FBI Fails To Pay Phone Bills; Results In Service Shutoffs, Lose Access To Wiretaps

It's been often reported that a big hurdle faced by the FBI in pursuing all the mortgage fraud going around is its lack of resources. If a recent story by Dan Eggen of The Washington Post is to be believed, they are apparently having enough trouble just keeping their phone bills current.

• Telecommunications companies have repeatedly cut off FBI access to wiretaps of alleged terrorists and criminal suspects because the bureau did not pay its phone bills, according to the results of an audit released yesterday. [...] "Late payments have resulted in telecommunications carriers actually disconnecting phone lines established to deliver surveillance results to the FBI, resulting in lost evidence," [Justice Department Inspector General Glenn] Fine said in a seven-page summary of the audit's findings (pdf format) (html format).

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• The late payments were part of a broader pattern of lax bookkeeping identified by Fine's review. A review of 35 employees with access to such funds found that half had personal bankruptcies or other financial problems, the report said. In one case prosecuted in June 2006, an FBI telecommunications specialist pleaded guilty to stealing more than $25,000 intended for telephone services.

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• The group's national security policy counsel, Michael German, also said that the report raises questions about the motives of large telecom firms, which have, in many cases, allowed the government to run wiretaps on their systems without warrants. "It sounds as though the telecoms believe it when the FBI says the warrant is in the mail, but not when they say the check is in the mail," said German, a former FBI agent.

For more, see FBI wiretaps go dead as phone bills go unpaid (The Boston Globe), or Wiretaps Are Cut Over Unpaid Bills (The Daily Herald).

For the FBI official response to the Inspector General's report, see Response to Inspector General Audit of FBI Management of Confidential Case Funds and Telecommunications Costs.