According to the paper’s account, Brooks’s husband, Charlie, tried to reclaim the bag from a security guard who found it, but was unable to prove he owned it.
A Brooks spokesman told the paper none of the bag’s contents belonged to Rebekah, who until Friday had served as CEO of News Corp.’s British newspaper division. She was arrested by London police Sunday for her role in the phone hacking scandal.
Brooks, along with James and Rupert Murdoch, is expected to testify before Parliament Tuesday.
The spokesman’s account, given to the Guardian, had a friend of Charlie Brooks returning the bag to the Brooks home but left it in the wrong place in their garage.
“Charlie has a bag which contains a laptop and papers which were private to him,” the spokesman said. “They were nothing to do with Rebekah or the [phone-hacking] case.”
The spokesman said a cleaning person found the misplaced bag and put it in the garbage, where a security guard found it and called police.
Well, damn... A cleaning-person finds a "bag" with a laptop computer and important papers in it, and puts it in the garbage... What a fiendish, coincidental mistake?!?!?
Murdoch's legal, financial woes escalate US probe, shareholder lawsuit add to pressures of UK hacking scandal
The legal and financial troubles for Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. are escalating on the eve of the media tycoon’s showdown appearance before a House of Commons committee Tuesday morning.
Law enforcement sources tell NBC News that U.S. Justice Department officials in recent days have reached out to British law enforcement officials to review allegations relating to $160,000 in payments reportedly paid by Murdoch’s News of the World to Scotland Yard police officers. The consultations with officials at Britain’s Serious Fraud Office are the first tangible step by Justice to determine whether the payments may have violated the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act — a law that makes it illegal for an American company to pay bribes to foreign government officials.
Murdoch’s News Corp., which is based in Delaware, is also facing a new legal challenge from shareholders. In recently filed court papers, a group of shareholders — including investment funds and labor and municipal pension funds — allege that Murdoch has misused News Corp. assets, treating the company “like a family candy jar, which he raids whenever his appetite strikes.”
The lawsuit was filed in Delaware Chancery Court months ago to focus on a $650 million News Corp. purchase of a British TV production company owned by Murdoch’s daughter, Elizabeth — a deal that the lawsuit alleges resulted in a $250 million windfall for the younger Murdoch. It also focused on what it alleges is excessive compensation paid by the company — including $74 million paid to Murdoch in the past three years — as well as News Corp.’s $1,250,000 contribution to the Republican Governor’s Association last year.
The donation shows Murdoch’s willingness to use corporate assets — as opposed to political action committee contributions voluntarily donated by employees — to advance his “conservative political agenda,” the lawsuit charges.
