Alltel settles with Minnesota and DOJ

Alltel Corporation will pay $1.33 million to the government to settle allegations that it violated conditions of its Midwest Wireless acquisition.

Alltel had agreed to maintain the Midwest Wireless assets while it finished the acquisition, so it could divest its service in several rural Minnesota counties because of antitrust concerns.

Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson and the federal Department of Justice had accused Alltel of failing to maintain those assets as agreed.

The state will get $745,000 from the settlement, and the Justice Department will get $580,000, the attorney general's office announced on Monday.

Last month Alltel was bought out for $24.7 billion by Fort Worth, Texas-based TPG Capital, formerly Texas Pacific Group, and GS Capital Partners, a subsidiary of Goldman Sachs.