ValleyNet, operator of internet provider ECFiber, says contractor stole money

Editor’s Note: This story by John Lippman very first appeared in the Valley Information on July 21.

ValleyNet, the entity that operates Higher Valley online providers ECFiber and LymeFiber, has been the sufferer of “certain financial irregularities” in which an exterior contractor allegedly stole funds from the business, the business announced Wednesday.

Neither the identification of the contractor nor the total of funds was disclosed, but ValleyNet stated the incident will “not materially affect our financial viability and does not pose a risk” to ECFiber’s provider or ability to repay financial debt.

“This will not influence prospects,” reported Stan Williams, chief financial officer of ValleyNet and 1 of the founding principals behind ECFiber.

ValleyNet, a nonprofit, has a agreement to operate fiber-to-the-house world-wide-web networks ECFiber, which serves about 7,000 subscribers in east-central Vermont, and a further agreement with LymeFiber, which serves about 400 properties in Lyme, New Hampshire.

Launched in 2008 with just about two dozen member towns structured as a telecommunications district, ECFiber has been hailed by advocates as a product for bringing high-pace world-wide-web services to rural Vermont.

But the fast development, funded by almost $62 million in municipal bonds issued by ECFiber to make out 1,600 miles of fiber optic networks, has strained the 30-worker ValleyNet, and in June the company declared it was “restructuring” and arrived at an agreement with Good Will work Net, a Maine-centered net service provider, to just take in excess of working day-to-day operations.

ValleyNet claimed the economical irregularities have been found by “the recently strengthened administration team” place in position beneath the new functioning settlement as component of an hard work “to deliver a bigger level of professionalism and internal controls to the business enterprise.”

ValleyNet expressed hope that it can recuperate the funds.

“We are in the course of action of submitting steps to be certain accountability, and we believe in that this approach will make certain we can get better resources that had been taken,” ValleyNet explained in the push release, incorporating that “all lender accounts and inside accounting knowledge have been secured and controls have been place in put to prevent more incidents.”

ValleyNet’s CFO explained the company blames by itself for what took place.

“Our interior controls did not preserve up with our level of advancement,” Williams stated in an interview with the Valley News, conceding that ValleyNet “made mistakes in not employing extra accounting staff before or in conducting audits” because managers ended up “under the gun monetarily to make ECFiber worthwhile, which we have done.”

The lacking money was found out “in the past thirty day period or two months in examining ValleyNet tax filings” and “bank reconciliations,” Williams explained. ValleyNet is doing work with point out and federal authorities in the investigation, and Williams explained he expects much more aspects to emerge as the investigation progresses.

Usually, money crimes are investigated by the FBI and prosecuted by the federal U.S. Attorney places of work, as transpired when a West Lebanon, New Hampshire, payroll organization manager was charged with stealing $1.2 million from clients in 2019 and the former manager of the Lebanon Elks Lodge was indicted in an alleged verify-kiting scheme involving lodge lender accounts previously this year.

Williams described the revenue that was taken from ValleyNet “a large total that was amassed around years” but an amount of money even so that is “not sizeable given the measurement that ECFiber has now develop into. It is not more than enough to imperil the functions of any of our similar entities.”

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