Murdoch insider Rebekah Brooks charged over phone-hacking inquiry

May 15, 2012|By Richard Allen Greene, CNN

 

Former News International chief Rebekah Brooks blasted British prosecutors Tuesday for charging her with obstructing the investigation into phone hacking at media mogul Rupert Murdoch's British newspapers, calling the case "an expensive sideshow."

Brooks, whose husband, driver and personal assistant also face charges, said she is "baffled" and angered by the decision to charge "those closest to me."

"One day the details of this case will emerge, and people will see today as nothing more than an expensive sideshow -- a waste of public money as a result of an unjust and weak decision," she told reporters outside her lawyer's office.   READ MORE

 

Lawyer says British phone hacking scandal could spread to U.S.

April 12, 2012 |  8:07 am

LONDON -- The British phone hacking scandal that resulted in scores of arrests and the July closing of the popular tabloid News of the World could spread to the United States, a media lawyer who represents several victims said Thursday.

Attorney Mark Lewis said inquiries by British police into illegal phone interceptions by the tabloid were widening and he would be seeking documentation in the U.S. on behalf of three of his clients, who he said were victims of illegal phone interceptions.

The tabloid is owned by News International, the British branch of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.
“The cases I am pursuing were by the News of the World against people who were in the U.S. at the time they were hacked or were U.S. citizens,” he said in a email to The Times sent while he was en route to the airport.

“The scandal is not just confined to the United Kingdom or U.K. companies,” he told the BBC, “but this goes to the heartland of News Corp. and we will be looking at the involvement of the parent company and in terms of claims there and that is something that I think will be taken more seriously by investors and shareholders in News Corp.”

He also said that of his three clients, whom he declined to identify, one had connections to Hollywood, another to the late Princess Diana and the third to English national soccer.  READ MORE

New Arrests Rock Murdoch Empire

Rupert Murdoch and Rebekah Brooks.
(photo: Barry Batchelor/PA)

By Jamie Doward, The Observer UK

12 February 12

Five senior journalists are held in police corruption probe amid speculation over future of the Sun

upert Murdoch is expected to fly to Britain this week to tackle the latest allegations to rock his media empire, involving the corruption of public officials by Sun journalists.

The deputy editor, Geoff Webster, chief reporter John Kay, picture editor John Edwards, chief foreign correspondent Nick Parker and deputy news editor John Sturgis were arrested in early morning raids on suspicion of bribing police and public officials. There was also a search of the Sun's offices. A Surrey police officer, a member of the armed forces and a Ministry of Defence employee were also arrested.

Part of Operation Elveden, Scotland Yard's investigation into newspaper corruption, the arrests follow those of four former and current Sun journalists and a serving Metropolitan police officer.

Senior Sun employees Chris Pharo and Mike Sullivan, executive editor Fergus Shanahan and News International's editorial development director, Graham Dudman, were arrested on 28 January. Rebekah Brooks, the Sun's former editor, and Andy Coulson, ex-editor of the News of the World, have also been questioned. The arrests have prompted speculation that News Corp, News International's US-based parent company, may be forced to consider closing the Sun, as it did with the News Of The World, in an attempt to protect the Murdoch empire.  READ MORE

Eight arrests as Murdoch 'throws staff to the wolves'

Rupert Murdock

Five senior 'Sun' journalists, two MoD staff and a police officer taken in dawn swoop as new front opens in bribery scandal

Sunday 12 February 2012 

Rupert Murdoch was last night preparing to fly to Britain to join frantic efforts to secure the future of The Sun after the arrests of five senior journalists by police investigating allegations of bribery and phone hacking.


Police swooped on eight individuals between 6am and 8am yesterday, arresting the five Sun journalists, two Ministry of Defence staff and a police officer. The arrests came hard on the heels of five related arrests two weeks ago when four senior Sun journalists and a police officer were questioned in connection with bribery allegations. All eight were released on bail last night.

The latest astonishing development, which came two days after the Leveson inquiry into press standards finished its first session, prompted fury among the newspaper's staff, amid allegations that those arrested had been "thrown to the wolves" in an effort to bolster the embattled News Corp empire, and, particularly, to rekindle its hopes of taking over BSkyB. The police were acting on information provided by News International, owner of The Sun and Times newspapers, through its Management and Standards Committee (MSC).

Amid fury among the paper's editorial staff, Mr Murdoch was forced to issue a pledge last night that he was not preparing to sell the newspaper, via his chief executive, Tom Mockridge. Senior staff were told that Mr Murdoch planned to fly to London to calm the situation. Journalists including the paper's deputy editor were bailed after being questioned in connection with allegations of making illegal payments to police officers and other officials.   READ MORE

 

How Bad Is News Corp.? Michael Wolff on the state of the Murdoch empire and its Mob-like structure

n my biography of Rupert Murdoch, I referred to News Corporation as Mafia-like, provoking the annoyance of my publisher’s libel lawyers. I explained to them that I did not mean to suggest this was an organized crime family, but instead was using “mafia” as a metaphor to imply that News Corp. saw itself as a state within a state, and that the company was built on a basic notion of extended family bonds and loyalty.

But just because it’s a metaphor doesn’t mean it isn’t the real thing, too.

Well-sourced information coming out of the Department of Justice and the FBI suggests a debate is going on that could result in the recently launched investigations of News Corp. falling under the RICO statutes.

RICO, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, establishes a way to prosecute the leaders of organizations—and strike at the organizations themselves—for crimes company leaders may not have directly committed, but which were otherwise countenanced by the organization. Any two of a series of crimes that can be proven to have occurred within a 10-year period by members of the organization can establish a pattern of racketeering and result in draconian remedies. In 1990, following the indictment of Michael Milken for insider trading, Drexel Burnham Lambert, the firm that employed him, collapsed in the face of a RICO investigation.
Among the areas that the FBI is said to be looking at in its investigation of News Corp. are charges that one of its subsidiaries, News America Marketing, illegally hacked the computer system of a competitor, Floorgraphics, and then, using the information it had gleaned, tried to extort it into selling out to News Corp.; allegations that relationships the New York Post has maintained with New York City police officers may have involved exchanges of favors and possibly money for information; and accusations that Fox chief Roger Ailes sought to have an executive in the company, the book publisher Judith Regan, lie to investigators about details of her relationship with New York police commissioner Bernie Kerik in order to protect the political interests of Rudy Giuliani, then a presidential prospect.

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