A British attorney, who represented the family of a murder victim whose phone was hacked by News Of The World journalists, says he is teaming up with a lawyer in the U.S. to begin legal proceedings against the Murdochs and News Corporation.
Mark Lewis announced Friday that he is coordinating with Norman Siegel, an attorney in New York who represents 9/11 families, to help him determine whether he can initiate a class action suit against News Corp under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).
FCPA prevents bribery of foreign officials, and may have been violated by News Corp, which is based in the U.S., if reporters for its British News Of The World tabloid bribed members of Scotland Yard.
Lewis told The Guardian that Siegel would examine police bribery allegations, phone hacking and “foreign malpractices.”
Earlier this week, U.S. prosecutors reportedly requested information from News Corp related to the Justice Department’s probe of the potential FCPA violations.
The NOTW phone hacking scandal exploded in July after the Dowler family alleged that the tabloid had hacked into 13-year old Milly Dowler’s phone after she disappeared. The paper even deleted her voice messages once her inbox was full, giving her family false hope that she was still alive.
NOTW, which has since closed, also
hacked into the phones of a wide range of public figures, including actors, athletes members of the royal family and government officials.
Mark Hosenball of Reuters reported Thursday that the phone of former Labour MP Denis MacShane was reportedly hacked extensively in 2004 and 2005 by Glenn Mulcaire, a private investigator. Mulcaire and former NOTW Clive Goodman are the only two to be convicted so far in the scandal.
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