Spying Scandal At Deutsche Telekom
By Christopher Nickson
May 27, 2008
Prosecutors are looking into the "misuse of call record" at German telecom giant Deutsche Telekom — but the misuse was by the company's security staff, and the callers were DT execs.
In a case that seems to bear echoes of the Hewlett-Packard scandal of a few years ago, prosecutors in Germany are investigating telecom giant Deutsche Telekom after reports that its own security people employed an outside company to monitor phone calls between DT executives and reporters in 2005/6, a time when there were plenty of layoffs in the company.
"I am shaken to the core by these allegations," DT's CEO René Obermann said in a weekend statement. "We take the situation most seriously. We have called in the public prosecutor's office and will support them in their full investigation of these allegations."
The story was broken by Der Spiegel over the weekend, and the German government is bound to be concerned, since it owns almost a one-third stake in DT – which can also account for the company’s fast move to getting to the heart of the matter.
This affair follows on the wake of a corruption scandal by another German company, Siemens.