Former mayor of Lake Station, In., Keith Soderquist, was found guilty of corruption charges last year. He was scheduled to be sentenced this year on September 28. During the preparation for sentencing, officials discovered that he had been recording and listening to phone conversations at City Hall. This eavesdropping may end up adding a few more years to his time in prison.
Soderquist had recorded approximately 425,000 calls between Oct. 12, 2011, and Aug. 13, 2015, and continued the activity even after being released on bond as his federal corruption cases were pending, according to a sentencing agreement filed Wednesday in federal court.
Computer records show Soderquist listened to 14 calls involving potential government witnesses working at City Hall and at least one call placed from the private chambers of the Lake Station City Court judge, according to the court document.
This is a situation where a normal communications system was adapted for illegal activity. The defense attorney said that the system had been installed to help improve “customer service” while protecting employees against false accusations.
Apparently not all employees had been notified that their calls were being recorded and there was no announcement of “calls may be monitored” given to incoming callers.
Eavesdropping features exist in some form in all telecom systems today.
An audit of your phone system operations can help reveal potential misuse such as this. Almost all telecom systems in use today have features that can allow various forms of eavesdropping to take place. From voicemail hacking to call monitoring to harassment, these are just a few of the problems we have helped to resolve. It is important to establish clear telecom policies for all employees and perform audits of your communications network to insure that the integrity of your systems is intact.