T-Mobile will pay $60 million to settle allegations it failed to promptly report incidents of unauthorized data access in violation of a national security agreement that allowed its merger with rival Sprint, according to senior U.S. government officials. It is the largest fine to date imposed by the U.S. regulatory panel that reviews deals for U.S. national security risks.
T-Mobile signed a national security agreement with Cfius in 2018 after a panel; approved its planned takeover of Sprint because of foreign ownership of the entities.
Cfius, includes representatives of the departments of Defense, Justice, Energy and Commerce and other agencies. The committee looks over foreign entrants for potential national security issues.
Between August 2020 and June 2021, Cfius said T-Mobile failed to take appropriate action to prevent unauthorized access to certain sensitive data, in violation of its national security agreement. T-Mobile also failed to report some of the incidents in a timely manner to Cfius, further violating the agreement.
T-Mobile said the incidents were related to unauthorized access of information shared from law enforcement requests, which happened because of technical issues the company experienced.
Jeff Newman represents whistleblowers nationwide relating to Medicare and Medicaid fraud, under the state and federal False Claims Act (Qui Tam) laws. He also represents whistleblowers in major claims under the SEC, CFTC and FINCEN whistleblower programs and can be reached at Jeff@JeffNewmanLaw.com or at 617-823-3217
