Do Son 
The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation has stated that it is unable to locate documents related to the procurement of hacking tools, despite having spent over $250,000 on such acquisitions. These transactions were previously listed openly in a government procurement database, only to mysteriously vanish without a trace.
This incident once again underscores the opaque nature of the FBI’s activities in the realm of digital surveillance. The agency has repeatedly deployed classified technologies in standard criminal investigations, withheld details of cyber operations from defendants, and purchased surveillance tools from private vendors. Yet the disappearance of these records has raised particular concern, even among seasoned watchdogs of public expenditure.
A Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request was filed to obtain documents concerning a contract for the purchase of hacking utilities from The Innocent Lives Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to combating crimes against children. The specified value of the agreement was $250,000. According to FBI representatives, the records were initially located during an internal review, but subsequently “were not found in the expected locations.” A follow-up search proved equally fruitless. As a result, the documents could not be examined, nor could their relevance to the FOIA request be assessed.
The fact that the contract initially appeared in a public government spending database and only disappeared after it was brought to media attention appears particularly suspect. The FOIA request even included the contract’s unique identification number, which should have streamlined the retrieval process. Nevertheless, despite having all necessary identifiers, the FBI was either unable—or unwilling—to provide the requested information.
Commenting on the deletion of the contract from the government database, Scott Amey, general counsel for the nonpartisan Project on Government Oversight, remarked: “Transparency in government spending is the bedrock of accountability for taxpayer funds. Yes, public databases may occasionally experience delays or gaps, but citizens are entitled to know what the government is purchasing and at what cost. Congress must strengthen the laws that uphold procurement transparency.”
As of publication, the FBI had issued no official statements regarding the missing records.
