The former CEO of Alaska fiber optics company Quintillion Networks was arrested and charged with defrauding two New York investment firms out of $250 million, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York announced Thursday.

“To realize her plan to build a fiber optic system that would service Alaska and connect it to the lower 48 states, Elizabeth Ann Pierce allegedly convinced two investment companies that she had secured signed contracts that would supposedly generate hundreds of millions of dollars in guaranteed future revenue from the system,” U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said in a statement.