LONDON – US authorities are stepping up investigations, including an FBI criminal inquiry, into possible violations by employees of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire of a US law banning corrupt payments to foreign officials such as police, according to law enforcement and corporate sources.
But US investigators have found little to substantiate allegations of phone hacking inside the US by Murdoch journalists, the sources added.
The FBI is conducting an investigation into possible criminal violations by Murdoch employees of the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), a law intended to curb payment of bribes by US companies to foreign officials, a US law enforcement official said.
The official said that if any law enforcement action was pursued by US authorities against Murdoch employees, it would most likely relate to the FCPA.
If it is found to have violated the FCPA, Murdoch’s News Corp, which has its headquarters in New York, could be fined up to $2 million (€1.5 million) and barred from US government contracts, and individuals who participated in the bribery could face fines of up to $100,000 and a jail sentence of five years.
Executives could be liable if they authorised bribes or knew about the practice but failed to stop it. In practice, US authorities have usually settled FCPA cases in return for large cash payments from companies, which can sometimes avoid legal admissions of guilt.
Much of the evidence police are examining in the News Corp case was handed over to investigators by the company, which has set up a special clean-up unit in London and hired batteries of lawyers in Britain and the US, some of whom specialise in FCPA cases, company sources said.
The US justice department and securities and exchange commission also have jurisdiction to pursue civil cases against alleged violators of the law. Bloomberg news service reported last year that justice department prosecutors sent News Corp a request for information on alleged payments which journalists made to British police officers in return for news tips.
Sources close to News Corp said the management and standards committee, the unit which the company set up to deal with phone hacking and related investigations, for some time had been concerned about the consequences of US investigations of possible FCPA violations.
Both News International and parent company News Corp declined to comment. – (Reuters)