Deutsche Telekom says CEO not involved in spying
Deutsche Telekom's chief executive knew of illegal monitoring of phone records before it became public but was not involved and kept silent in the company's interests, Europe's biggest phone company said.
FRANKFURT: Deutsche Telekom's chief executive knew of illegal monitoring of phone records before it became public but was not involved and kept silent in the company's interests, Europe's biggest phone company said. Earlier in the week, Deutsche Telekom said that it had uncovered the illegal monitoring in 2005 of phone call records amid claims management had spied on rebel directors and journalists to find out who was leaking information to them. Late on Wednesday, the supervisory board of Deutsche Telekom said it was backing the company's boss, Rene Obermann. "Obermann had nothing to do with what happened (at the company) in 2005," Deutsche Telekom said in a statement. "... Rene Obermann therefore had nothing to hide." Obermann was named as chief executive in November 2006.
The German phone company said that the company decided not to publicise the matter for the sake of the journalist affected as well as Deutsche Telekom. It said Obermann had debated the matter with the company's then chairman Klaus Zumwinkel after an internal investigation last year but had ultimately been obliged to act in the group's interests by not publicising it. Earlier this week after a press report about the affair, Deutsche Telekom said it had informed state prosecutors about its discovery of the monitoring of phone call details in 2005. Information about calls such as time, length and parties involved had been gathered, the company said, but it added that no conversations had been tapped, as had been alleged in the report in German magazine Der Spiegel.
The report said calls were monitored to spy on non-executive directors suspected of leaking information to journalists. The monitoring of phone call records took place when Deutsche Telekom was being managed by former Chief Executive Kai Uwe Ricke. Zumwinkel recently quit after he became embroiled in a tax-dodging affair. Der Spiegel reported both men as saying that they knew nothing of the monitoring of phone calls, which the magazine said took place in projects codenamed Clipper and Rheingold. It said a consulting firm had mined through the records of "hundreds of thousands" of fixed line and mobile phone calls to identify contact between company management and journalists.
The German phone company said that the company decided not to publicise the matter for the sake of the journalist affected as well as Deutsche Telekom. It said Obermann had debated the matter with the company's then chairman Klaus Zumwinkel after an internal investigation last year but had ultimately been obliged to act in the group's interests by not publicising it. Earlier this week after a press report about the affair, Deutsche Telekom said it had informed state prosecutors about its discovery of the monitoring of phone call details in 2005. Information about calls such as time, length and parties involved had been gathered, the company said, but it added that no conversations had been tapped, as had been alleged in the report in German magazine Der Spiegel.
The report said calls were monitored to spy on non-executive directors suspected of leaking information to journalists. The monitoring of phone call records took place when Deutsche Telekom was being managed by former Chief Executive Kai Uwe Ricke. Zumwinkel recently quit after he became embroiled in a tax-dodging affair. Der Spiegel reported both men as saying that they knew nothing of the monitoring of phone calls, which the magazine said took place in projects codenamed Clipper and Rheingold. It said a consulting firm had mined through the records of "hundreds of thousands" of fixed line and mobile phone calls to identify contact between company management and journalists.
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