AT&T’s Cricket Communications division has agreed to pay $2.1 million over allegations that it overcharged federal law enforcement agencies to carry out wiretaps and pen registers of its customers. The fine was announced by U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag and U.S. Department of Justice Office of Inspector General and Special Agent in Charge Elise Chawaga.
The government claimed that Cricket, before it was acquired by AT&T earlier this year, between 2007 and 2010 overcharged federal law enforcement agencies for performing court-ordered wiretaps and pen registers. Telecommunication companies are allowed to bill “reasonable expenses” incurred for performing or assisting in wiretaps.
The federal government earlier this year made similar claims against Sprint, claiming the carrier overcharged law enforcement agencies by more than $21 million.
Verizon Communications earlier this year as part of its newly established Transparency Report, claimed it received approximately 72,500 government subpoenas through the first half of this year requesting information on its customers. Verizon noted that the most recent information requests were connected to just .1% of its U.S. customers; that 90% of the subpoenas sought information about three or fewer customers; and that the average number of customers whose information was demanded through a single subpoena was less than two. Verizon added that none of the requests were for information stored in its overseas data centers.
The federal government increased the number of wiretap requests following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, which The New York Times uncovered in late 2005. The federal government in 2008 provided telecom operators with immunity from prosecution for lawsuits related to privacy invasion claims.
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