Sue Akers' Evidence At The Leveson Inquiry Points To Serious Legal Trouble For Murdoch And News Corp

A new article from a regular contributor.

Amongst some jaw-dropping evidence on Monday from Sue Akers are these significant elements...

We've worked obviously closely with the CPS, and they have advised us regarding potential offences. We've sought legal advice and in respect of both individual and corporate offences 

Easily overlooked, that reference to "corporate offences" being considered is very significant. Coming hard on the heels of the Culture, Media & Sport Select Committee which found Rupert Murdoch 'not a fit person', it is clear that News Corp should now be worried about the FBI. The Foreign and Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) is a U.S. piece of legislation which enables prosecution in relation to bad practice, bribery and corruption - whether or not those offences took place on American soil.  News Corp, an American company, is wary of falling foul of FCPA through the UK phone hacking, computer hacking, or bribery of police/public officials. Whilst purely speculation, Rupert Murdoch's resignation as Director of his UK newspaper companies could be explained as a pre-emptive move hoping to mollify the FBI and undertake some damage-limitation for the FCPA storm that News Corp can see looming over the horizon.

Additionally, Robert Jay summarised the current UK offences being considered under Operation Elvedon:

...the well-known corruption offences and new Bribery Act offences, and before the Bribery Act, it was of course the Prevention of Corruption Act.

This indicates that the alleged offences (and arrests) must span a period of time that includes the 'high water' era of News Int questionable tradecraft AND much more recent instances as the new Bribery Act didn't come into force until 1st July 2011.  It seeks to bring UK law closer to international legal frameworks dealing with corruption so includes a focus on corporate wrongdoing creating a

new offence under section 7 which can be committed by commercial organisations which fail to prevent persons associated with them from bribing another person on their behalf

Presumably, willful blindness is no defence. 

It should also be remembered that Sue Akers was updating the Leveson Inquiry on Operations Weeting, Elvedon and Tuleta - but NOT Operation Rubicon which falls within the bailiwick of Strathclyde Police.  More individual - and corporate - offences could considered from phone-hacking, corruption and perjury allegations ensuing from Operation Motorman and the Tommy Sheridan trial.

A perfect storm gathering for News Corp?

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You can contact the author on Twitter @brown_moses or by email at brownmoses@gmail.com

Did Rupert Murdoch Lie To Leveson About Gordon Brown?

Norman Smith of the BBC has just tweeted the following information he received from the cabinet office regarding claims made by Gordon Brown at the Leveson Inquiry:

Cabinet Office -We confirm there is a record of only 1 call between Mr Brown and Rupert Murdoch in year to March 2010 on 10th of Nov 2009

Cabinet Office say Nov 2009 phone call between Gordon Brown and Rupert Murdoch followed by email referring to discussion on Afghanistan

Gordon Brown's spokeswoman on Cab Off statement on call with Rupert Murdoch :"This statement confirms Mr Brown's evidence to the Inquiry"

Gordon Brown office say Rupert Murdoch has been unable to provide any evidence of alleged "declaration of war" phone call in Sept 2009

As the Guardian reported on Monday Brown "insisted" he did not make an unbalanced and threatening phone call to Rupert Murdoch in 2009, as claimed by Rupert Murdoch during his Leveson appearance in April:

The former prime minister released Downing Street phone records to the inquiry on Monday to show that he had spoken to Murdoch on 10 November of that year at 12.33pm. Brown said that the two had spoken about the war in Afghanistan.

During his April appearance Rupert Murdoch claimed Brown had called him in September 2009 during which Brown threatened Rupert Murdoch and acted in an unbalanced way.

Today's new information seems to suggest that Rupert Murdoch was wrong to make those claims, and as yet he and News Corp have been unable to produce any evidence of those claims, so the question is; did Rupert Murdoch lie to the Leveson Inquiry?

Update - Here's the question Rupert Murdoch was asked at Leveson and how he replied:

Q. May I just deal with one piece of evidence the Inquiry received from Mr MacKenzie. Mr MacKenzie told us that Mr Brown spoke to you on the phone, this was on or shortly after 30 September 2009 and he, Mr Brown, is said to have roared at you for 20 minutes. Is that true or not?

A. I am afraid that -- I'm very happy to tell you about the conversation, but Mr MacKenzie, who I might have talked to about it over dinner, I occasionally see him -- that was a very colourful exaggeration. Mr Brown did call me and said, "Rupert, do you know what's going on here?" And I said, "What do you mean?" He said, "Well ..." the Sun and what it's doing and how it came out, and I said, "I'm not aware of the -- I was not warned of the exact timing, I'm not aware of what they're saying, I'm a long, long way away, but I'm sorry to tell you, Gordon, we have come to the conclusion that we will support a change of government when and if there's an election." Not "if", but "when there's an election". And he said -- and I must stress no voices were raised, we were talking more quietly than you and I are now --he said, "Well, your company has declared war on my government and we have no alternative but to make war on your company." And I said, "I'm sorry about that, Gordon, thank you for calling", end of subject.

You can contact the author on Twitter @brown_moses or by email at brownmoses@gmail.com

Rupert Murdoch's Press Release on the Resignation of James Murdoch

Statement from Rupert Murdoch, Chairman and CEO of News Corporation and Chase Carey, President and Chief Operating Officer, News Corporation Regarding James Murdoch’s Decision to Step Down as Chairman of BSkyB

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--“We are grateful for James Murdoch’s successful leadership of BSkyB. He has played a major role in propelling the company into the market-leading position it enjoys today – and in the process has been instrumental in creating substantial value for News Corporation shareholders. We look forward to BSkyB’s continued growth under the leadership of Nicholas Ferguson and Jeremy Darroch and to James’ continued substantial contributions at News Corporation.”

About News Corporation

News Corporation (NASDAQ: NWS, NWSA; ASX: NWS, NWSLV) had total assets as of December 31, 2011 of approximately US$60 billion and total annual revenues of approximately US$34 billion. News Corporation is a diversified global media company with operations in six industry segments: cable network programming; filmed entertainment; television; direct broadcast satellite television; publishing; and other. The activities of News Corporation are conducted principally in the United States, Continental Europe, the United Kingdom, Australia, Asia and Latin America.

For more information about News Corporation, please visit www.newscorp.com.

Contacts

News Corporation
Julie Henderson, 212-852-7070
jhenderson@newscorp.com
or
Jack Horner, 212-852-7952
jhorner@newscorp.com
or
Miranda Higham, 020 7782 6462
mhigham@newscorp.com

The Week in Hackgate 26/03/12 to 01/04/12

A busy week started with Rupert Murdoch turning on his former Tory friends, with him first hitting out at the Tories over their lack of trust and calling for an independent inquiry into the lobbying row.  Of course, he might have been grumpy over Monday night's Panorama episode, Murdoch's TV Pirates, which despite his lawyers best attempts covered attempts by the News Corp owned NDS's attempts to crack the smart cards used by their rival ONDigital, which contributed to their eventual downfall, and the temporary unemployment of one of Britain's best loved figures (not Johnny Vegas) until tea came along.  This didn't sound a million miles away from what occured at Floorgraphics around the same time, but no doubt this is just a co-incidence, and not an indication of a pattern of behaviour, and nothing the Ofcom News Corp team would be interested in.

In the US PBS's Frontline series helped Americans catch up with the Hackgate scandal, while the Australian Financial Review came across NDS's Ray Adams' private emails, and asked the world to help dig through them.  Something Awful forum members uncovered emails about hiring hackers and dodgy bank accounts, and there's sure to be more to be found.  Australian Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said of the latest allegations “These are serious allegations, and any allegations of criminal activity should be referred to the Australian Federal Police for investigation”.  Tom Watson MP advocated an investigation of News Corp Australia, and everyone crossed their fingers in anticipation.

ITN decided to have a close look at Operation Motorman with the help of the Hacked Off campagin, and produced a number of articles and reported that among many news organisations the Daily Mail had a particular preference for the services of dodgy PI Steve Whittamore.  Oddly they also posted an article with the URL http://www.itv.com/news/2012-03-28/do-not-publish-do-not-publish-do-not-publish/, which I'm surprised they published.

Guido Fawkes reported that the Murdochs would appear at the Leveson Inquiry, while Kit Malthouse told the Leveson Inquiry phone hacking was very expensive to investigate, especially as there's so many paedos that need catching, almost as if he wanted there to be no phone hacking investigation for some reason.

A couple of other interesting stories were the mysterious case of the NotW reporter that never existed, and Rupert Murdoch's Twitter account making him look like a silly goose.

As if the week couldn't get any worse Channel 4 News revealed that police officers had been deleting intelligence reports from the national police computer on the orders of criminal gangs in a secret 2008 Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) report passed to the Leveson Inquiry.

All in all a very busy week, showing that the Hackgate scandal still has plenty left to shock and surprise.

You can contact the author on Twitter @brown_moses or by email at brownmoses@gmail.com