FBI domestic wiretaps interrupted by unpaid phone bills – light fingered agent pinches 25K from undercover kitty

Part of the problem apparently stems from a light fingered agent on the wiretap team that stole over US$25,000 “intended for undercover telecommunication services,” according to the report issued last week by the DOJ Office of the Inspector General (OIG).

“The investigation showed that the employee took advantage of weak controls over field division confidential funds to convert FBI monies for her own use,” the report said.

In the case of service interruption for non-payment, this was no isolated incident. The OIG reported that out of the 900 payments that were the responsibility of five FBI field divisions, more than half of the phone bills were delinquent accounts and have “resulted in telecommunications carriers actually disconnecting phone lines established to deliver surveillance results to the FBI, resulting in lost evidence including an instance where delivery of intercept information required by a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) order was halted due to untimely payment,” according to the report.
In one division a carrier was owed $66,000 in unpaid telecommunication costs resulting from surveillance activity.

When agents did pay their phone bills, they often overpaid for reasons unexplained by the audit other than ignorance of simple budgeting practices. Overpayments resulted in refunds generated by phone companies causing some perplexity amongst field agents.