The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia dismissed a False Claims Act action brought by lawyers Mark O’Connor and Sara Leibman, who allege defendants fraudulently said Frequency Advantage was a “very small business” qualifying for “designated entity” status and a bidding discount in a 2015 spectrum auction. The case was brought against UScellular and Frequency Advantage, along with other defendants, including Advantage Spectrum, King Street Wireless and Telephone and Data Systems. The court earlier dismissed the case but granted plaintiffs “leave to amend their allegations to allow them to attempt to proffer different allegations or transactions from those already in the public domain,” the court said: “The Amended Complaint fails to do so. The ‘core allegation’ Plaintiffs-Relators identify in their Amended Complaint is the same as in their original Complaint, which the court already held did not overcome the public disclosure bar. They proffer the same FCC filings and other public information from their original Complaint.”
President Joe Biden signed an executive order Friday initiating finalization of a new cross-border data agreement with the EU. Industry applauded the EO, but advocates say the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework (DPF) doesn’t resolve outstanding data privacy issues that led the European Court of Justice (ECJ) to invalidate the previous two agreements.
The FTC should be “careful” in drawing up potential competition rules that might not withstand judicial scrutiny, former Democratic officials told an antitrust conference Wednesday in Washington.
FTC Chair Lina Khan should recuse herself from the agency’s lawsuit against Meta’s acquisition of Within Unlimited because her publicly aired opinions “irrevocably tainted” the case, Meta argued Friday in 5:22-CV-04325 before the U.S. District Court in San Jose. Senate Democrats defended her willingness to hold Big Tech accountable and name executives in complaints, in interviews last week.
If the FTC finds Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal directly participated in data practices that violated a 2011 consent decree, the agency won’t hesitate to name him in a complaint, FTC Chair Lina Khan told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee during an oversight hearing Tuesday.
A potential legislative proposal from Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., that would create a new tech regulator (see 2209120059) is dividing the Senate.
The Senate Judiciary Committee hasn’t moved to subpoena testimony from Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, committee leaders told reporters Tuesday. Their comments came after bipartisan concern over data security allegations about the platform during a hearing with a company whistleblower. Tuesday’s hearing confirms that allegations from whistleblower Peiter Zatko are “riddled with inconsistencies and inaccuracies,” a company spokesperson said in a statement.
A Washington, D.C.-based tech executive billionaire made false claims about his residency to avoid paying more than $25 million in taxes to the District of Columbia, D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine (D) alleged in a lawsuit his office announced Wednesday. Racine filed a tax fraud case against Michael Saylor, who according to the AG, has lived in D.C. for more than a decade and has never paid district income taxes while operating his Virginia-based data tracking company MicroStrategy. Saylor and the company said Racine's claims aren't valid. Racine brought the lawsuit under a recently updated law that allows whistleblowers to collect a percentage of money recouped in tax fraud cases. Racine is seeking the recovery of tens of millions of dollars in unpaid income taxes and penalties. According to Racine, the former MicroStrategy CEO publicly called D.C. home since around 2005: “He lives in a 7,000 square foot penthouse on the Georgetown waterfront and has docked at least two of his luxury yachts in the District for long periods of time.” Racine said the whistleblower has documentation, including MicroStrategy flight logs and social media posts showing Saylor claimed Florida residency. The complaint alleges Saylor “openly bragged to friends and acquaintances about evading DC taxes and encouraged others to follow his example.” Saylor said in a statement that he moved into a historic house in Miami Beach a decade ago and disagrees with Racine’s claims: “Although MicroStrategy is based in Virginia, Florida is where I live, vote, and have reported for jury duty, and it is at the center of my personal and family life.” MicroStrategy said the case is a “personal tax matter” involving Saylor: The company wasn’t “responsible for his day-to-day affairs and did not oversee his individual tax responsibilities. Nor did the Company conspire with Mr. Saylor in the discharge of his personal tax responsibilities. The District of Columbia’s claims against the Company are false and we will defend aggressively against this overreach.”
Action on a proposal to revive FCC collection of equal employment opportunity workforce diversity data using Form 395-B isn’t expected soon despite recent calls from public interest and diversity groups for swift action, industry and FCC officials told us. The National Urban League, Common Cause, the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council and others said in recent joint supplementary comments in docket 98-204 that the agency needs to act within six months to produce useful reports by mid-2024, but industry and FCC officials said they don’t anticipate action on the matter while the FCC is without a Democratic majority.
A whistleblower’s claims against Twitter, if substantiated, “demonstrate a pattern of willful disregard for the personal data of Twitter users and the integrity of the platform,” House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and House Cybersecurity Subcommittee Chair Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., wrote in a letter Thursday to Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal (see 2208230068). The company denied the allegations when they first surfaced. The letter cites Russian disinformation campaigns during election cycles and Twitter’s “unique role” in distributing information. They requested responses to a series of questions regarding the platform’s approach to security deficiencies.