How News Corp. could have broken US law
If the News of the World did indeed make payments to corrupt police officers, as it is alleged, how were they recorded in its accounts?
That question could quickly become key if US officials start paying attention to the scandal this side of the pond.
News International – which owns The Sun, The Times, Sunday Times and formerly the News of the World – is a fully owned subsidiary of News Corporation. The latter is a publicly traded company in the United States.
So News Corporation has to file its accounts in the US and is subject to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
As the ProPublica blog explained last night:
If you’re entirely honest in the company’s internal books and enter the payment as a “bribe,” you’ve just created an irrefutable piece of evidence that can be used against you and your company in a prosecution by the Justice Department for violating U.S. statutes against overseas bribery. If, as is more likely, you file an expense account which refers to the cash payment as “taxis” or “office supplies,” you stand a chance of being pursued by the Securities and Exchange Commission for keeping fake records.
News International Limited, the British arm of the Murdoch empire, is a subsidiary of News Corp., a publicly traded American company which also owns The Wall Street Journal and Fox News (not to mention the Sunday Times of London, The Times of London, and the British tabloid The Sun.) Because of this, experts say, News Corp. and all of its subsidiaries come under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, a Watergate-era law which makes it a crime for U.S. companies to participate in bribery abroad.
If found guilty, the US Justice Department could fine News Corporation for estimated commercial benefits of those alleged bribes. This would require estimating how much the scoops were worth to the former Sunday paper.
Unfortunately for Murdoch, a powerful US Senator urged regulators yesterday to look at whether News Corp has violated in any US laws.
“The reported hacking by News Corporation newspapers against a range of individuals–including children–is offensive and a serious breach of journalistic ethics,” said Senate Commerce, Science & Transportation Chairman John D. Rockefeller in a press statement.
“This raises serious questions about whether the company has broken U.S. law, and I encourage the appropriate agencies to investigate to ensure that Americans have not had their privacy violated,” he added. “I am concerned that the admitted phone hacking in London by the News Corp. may have extended to 9/11 victims or other Americans. If they did, the consequences will be severe.”
Earlier this week, an American group called Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington sent a letter to lawmakers, urging them to investigate News Corporation.
Rupert Murdoch’s problems have just gotten a whole lot bigger.
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Sunny Hundal is editor of LC. Also: on Twitter, at Pickled Politics and Guardian CIF.
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Dems and the American left would be mad not to take advantage of this opportunity, Fox has ever been a pernicious influence on US politics.
What could be more enjoyable than the thought of Rupert spending his declining years in Pelican Bay or a similar establishment? Age is catching up with him at last, not only does he look like an elephan’t scrotum but the Rupert of times past would never have been so slow responding, Brooks would have been dogmeat and his idiot son would have been kept where he couldn’t do any damage or take any blame. The Evil Empire won’t last long after his death, his children are pretty thick and nowhere near as devious, while Rupert is a pragmatist who bribes, bullies or grovels as appropriate, James is a real right wing zealot who lacks daddy’s flexibility. Even the tone of reporting has changed, where he was once MR Murdoch, last night he was simply Murdoch on the news. No single person has caused more harm to democracy around the world in the past decades than Murdoch and hopefully this will be his downfall. All for money which has long since ceased to have any practical meaning to him.
Put me in mind of Shelley’s Ozymandias
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!’
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away”.
@2: I’m reminded of another work by Shelley, Mary Shelley. The political establishment in general have created a monster, by allowing Murdoch so much freedom. The monster went on a rampage, and the villagers have decided enough is enough. While I have great sympathy for the monster in the original Frankenstien story, the destructive and dangerous creature at the heart of this modern story, News Corp, is entirely responsible for its own actions. The final outcome of all this could be that the monster gets torn apart, as in the original, and Murdoch could, as you suggest, find himself looking at four walls and one small window. Would he prefer that, to the fate of Dr. Frankenstien? Or is it more likely that his legal team will drag it out for an eternity, right upto his death, thus avoiding a prison term, which the old bastard truly deserves.
Sorry but could have? There is no evidence of either claim so far. It is possible that NI was paying bribes and it is possible that they were hacking phones of 9-11 victims. But it is not like anyone has a single sane reason to think either is so.
It is possible that NI was paying bribes and it is possible that they were hacking phones of 9-11 victims. But it is not like anyone has a single sane reason to think either is so.
Well, apart from quite a lot of evidence…
You can basically tell which accusations are likely to be defensible because those are the ones News International will defend (e.g. the Brown accusations). Those they won’t are likely to have happened – and News International do not seem to deny they did (closing the News of the World indicates something…).
1. Cylux
Dems and the American left would be mad not to take advantage of this opportunity, Fox has ever been a pernicious influence on US politics.
Ever? They have not even been around that long. But you’re right. God forbid that Americans should be allowed to look at news from outside the North East liberal establishment’s point of view. Much better to have a less diverse political environment so the proles don’t question what is good for them.
2. Schmidt
What could be more enjoyable than the thought of Rupert spending his declining years in Pelican Bay or a similar establishment?
Ummm …. almost anything? This reminds me of those people who sit outside jails waiving signs when someone is going to be executed. Murdoch has not actually done anything and here you are all by drooling at the thought of prison rape. Come on. This is not where the Left wants to be.
No single person has caused more harm to democracy around the world in the past decades than Murdoch and hopefully this will be his downfall.
WTF? How has Murdoch caused any harm whatsoever to democracy?
Put me in mind of Shelley’s Ozymandias
Then seek medical help. Because the reality is that Murdoch has created a massive business Empire. It is a huge legacy.
3. blackwillow1
Or is it more likely that his legal team will drag it out for an eternity, right upto his death, thus avoiding a prison term, which the old bastard truly deserves.
For what? It is amazing that on LC most people oppose prison terms for actual real criminals but are now demanding one for Murdoch even though there is no evidence of any actual wrong doing. Non-violent crime? Not an issue when you’ve committed a Thought Crime I suppose.
5. Watchman
Well, apart from quite a lot of evidence…
Mention some.
You can basically tell which accusations are likely to be defensible because those are the ones News International will defend (e.g. the Brown accusations). Those they won’t are likely to have happened – and News International do not seem to deny they did (closing the News of the World indicates something…).
So …. because someone has not defended themselves against a claim they must be guilty? Joseph McCarthy, you’re wanted on the White Telephone. Murdoch has not, after all, defended himself against the claim he is a member of the Communist Party, indeed the fifth man, nor has he denied that he was responsible for killing Kennedy and kidnapping the Lindburgh baby.
Closing the NotW indicates they did something in the UK. That does not mean someone else did something in America.
I see we have an idiot who doesn’t think any bribes were paid.
You know nothing of the culture that existed in the NotW and in other papers if you are stupid and naive enough to believe nothing untoward happened.
What was it Brooks sent piles of email evidence about to the investigation that resulted in the arrest of Couson ?
Dumbass.
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- Rupert Murdoch’s problems in the US have grown exponentially | Liberal Conspiracy
[...] by Sunny Hundal July 14, 2011 at 8:30 am Yesterday I reported that a US Senator had called for regulators to examine whether News Corporation had broken any laws. And there is chance he could [...]
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- How badly will the FBI probe hurt Murdoch? | Liberal Conspiracy
[...] The bigger worry for Murdoch – I think – is that the SEC opens an investigation into whether News Corporation indulged in corruption and bribery. [...]
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