Consumers Charge State Supreme Court was ‘Tainted’ Over Bribed Rate Hike Case

OkConstitution

Another filing has been made in the Oklahoma Supreme Court in the consumer fight to force a $16 billion refund from  ATT over a 1989 bribed vote by the Oklahoma Corporation Commission.

Oklahomans Against Bribery made the filing stating that the bribery and misconduct by attorneys and executives for Southwestern Bell, before it was taken over by ATT, tainted proceedings at the State Supreme Court in the early 1990s

In the 30-page filing, the group argued that a lead attorney for ATT was aware of the bribery and fraud at the time the AARP and the Oklahoma Attorney General appealed the vote inn the PUD 260 rate case. The consumer filing claims ATT’s top in-house attorney at the time, Glen Glass “not only knew of the company’s efforts to bribe Corporation Commissioners in the PUD 260 case, he provided some of the money and a list of his distant relatives to be used as phony “campaign contributors in the cover-up.

But Glass went on to represent ATT in both the PUD 260 case at the Corporation Commission and its subsequent appeal at the Oklahoma Supreme Court.

“But not disclosing (ATT’s) bribery schemes to the Supreme Court in the Henry appeal, (ATT) directly committed intrinsic fraud against the Supreme Court,” stated the consumer group’s Supreme Court filing.

“With all due respect, either the Oklahoma Constitution means something or it doesn’t,” stated the brief. “The enforcement of Oklahoma’s Constitution should not be made dependent upon the Attorney General’s superficial and un-reviewed determination of whether enforcement is ‘worth it’, or even on the OCC’s apparent reluctance to confront its sordid past.”

The original lawsuit filed by Oklahomans Against Bribery was made last year after the Corporation Commission voted 2-1 not to hold a hearing to review the challenges.