[Infowarrior] - FBI wiretaps dropped due to unpaid bills

[Richard Forno]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080110/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/fbi_unpaid_phone_bills

FBI wiretaps dropped due to unpaid bills

By LARA JAKES JORDAN, Associated Press Writer

Telephone companies cut off FBI wiretaps used to eavesdrop on
suspected criminals because of the bureau's repeated failures to pay
phone bills on time, according to a Justice Department audit released
Thursday.

The faulty bookkeeping is part of what the audit, by the Justice
Department's inspector general, described as the FBI's lax oversight
of money used in undercover investigations. Poor supervision of the
program also allowed one agent to steal $25,000, the audit said.

More than half of 990 bills to pay for telecommunication surveillance
in five unidentified FBI field offices were not paid on time, the
report shows. In one office alone, unpaid costs for wiretaps from one
phone company totaled $66,000.

And at least once, a wiretap used in a Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act investigation ‹ the highly secretive and sensitive
cases that allow eavesdropping on suspected terrorists or spies ‹ "was
halted due to untimely payment."

"We also found that late payments have resulted in telecommunications
carriers actually disconnecting phone lines established to deliver
surveillance results to the FBI, resulting in lost evidence," according to
the audit by Inspector General Glenn A. Fine.