FRANKFURT (Dow Jones/AP)--Bonn prosecutors have searched the headquarters of Deutsche Telekom and the offices of its T-Mobile unit as part of a probe into the company's use of data related to calls between board members and journalists, a Deutsche Telekom spokesman confirmed Thursday.
Among the suspects in the probe are Deutsche Telekom employees, but there are no allegations against current members of the executive board, the spokesman added.
According to the Associated Press, investigations are under way against two former Deutsche Telekom board members. Meanwhile, a Deutsche Telekom spokesman told the Associated Press that Bonn prosecutors are investigating the company's former Chief Executive Kai-Uwe Ricke and former Supervisory Board Chief Klaus Zumwinkel.
The European Union's largest telecommunications company said this week that it had found indications of "illegal and improper use" of phone calls made to and from both landline and cell phones in 2005 and 2006.
Deutsche Telekom said it has tried to track how leaks from confidential internal communications made their way into press reports.
Ron Sommer, who was CEO at the company between 1995 and 2000, said he isn't involved in the case, German daily Financial Times Deutschland reported Thursday in an advance copy of its Friday issue, citing Sommer. According to the FTD information, Deutsche Telekom spied on journalists already in 2000.
-By Archibald Preuschat, Dow Jones Newswires, +49 (0) 69 29725505, archibald.preuschat@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
Posted to the site on 29th May 2008
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