DANIA BEACH, Fla. – Federal agents swarmed a Dania Beach building Wednesday as part of a multiagency investigation into a telecommunications company.
Agents from the United States Postal Inspection Police, the Department of Justice, the Internal Revenue Service and the Broward Sheriff’s Office have been filtering in and out of the Regions Bank building at 499 Sheridan Street, but authorities say the investigation has nothing to do with the bank, rather a company called Q Link Wireless that operates inside.
Q Link Wireless is a telecommunications company that works with the government and provides free wireless services to eligible Lifeline subscribers throughout the country. Lifeline is the Federal Communications Commission’s program intended to make communication services more accessible to low-income consumers.
Investigators could be seen removing boxes full of evidence and putting them into the back of a U.S. Postal Service truck.
What exactly they are looking for has not yet been disclosed, but Local 10 news is told the investigation has been going on for two years and involves suspected fraud.
“The Department of Justice has kept a closer eye on the operations of the corporation and they are still analyzing books,” U.S. Postal Inspector Ivan Ramirez said. “It’s an investigation looking into the operations and the likelihood that there might be something that is questionable.”
He added: “When we are looking at consumer protection, when we are looking at the benefits consumers may or may not be receiving, things are looked at much closer and with a fine-toothed comb to make sure folks are receiving what they are paying for or what they are actually entitled to.”
Nobody has been arrested.
Issa Asad is the CEO of Q Link Wireless, and according to his attorney Fred Haddad, they are cooperating with this investigation.
Haddad has represented Asad before. He says he was his attorney back in 2014 when Asad was accused of running over a groundskeeper with his car following a dispute over money. The man died 10 days later.
Asad was put on probation for that incident.