U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, along with Senator John Rockefeller, is pressing the Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission to look into Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.
U.S. lawmakers called Wednesday for the Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate whether News Corp. broke a U.S. law banning bribes to foreign officials.
Senators Barbara Boxer and John Rockefeller asked Attorney-General Eric Holder and SEC chairman Mary Schapiro to look into a potential violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act after the telephone-hacking scandal at one of News Corp.'s British newspapers.
"The reported allegations against News Corporation are very serious and indicate potentially thousands of victims and a pattern of illegal activity. It is important to ensure that no United States laws were broken and no United States citizens were victimized," the senators wrote in a letter to Mr. Holder and Ms. Schapiro.
The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act prohibits payments intended to influence any act or decision of a foreign official.
The senators also called on authorities to investigate reports News Corp. also illegally accessed telephone records of victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
A Justice Department spokeswoman said they would review the letter as part of standard practice, but that did not mean an investigation would be initiated.
News Corp., in addition to its newspapers in Britain, owns the Wall Street Journal, Fox Broadcasting, the New York Post and other media properties in the United States.
So far, the scandal has largely been contained to News Corp.'s British newspaper arm following allegations journalists at News of the World hacked into the phones of a murdered school girl, dead soldiers and others to generate stories.
But with calls for investigations from members of Congress, the crisis could spread to the United States.
News Corp. shares were trading higher after the company said it was withdrawing its $12-billion bid to buy out the 61 per cent of broadcaster BSkyB it does not already own .
Reuters