Start spreading the news. New York is coming for Sprint to the tune of $300 million.
The State of New York on Thursday filed a lawsuit against Sprint Nextel Corp. on the basis of claims that the company has committed “tax fraud” by – as Reuters describes the matter – “deliberately not collecting or paying millions of dollars of taxes for its cell phone service.”
All told, it’s a big and potentially damaging claim to the nation’s third largest mobile operator.
New York says that Sprint fell short of adequately and accurately billing customers for taxes over the last seven years. And now, all those pennies have added up.
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said Thursday that this particular case “is the first tax enforcement action filed under the state’s False Claims Act.”
The lawsuit is striving to wrangle from Sprint three times the amount underpaid in addition to other related penalties.
