Sonera phone scandal: Police submit investigation material to prosecutors

NBI believe Sonera security department violated privacy of 56 people

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The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has completed its enquiries into the so-called main branch of the case involving suspected violation of the telecommunications privacy of employees of the telecoms company Sonera by a number of the company’s executives. Investigation into the 10 to 15 smaller branches of the case is to be completed sometime next month.
      The investigation has focused on the activities of the company’s security department from the autumn of 2000 to the spring of 2001. Employees at the company’s security department are believed to have traced the telephone records of other employees in an attempt to find the source of leaks to Helsingin Sanomat and other media on sensitive matters within the company.
      During the year and a half of investigations into the complicated case, the NBI has interrogated former Sonera CEO Kaj-Erik Relander and five other Sonera executives.
      On Friday the transcripts were submitted to prosecutors, and the various interested parties are to receive copies next week.
      Prosecutor Markku Pohjanoksa will consider possible charges in the case, and trials could begin sometime in the late autumn.
     
The police investigation suggests that the tracing of phone calls involved both mobile phone records and the records of calls to and from the desk telephones of employees at Sonera’s communications department. The snooping also allegedly extended to employee e-mails. Police say that the security department traced information on contacts that were taken, but not the content of the communications.
      The company’s security department also tried to trace information on the location of specific mobile telephones. The investigation reveals that Sonera tried to locate one of its former executives, Harri Vatanen, on the basis of information from the base stations that were connected with his mobile phone.
      Vatanen, the former head of the Sonera subsidiary SmartTrust, had fallen out with Sonera, which was trying to locate him in order to serve a subpoena for a court appearance.
     
The material produced in the investigation is extensive. In addition to the 1,200 pages of protocols, there are at least 1,000 pages of appendices. The need to submit copies to all 56 suspected victims of the phone record tracing activities has put logistical strains on the NBI.
      In addition to the main branch of the case, the NBI is looking into 10 - 15 smaller related cases. The most notorious of these is the suspected tracing of the telephone records of Paavo Lipponen (SDP) when he was Prime Minister.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Allegations of illegal tracing of phone records at Sonera to go to trial in autumn (8.4.2004)
  Police suspected of illegal surveillance of Lipponen phones (30.10.2003)
  Police: Sonera violated telecommunications privacy of thousands (14.8.2003)
  Helsingin Sanomat investigative reporters win Bonnier prize for Sonera story (27.3.2003)
  Police investigation: Sonera traced calls of dozens of individuals (22.1.2003)
  Police find more targets of alleged illegal phone call tracing by Sonera (16.12.2002)
  Police arrest former Sonera CEO Kaj-Erik Relander (27.11.2002)
  Communications Regulatory Authority asks Sonera to explain HS claims (14.10.2002)
  Sonera security unit studies phone records to find corporate information leaks (11.10.2002)

Helsingin Sanomat