WASHINGTON-The House suspended an in-building wireless license to MobileAccess Networks, a move that comes two weeks after Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio) admitted in a plea agreement with U.S. officials to backing the bid of MobileAccess-the client of convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff-after accepting free trips, meals, sports tickets and other gifts from Abramoff.
“The committee is currently reviewing the license agreement,” said Salley Collins, press secretary for the House Administration Committee. Collins declined to provide further detail.
Ney, due to enter his guilty plea Oct. 13 in U.S. district court, faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, a fine of $500,000 and supervised release following a likely 27-month jail term. Until just recently, Ney chaired the House Administration Committee, the panel that in 2002 favored MobileAccess over San Jose-base LGC Wireless for an infrastructure contract to improve cell-phone reception in House office buildings. The contract is valued at up to $2 million.
MobileAccess, founded in 1998 in Israel as Foxcom Wireless before moving headquarters to Vienna, Va., also has the Senate in-building wireless contract. MobileAccess’ outside lawyer Douglas Fellman previously stated that neither MobileAccess nor any of its employees were targets of the Justice Department investigation. Fellman and MobileAccess could not immediately be reached for comment.
John Spindler, vice president of marketing at LGC, said MobileAccess’ contract to provide coverage in the House should be reviewed. He said there are indications that MobileAccess may have gained an inside track for follow-up wireless business on Capitol Hill, jobs that were not competitively bid.
“We think we can compete and compete well but have not been given the opportunity,” said Spindler.
Instead of charging MobileAccess lobbying fees, Abramoff confessed to ordering MobileAccess to make payments totaling $50,000 to a tax-exempt group he created. However, congressional lobbying disclosure records show MobileAccess paid more than $120,000 during the past several years to the Greenberg Traurig law firm that previously employed Abramoff and former Ney aide Neil Volz. In May, Volz plead guilty to one count of conspiracy in the influence-peddling scandal.
In October 2005, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) asked House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Illinois) to join her in requesting the acting Inspector General of the House to investigate why MobileAccess was awarded the indoor antenna license. Hastert, according to a Pelosi spokeswoman earlier this year, did not respond.
