Tom Hall, a former sales executive who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor in connection with Qwest’s overstated revenues, died Monday from a cancerous brain tumor.
Hall, 55, was among four Qwest executives on trial in 2004, accused of improperly booking $33.6 million in revenue from an equipment sale to Arizona schools in 2001 to help Qwest meet financial targets.
The charges against Hall resulted in a hung jury. Two other defendants were acquitted and one other ultimately pleaded guilty to a felony charge.
In 2005, after prosecutors threatened a retrial, Hall pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of falsifying documents. He was sentenced to one year of probation and a $5,000 fine.
Grant Graham pleaded guilty to one felony count of being an accessory after the fact to wire fraud with reckless indifference. He is on the prosecution’s witness list in the trial of former Qwest chief executive Joe Nacchio, which is underway in U.S. District Court in Denver.
The case against Hall was built on documents he signed but didn’t completely review. He said he was told Qwest’s accountants had reviewed the papers and that it was his role to rely on their representations.
His wife, Ann, and three sisters often accompanied him at trial.
The trial took an enormous toll on his life, said his attorney, Jeffrey Springer. Hall left Denver for Houston, but could not find work. He ultimately moved to Chicago to be near his sisters. He battled brain cancer for about 15 months.
“Tom was a decent, kind, honest and proud man who went through for him what was a hell,” Springer said. “Everything that he stood for was called into question … by some overzealous prosecutors, and he could never get past it.”
