The FBI has launched an investigation into high-speed communications network operator Global Crossing, including its accounting practices, a federal law enforcement official in the US confirmed this afternoon.
Global Crossing, the company which provides almost a third of the Republic's international telecom's capacity, filed for bankruptcy last month in the fourth-largest corporate insolvency in US history.
Global Crossing disclosed earlier this week that it was cooperating in a separate US Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into allegations of improper accounting at the company.
The company said on Monday that it had plans to open its own investigation to review a former employee's allegations of improper accounting.
An FBI spokesman had no comment when asked about the Global Crossing investigation and added, "As a policy, we do not confirm or deny investigations."
Global Crossing was behind a €76 million fibre-optic cable laid to connect the US and Ireland which first went live in February 2000.
It was the result of a partnership between the Government and the telecommunications giant which has long had ambitions to build a fibre-optic network spanning five continents.
The cable was a public-private partnership deal designed to bring a major supplier of broadband connections into the State. In an unusual arrangement, the Government then bought just more than half the total capacity on the cable.
Global Crossing, was one of the fastest growing and most successful telecoms firms during the late 1990s, and formed the cornerstone of the Government's plans to promote the Republic as a centre for e-commerce.
Speaking to The Irish Timesafter filing for bankruptcy last month a Global Crossing spokesman said it was "business as usual" for the company's Irish and European operations.
The spokesman expressed his view that the US operation’s difficulties would not affect customers or staff in Ireland and added that there was no plan to sell off Global Crossing's European operations.
:quality(70)/s3.amazonaws.com/arc-authors/irishtimes/2693e910-3117-4a22-aacf-74cecf13edc4.png)