Sprint Corp. has agreed to pay $15.5 million to settle charges it had “defrauded federal law enforcement agencies when recovering its costs of carrying out court-ordered wiretaps, pen registers and trap devices,” according to the U.S. attorney in San Francisco.

in addition to its costs for the intercept charges. It said federal law required telecommunications companies like Sprint to upgrade their systems to handle law enforcement requests, but the law forbid them from passing along those costs.

The statement said Sprint neither admitted nor denied any wrongdoing or liability.

Sprint’s settlement of the federal case follows its settlement last week of an investor class action lawsuit that stemmed from its merger with Nextel Communications.

-- The Kansas City Star