Following a Bloomberg story Tuesday that said the U.S. Justice Department has sent News Corp. a letter about its investigation into the company, COO Chase Carey denied charges that any of his employees hacked the phones of families of 9/11 victims.
Carey said there is “nothing we’ve seen” to substantiate the claim, which the DOJ has been investigating since July.
Carey was appearing at the Goldman Sachs Communicopia Conference, where he answered questions about News Corp.’s newspapers, British Sky Broadcasting, and, inevitably, the phone-hacking scandal.
It was reported back in July that the DOJ is investigating News Corp. for hacking the families of 9/11 victims. An inquiry into potential violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act has been undertaken as well.
Bloomberg’s latest story suggested that the DOJ letter to News Corp. was about bribing U.K. police officers, which is a violation of the corrupt practices act. The act states that bribing any foreign officials is illegal.
The act violation has always seemed like a stronger case since the reports of hacking families of 9/11 victims still trace to a single story in the Daily Mail.
Still, this is the scandal that will not die, prompting Ted Turner to predict earlier this week that News Corp. Chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch would have to resign.
