Undercover Video
Uncovered: ‘Obama Phones’ Sold to Buy Drugs and Louis Vuittons
LifeLine, aka ObamaPhones, is a $2.2 Billion dollar federal program intended to assist those in need of communication services. The program gives out corporate subsidies to companies like TerraCom Wireless and StandUp Wireless. Those companies in turn give out free phones using the money the taxpayers pay in fees on their cell phone bills. These federal tax dollars are funneled into companies of wealthy CEO’s and donors lke Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim who receive $10 per phone given away. His company would then create LifeLine programs that offered discounted phone calls and low rates. What was intended to help those in need became a way for the wealthy to make a profit.
In 2008, the LifeLine budget was $822 Million. With such an increase in spending in a short amount of time, Project Veritas investigated wireless companies known for providing ObamaPhones for any signs of fraud, waste or abuse. Undercover footage in Philadelphia and Minneapolis showed these phones were given away with no accountability as to those who were truly in need. Workers within the program were willing to look the other way when hearing how applicants would turn and sell the phones for drugs, handbags, or to pay their bills.
Results
'ObamaPhone' Companies Fire Four Employees Following Undercover Video Exposé Telecom Companies Petition the FCC for Program Changes
The ObamaPhone investigation resulted in the firing of several employees and demands for changes in the LifeLine program. The Daily Mail
‘ObamaPhone’ Workers Reportedly Fired After Undercover Video Surfaces
“Disciplinary action” taken towards employees complicit in ObamaPhones being sold for drugs and other personal uses. Inquisitr
Featured In
Major Media Coverage
6/18/13 "‘Obama phones’ given to those who would sell them for drugs" The Washington Times
6/18/13 "Selling 'Obama Phones' for Heroin?! Shocking Undercover Videos You Won't Believe" Fox News
6/18/13 "‘Obama phones’ given to people promising to sell them for drugs, money" The Daily Caller
Additional Media Coverage
6/18/13 "'Obama Phones' Sold to Buy Drugs and Louis Vuitton Bags" American Thinker
6/18/13 "O'Keefe's Cameras Reveal 'Obama Phone' Fraud" NewsMax
6/18/13 "Obamaphones for drugs" Human Events
6/18/13 "Hidden camera catches wireless company employees passing out 'Obama phones' to people who say they'll SELL them for drugs, shoes, handbags and spending cash" Daily Mail
6/19/13 "Undercover video shows ‘Obamaphones’ given away to pay for drugs, shoes" Washington Examiner
6/19/13 "FCC steps up enforcement of income checks for ‘Obamaphone’ recipients" Washington Examiner
6/18/13 "Undercover sting: Workers pass out ‘Obama phones’ to admitted scammers" Bizpac Review
6/19/13 "James O'Keefe: People Selling Free "Obama Phones" For Drugs, Cash" Real Clear Politics
6/20/13 "Obama phone waste and fraud blown wide open in undercover video from Project Veritas" Natural News
6/18/13 "Undercover video shows Obama Phones being given to people who say they’ll sell them for DRUGS!" The Right Scoop
6/17/13 "PHONES FOR DRUGS: 'OBAMA PHONE' PROGRAM SUSCEPTIBLE TO CORRUPTION" Grabian
4/20/16 "A chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Ajit Pai, says his agency was ordered to be quiet about fraud in the so-called Obama-phone program." Independent Sentinel