AT&T is fighting to limit the billions of dollars worth of damages the telecom giant might have to pay the victims of the largest rogue wiretapping case in the history of the FBI — a victims list said to include Mel Gibson, Harvey Keitel and Forest Whitaker.
The three men were among the many sources who had talked on the phone with Hollywood reporter Anita Busch during the months she was being illegally wiretapped in her Los Angeles home nine years ago by Anthony Pellicano, a notorious Chicago-born private eye who is now serving a 15-year sentence in a federal prison in Texas.
Busch was terrorized in 2002 when she found a dead fish with a red rose in its mouth and a sign reading “Stop” on the cracked windshield of her Audi. Alex Proctor, the Canadian man Pellicano hired to scare Busch, is now in prison and will be deported when he is released.
According to California’s Privacy Act, wiretap victims can collect up to $5,000 for each illegally tapped phone call. For Busch alone, who made thousands of calls, “that would be close to $25 million,” one source told Flash. “And all the people she talked to have claims against AT&T, as well.”
No wonder AT&T was in Los Angeles Superior Court this week seeking to limit damages to just $5,000 per person. “The phone company is trying to reverse the charges,” laughed one of the 101 targets of Pellicano’s snooping.
Besides Pellicano, more than a dozen others were prosecuted in the criminal case, including phone company employees who set up the illegal taps, police officers who leaked confidential information to Pellicano, and a lawyer who knowingly hired the gumshoe to bug his enemies.
“Despite all these prosecutions and all these people going to jail, the whole story has not come out,” said one insider. Besides AT&T, Busch is suing Michael Ovitz, who was known as the most powerful man in Hollywood when he ran the CAA talent agency. Busch’s lawyers will argue that it was Ovitz who hired Pellicano to tap her phones after she had written some unflattering stories about him.
Pellicano, 67, has steadfastly refused to cooperate, and seems prepared to die in prison rather than rat out his clients. His sentence doesn’t end until March 2019. It can’t be long enough for his victims.
If the civil case goes to trial, the most exciting witness is expected to be Tarita Virtue, Pellicano’s longtime assistant. In her deposition, the colorful Virtue told stories about Howard Stern, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Mariah Carey, Tony Danza, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Regis Philbin, Chris Rock and Nicole Kidman, who allegedly talked to Pellicano about collecting “the placenta or whatever she saved from the miscarriage” for DNA evidence to prove Tom Cruise was the father.
Please, save us a front row seat.
The three men were among the many sources who had talked on the phone with Hollywood reporter Anita Busch during the months she was being illegally wiretapped in her Los Angeles home nine years ago by Anthony Pellicano, a notorious Chicago-born private eye who is now serving a 15-year sentence in a federal prison in Texas.
Busch was terrorized in 2002 when she found a dead fish with a red rose in its mouth and a sign reading “Stop” on the cracked windshield of her Audi. Alex Proctor, the Canadian man Pellicano hired to scare Busch, is now in prison and will be deported when he is released.
According to California’s Privacy Act, wiretap victims can collect up to $5,000 for each illegally tapped phone call. For Busch alone, who made thousands of calls, “that would be close to $25 million,” one source told Flash. “And all the people she talked to have claims against AT&T, as well.”
No wonder AT&T was in Los Angeles Superior Court this week seeking to limit damages to just $5,000 per person. “The phone company is trying to reverse the charges,” laughed one of the 101 targets of Pellicano’s snooping.
Besides Pellicano, more than a dozen others were prosecuted in the criminal case, including phone company employees who set up the illegal taps, police officers who leaked confidential information to Pellicano, and a lawyer who knowingly hired the gumshoe to bug his enemies.
“Despite all these prosecutions and all these people going to jail, the whole story has not come out,” said one insider. Besides AT&T, Busch is suing Michael Ovitz, who was known as the most powerful man in Hollywood when he ran the CAA talent agency. Busch’s lawyers will argue that it was Ovitz who hired Pellicano to tap her phones after she had written some unflattering stories about him.
Pellicano, 67, has steadfastly refused to cooperate, and seems prepared to die in prison rather than rat out his clients. His sentence doesn’t end until March 2019. It can’t be long enough for his victims.
If the civil case goes to trial, the most exciting witness is expected to be Tarita Virtue, Pellicano’s longtime assistant. In her deposition, the colorful Virtue told stories about Howard Stern, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Mariah Carey, Tony Danza, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Regis Philbin, Chris Rock and Nicole Kidman, who allegedly talked to Pellicano about collecting “the placenta or whatever she saved from the miscarriage” for DNA evidence to prove Tom Cruise was the father.
Please, save us a front row seat.
