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posted by Cactus on Friday March 07 2014, @02:30AM   Printer-friendly
from the does-this-sound-famliar dept.

r00t writes

"The Obama administration has accused Sprint of overcharging the government to the tune of more than $21 million in wiretapping expenses.

Another lawsuit has been dismissed recently by telco's arguing that New York Deputy Attorney General John Prather technically couldn't file a whistle blower lawsuit under the False Claim Act and claim he himself was the "original source of the information" -- because he filed the original complaint while working for the government.

The Prather case claimed the telco's overcharge for taps in general, but have historically dodged culpability by simply hitting the government with large bills that don't itemize or explain why a wiretap should magically cost $50,000 to $100,000. Now it seems that Sprint is being specifically targeted for this lawsuit. "Under the law, the government is required to reimburse Sprint for its reasonable costs incurred when assisting law enforcement agencies with electronic surveillance," Sprint spokesman John Taylor said. "The invoices Sprint has submitted to the government fully comply with the law." Though according to the suit, Sprint overinflated charges by approximately 58 percent between 2007 and 2010.

Not only do we get to be spied on, we likely paid for these wiretaps both on the taxpayer side and on the telco side as the companies passed on both real and imaginary wiretap costs to you."

 
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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by c0lo on Friday March 07 2014, @03:55AM

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Friday March 07 2014, @03:55AM (#12468) Journal

    Its gotten to the point where our money is more like monopoly money.. 21 million, 21 billion.. whatever.. print some more of the blue ones.

    It's gotten to a point where people don't ask any more "Why the hell do we need wiretapping? What benefit are why getting back from it?", but "Why the hell does it cost us so much to be spied upon by our own govt".

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by SuperCharlie on Friday March 07 2014, @05:12AM

    by SuperCharlie (2939) on Friday March 07 2014, @05:12AM (#12499)

    Ya know.. I ran around screaming (figuratively) for around 3 years about the whole mess. I was ridiculed, called tinfoil hat, called an idiot, and after a while you just get bitter. Im to the point now that I hope we drive the car right into the brick wall.

    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by c0lo on Friday March 07 2014, @05:37AM

      by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Friday March 07 2014, @05:37AM (#12508) Journal

      and after a while you just get bitter.

      Bitter - always an acquired taste (I got to enjoy it too).

      Im to the point now that I hope we drive the car right into the brick wall.

      I don't know about car and brick walls (it may be longer and more painful than a sudden stop), but I concur with your general feeling: it will get (much) worse before getting better.

      (meanwhile, enjoy your dose of angostura or absinthe)

      --
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford