West Amwell man predicts a scandal ‘bigger than Watergate’
By: Sue Kramer
Even before the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities hearings into Verizon Communications’ request for a Jan. 1 rate increase for basic telephone service conclude, one telecommunications expert is projecting a brewing scandal that will be "bigger than Watergate."
West Amwell resident and telecommunications advocate Thomas Allibone has been asserting for years that Verizon, the former Bell Atlantic, has been involved in customer service record and bill tampering, cover-ups, tariff violations and illegal record destruction at the expense of New Jersey consumers.
Consumer advocate and presidential candidate Ralph Nader agrees with Mr. Allibone.
The two men met Oct. 15 in Princeton as Mr. Nader made a campaign trip through New Jersey. Along with Mr. Nader were consumer advocates and attorneys Bruce Afran and Carl Mayer.
With the Nader organization on his side, Mr. Allibone is hoping to finally be heard in what he asserts is Verizon’s (Bell Atlantic) policy of destroying customer service records to cover up billing errors in the amount of $200 million consumer dollars per year. He has repeatedly stated these practices are so widespread and affecting so many people that today New Jersey Verizon "consumers could be owed refunds totaling $1.2 billion for the past six years."
Each person brings his own brand of consumer advocacy to the cause. Mr. Allibone grew up in Ewing Township and moved to West Amwell in 1966. The 1969 South Hunterdon graduate went on to attend Trenton State College (now the College of New Jersey) as a physical education major.
He began his career working in the mailroom for New Jersey Bell in 1970. He worked his way up the ladder, becoming first a technician and later being promoted to marketing.
When the AT&T monopoly was broken up in 1984, Mr. Allibone stayed with AT&T and was promoted to a senior technical consultant in charge of national accounts. Mr. Allibone designed the world headquarters phone switch for Warner Lambert as well as the company’s international private network.
After being promoted again to national account manager, Mr. Allibone took advantage of an early retirement program in 1990 and, at 38, launched LTC Consulting.
As a telecommunications advocate, Mr. Allibone immediately began targeting the unfair and deceptive practices of phone companies, using the MIT advance processing systems, advanced network design/analysis, system design, project management and hands-on training and education he received throughout his years with AT&T.
By 1992, Mr. Allibone was saying, "Nearly half of my clients have significant billing errors. On the basis of audits I have performed, I estimate New Jersey businesses have been overcharged $20 million since the AT&T divestiture."
As Mr. Allibone’s business grew, so did his convictions surrounding the improprieties in telephone billing practices. In 1994, he estimated that over-billing by the phone company was totaling $100 million. He said at that time, "Nationwide, we have found an error rate ranging from 50 to 60 percent in bills we have audited."
By 1995, Mr. Allibone was so convinced that consumers were being ripped off he sent his supporting evidence to the New Jersey attorney general and requested an investigation into the billing practices of Bell Atlantic. Later that year, he filed a complaint with BPU, alleging bill fixing and illegal bill destruction on the part of Bell Atlantic New Jersey.
Neither the attorney general nor BPU followed up on Mr. Allibone’s complaints.
For the next five years, Mr. Allibone continued to collect evidence as he took on more and more clients who he said were the victims of these billing practices. Since founding LTC Consulting, Mr. Allibone has been recognized as one of the leaders in the field of telecommunications auditing.
He was named Entrepreneur of the Year by the Hunterdon County Chamber of Commerce in 1993 and one of New Jersey’s "Top 20" privately owned companies by Business News New Jersey in 1994. He has appeared on many radio and television appearances, including WTTM and NJ 101.5 in Trenton and WPHIL-17 in Philadelphia.
He is often referred to as "The Ralph Nader of the Telecommunications Industry."
Mr. Nader is the leading consumer advocate in the United States and the author of many books including: "Unsafe at Any Speed: The Designed-In Dangers of the American Automobile," a 1965 publication that exposed the dangers of the American automobile; "The Chemical Feast," which was published in 1970 and attacked the Food and Drug Administration for standards that deceived the public, concealing important consumer information and the need to reform food safety laws; and "Collision Course: The Truth About Airline Safety," a 1994 publication that revealed "how the Federal Aviation Administration and the airlines put passenger lives at risk."
Mr. Nader, who is running for president on the Green Party ticket, has been a consumer advocate since the 1960s. He is a 1955 graduate of Princeton University and a 1958 graduate of the Harvard Law School.
As an attorney and founder of "Nader’s Raiders," Mr. Nader has spent the past 40 years holding the government and corporate America accountable for their actions by documenting the "injustice," identifying the responsible parties and offering a solution to the problem, thereby instigating reform. He has testified at many public hearings, which have resulted in the passage of legislation to protect the health and safety of the American worker, harness corporate abuse and open access to the government.
Mr. Mayer is also a consumer advocate and a protégé of Mr. Nader. He is an author and law professor who is running for Congress in the 12th District on the Green Party ticket.
The Princeton resident holds degrees from Princeton University, Chicago and Harvard law schools and is the author of "Shakedown: The Fleecing of the Garden State," an expose of special interest groups in New Jersey government. He also appeared on the television program, "60 Minutes," in 1996. The segment, which exposed corrupt political deals in New Jersey, featured Mr. Mayer, and resulted in the elimination of the practice of special interest lobbyists giving cash to elected New Jersey officials.
As a consumer advocate, Mr. Mayer has brought about lawsuits to protect the rights of airline passengers and senior citizens who have been defrauded on their investments.
Mr. Afran is a civil rights attorney who also lives in Princeton. He practices consumer and commercial law.
He is running for the U.S. Senate against Rush Holt and Richard Zimmer on the Green Party ticket. He is also part of a small team providing legal support for Mr. Nader’s bid for president and a campaign advisor for Mr. Nader. Mr. Afran graduated from the Brooklyn Law School in 1985.
As a civil rights attorney in New Jersey, Mr. Afran has won many high profile cases concerning voting rights, immigrant rights and domestic relations law. He is also a consultant on international human rights law. He is personally reviewing Mr. Allibone’s case.
Susan Deckert, who is running for Mercer County Freeholder on the Green Party ticket, is the lead Nader representative collecting support for the crusade against Verizon.
She is a citizen activist and a professional environmentalist who lives in Hamilton Township. She has long been involved in "Ralph Nader" issues and is opposed to the Verizon/Bell Atlantic telephone rate hike.