infinitely more network backup to quickly restore an outage.

“If you put that in the cloud as opposed to having it on-site, you’ve got significant redundancy all across the country and the ability to reroute that traffic without anyone noticing any impact,” Linville said.

Linville said legislators and state leaders are working on transitioning the state’s computer system to the more cost effective external servers. He said even with natural disasters, a problem like this would not take the systems down.

“The DMV actually is getting a major upgrade very soon to their services that the legislature has already appropriated money for,” Linville said.

Linville said as of Thursday morning at 10 a.m.,the parts were in, but functionality had not yet been restored and the manufacturer had to recode the system.

West Virginia Division of Motor Vehicles released a statement Thursday afternoon says customers can take advantage of two online services – vehicle registration renewal and driver’s license renewal.

DMV Commissioner Everett Frazier said the services are available at all kiosk locations across the state.

The statement said while the mainframe outage is still affecting services like title work and driver record updates, DMV is continuing to do everything possible to assist customers.

“Our offices are absolutely open to the public,” Frazier said. “We are answering questions, reviewing documents, and helping customers the best we can until the mainframe is repaired.”

In his Friday coronavirus briefing, Gov. Jim Justice said technicians with the Office of Technology continue to work on getting the mainframe fully back online.

DHHR Secretary Bill Crouch said the WV PATH app, allowing people to apply for benefits, still has problems. He said people can apply, but DHHR cannot process applications, so there will be a backlog to deal with when all systems are fully back online.