“We’re aware of certain allegations pertaining to a possible hacking by News Corp. personnel and we’re looking into those charges,” Jim Margolin, a spokesman for the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s New York office, said yesterday in a phone interview.
U.S. Representative Peter King, the Republican chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, asked FBI Director Robert Mueller in a July 13 letter to investigate whether employees of News Corp.’s News of the World tried to access voice mails belonging to victims of the 2001 terrorist attacks through bribery and illegal wiretapping.
King’s request to Mueller was one of several by elected officials and media watchdog groups to investigate News Corp. King, who represents part of New York’s Long Island, said in the letter that his district lost 150 people in the attacks.
At least six U.S. lawmakers yesterday asked government agencies, including the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission, to investigate possible violations of the law.
Reports that News of the World employees illegally gained access to the voice mail of murder and terrorism victims and paid police for stories have already resulted in several investigations into News Corp. The New York-based company closed the 168-year-old News of the World on July 10.
‘It’s Serious’
“I think it’s serious,” said white-collar criminal defense lawyer Ronald S. Safer, managing partner of Schiff Hardin LLP who previously worked for 10 years as a federal prosecutor in Chicago.
“I do not think that they will defer to U.K. authorities,” Safer said of the FBI probe. “If they find that there was hacking into those accounts that amounts to an unlawful intercept, then they will prosecute.”
Depending on how such a crime was carried out, it could be prosecuted as an illegal wiretap or as wire fraud, Safer said. Any defenses to those crimes would be technical in nature, amounting to challenging whether the alleged acts fit the legal definitions of the charged offense.
“The conduct itself would be indefensible,” he said. Hacking into the voice mail of a dead person wouldn’t lessen the offense, Safer said in a phone interview. “In federal law, you don’t need a complainant. The crime is against the United States and not an individual,” he said.
Not ‘a Lark’
Jeffrey H. Cramer, a former federal prosecutor in Chicago and a former state prosecutor in New York, said in a phone interview that the FBI isn’t “going off on a lark.”
“9/11 victims are held dear,” said Cramer, now managing partner of the Chicago office of international risk consultant and investigations firm Kroll Inc. “If there’s even some allegation that they’ve been victimized again, absolutely they’re going to look into it.”
Cramer said he would be “hard pressed” to think of a defense against such an allegation.
“If the investigation leads to anything,” he said, “the query would be, ‘Who did it and who authorized it? How high up on the corporate ladder?’”
The hacking scandal led News Corp. to drop its $12.6 billion bid for control of British Sky Broadcasting Plc.
Murdoch Testimony
Murdoch, News Corp.’s chairman and chief executive officer, and his son James Murdoch, the company’s deputy chief operating officer, agreed yesterday to testify about the phone-hacking scandal before the U.K. Parliament on July 19.
Rebekah Brooks, the CEO of News International, which publishes News Corp. newspapers in the U.K., is also scheduled to testify.
Rupert Murdoch, 80, said the company will set up an independent committee to look into allegations of wrongdoing by its employees, the Wall Street Journal reported. News Corp., which owns the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, the Sun and the Times of London, said it will establish companywide rules for reporter behavior.
Julie Henderson, a News Corp. spokeswoman, didn’t return a voice-mail message seeking comment yesterday.
Bloomberg LP, the parent of Bloomberg News, competes with News Corp. units in providing financial news and information.
--With assistance from Patricia Hurtado in New York, Eric Engleman in Washington and Amy Thomson in London. Editors: Michael Hytha, Joe SchneiderTo contact the reporters on this story: Justin Blum in Washington at jblum4@bloomberg.net; Bob Van Voris in Manhattan federal court at rvanvoris@bloomberg.net; Andrew Harris in Chicago at aharris16@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Mark Silva at msilva34@bloomberg.net; Michael Hytha at mhytha@bloomberg.net
