HP Denies Pretexting Claim By Former Exec
15353
By Nicole C. Wong, San Jose Mercury News, Calif.  Feb.
206404
HP Chairman Patricia Dunn said on  Friday she had no idea private investigators hired by the  company had used questionable tactics to probe a boardroom  leak, and said she did not plan to resign but would do so if  asked by her board.
704393
(InfoWorld) - A shareholder lawsuit against Hewlett-Packard (HP) forÂ attempting to spy on board members and reportersÂ has been expanded to include charges of insider stock trading. An amended complaint filed Wednesday in the Superior Court of California for Santa Clara County accuses HP Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Mark Hurd and seven other company executives of selling $41.3 million worth of HP stock at "inflated prices" shortly before the company revealed that its investigators had used questionable and possibly illegal techniques to gain access to personal records such as phone call logs. The eight executives sold 1.7 million shares of stock between Aug. 21 and Sept. 6, according to the lawsuit. In an Aug. 31 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), HP said an outside investigator used the practice of pretexting, pretending to be someone else, to gain access to personal records. Former HP Chairman Patricia Dunn and four others face criminal charges stemming from their alleged participation in the spying, which also used e-mail tracer technology, according to testimony before a U.S. congressional committee. HP also tried to prop up the value of its stock price by announcing on Aug. 21 it would repurchase $6 billion worth of its stock, the lawsuit says. "In the midst of this acrimony HP executives cashed in," says the complaint, filed by the Lerach, Coughlin, Stoia, Geller, Rudman & Robbins LLP law firm. HP issued a statement calling the lawsuit "baseless." The lawsuit "represents a transparent effort to exploit issues related to HP's recent investigation for personal gain at the expense of HP, its shareholders and its employees," the statement said. "HP will defend itself vigorously." HP acknowledged that it had obtained the phone records of 12 people by using pretexting. The stockholder lawsuit, originally filed in September, asks the court to declare that HP's executives have "committed breaches of their fiduciary duties" and to order executives to repay the amount the company has been damaged by the spying scandal. The lawsuit also asks the court to require HP to reform its corporate governance and to extract punitive damages from Dunn, Hurd and other HP executives.
404185
(InfoWorld) - Although Hewlett-Packard's spying scandal has led to the resignation of four high-ranking officials and evoked comparisons in Congress to Watergate and fraud at Enron, it isn't likely to impede the company's long-term ability to compete, analysts and investors said. So far, these groups said, there has been scant evidence linking Mark Hurd to the legally questionable practice of pretexting, in which investigators probing news leaks impersonated board members and journalists in order to obtain their phone records. So long as Hurd is not shown to have approved or participated in those activities, HP is likely to emerge with its viability intact. "The problem has obviously been recognized and is being rectified, and with time the business will build back to normal," said Alex Vallecillo, a portfolio manager who follows technology stocks at Allegiant Asset Management. "We're all big boys and girls, and we understand what goes on in the corporate boardroom has no effect on the ability of [HP's] products and services to deliver value." Indeed, HP's shares gained 1.6 percent on Thursday, the same day Patricia Dunn, who was forced to resign as the company's chairman last week, was grilled before a hearing convened by the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Ten people involved with the investigation asserted their Fifth Amendment rights in declining to answer representatives' questions. Since Sept. 5, the day before the news of the scandal broke, HP shares have fallen 1.1 percent, compared with a 2.9 percent gain for the Nasdaq composite index and a 2.1 percent gain for the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Although the negative attention has been a distraction for HP, "that's a very short-term situation, which I expect to pass soon," said Sunil Reddy, senior portfolio manager at Fifth Third Asset Management. "All the cards are on the table right now; I'd be very surprised if anything new comes out." Analyst Rob Enderle of the Enderle Group, attending an event in New York where HP was showing off new PCs ahead of the Christmas shopping season, agreed. The corporate buyers he's talked to aren't likely to choose HP competitors as a result of the scandal, and he said he expected non-business customers to feel the same way. "It relates to behavior of folks the average consumer doesn't relate with and probably doesn't understand." That said, HP's investigative techniques have become the butt of plenty of jokes, Enderle said, in which business customers tell HP sales staff: "We're probably going to send this out to bid, but you probably already know that because you've been looking at my phone records."
471416
The attorney for ousted Hewlett-Packard chairman Patricia Dunn fired back Wednesday at public comments made by board rival Thomas Perkins about theÂ HP pretexting scandal.
525757
Dunn whines The muck continues to thicken around HP's spy scandal. Verizon has filed a lawsuit against 20 unnamed data brokers, accusing them of helping out with the phone fraud used in HP's investigation. Separately, former HP Chairman Patricia Dunn has chastised HP for "inaccuracies" the company published in a recent regulatory filing.â¦
198945
Company says in court filing it never accessed phone records of a former exec it is suing over alleged theft of trade secrets.
625937
In an advance copy of his Congressional testimony released by a House Subcommittee on Wednesday, Hewlett-Packard chief executive officer (CEO) Mark Hurd blamed the scandal that has besieged his company on "a rogue investigation" that got out of hand.
600510
(InfoWorld) - Hewlett-Packard chief executive officer Mark Hurd blamedÂ the scandalÂ that has besieged his company on "a rogue investigation" that got out of hand, in an advance copy of his Congressional testimony released by a House Subcommittee on Wednesday. "How did such an abuse of privacy occur in a company renowned for its privacy? The end came to justify the means," Hurd wrote. "The investigation team became so focused on finding the source of the leaks that they lost sight of the privacy of reporters and others. They lost sight of the values HP has always represented." Former HP Chairman Patricia Dunn,Â forced to resignÂ Sept. 21 because of the scandal, defended in her testimony her decision toÂ investigate the leaksÂ of confidential board discussions to the news media. In her testimony, Dunn wrote that she knew investigators were obtaining the phone records of people it was investigating. Lawyers for HP and for an investigation firm carrying out the probe assured her the tactics were legal, she wrote. "I was fully convinced that HP would never engage in anything illegal," she wrote. "Given that attorneys were unambiguously overseeing the investigation ... reinforced my understanding that the investigations were being handled appropriately." Both are among severalÂ witnesses expected at a hearingÂ before the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Thursday in Washington. The committee is looking into the practice of "pretexting," or using false pretenses to gain access to confidential records. Investigators hired by HP to find the source of leaks engaged in pretexting to get hold of the phone records of directors, HP employees and reporters who cover the Palo Alto, California, technology company. Hurd, echoing comments he made in a news conference last Friday at HP's headquarters, said he was determined to get to the bottom of this episode and to try to restore HP's image. "I pledge that HP will take whatever steps are necessary to make sure nothing like this ever happens again," he wrote, "and that this company will regain not just its reputation ... but its pride." Although much of the criticism of the scandal surrounds the tactics used by the investigators, Dunn wrote in her testimony that equal consideration should be given to the leaks from within the company that damaged HP. HP's board was notorious for its leaks to news media and such disclosures made it difficult for the board to deal with important issues candidly, she wrote. Dunn explained that board deliberations on the selection of a replacement for former CEO Carly Fiorina in 2005 were leaked. She cited a BusinessWeek magazine story "disclosing opinions about various candidates and revealing details about ... the search process." "If you were a top CEO candidate, would you want to work for a company whose board could not be trusted to keep such information confidential? HP is very lucky to have been able to recruit Mark Hurd under such circumstances," Dunn wrote. "I wish fervently that none of this had ever happened," Dunn continued. "But boards have an unquestionable obligation to take steps to prevent [leaks]. That certain steps taken during the investigation went well beyond what was appropriate does not undermine the importance of the board's mission in this matter." Hurd also outlined several steps the company is taking internally to clarify its privacy policy for employees and to emphasize it in employee training programs.ADVERTISEMENTMAKE SOA REAL WITH IBM WEBSPHERE PODCASTStreamline processes and maximize efficiency within a proven service oriented architecture. Take back control of your business processes with IBM WebSphere.
543361
Former Computer Associates chief executive Sanjay Kumar pleaded not guilty on Thursday in the US to charges that he helped inflate his firm&#39;s financial results and subsequently tried to conceal that fact from investigators.
358881
The California attorney general said   on Friday there was no evidence yet linking Hewlett-Packard Co.   HPQ.N Chief Executive Mark Hurd to any criminal wrongdoing,   as scrutiny grew over his role in the PC maker's probe of a   boardroom leak.
567115
A former Hewlett-Packard Co.   HPQ.N board member has asked U.S. prosecutors, as well as   U.S. trade and communications regulators, to review an HP   investigation in which directors' and journalists' private   phone records were accessed.
359700
A lawyer for a New York Times reporter and three BusinessWeek reporters who were spied on as part of Hewlett-Packard Co.'s boardroom surveillance scheme says the four have settled claims against the company.
263206
Hunsaker also on list Patricia Dunn, the former chairman of HP, and four others are to face charges over The great HP Pretexting Fiasco.â¦
303011
Been there, seen that HP's freshest board member Ken Thompson won't need to take the company's Pretexting 101 course offering. As Wachovia's CEO, Thompson has become well acquainted with the legal concerns surrounding phone record fraud.â¦
694777
Hewlett-Packard Co. HPQ.N Chief   Executive Mark Hurd told lawmakers on Thursday there were no   excuses for a probe of boardroom leaks that led investigators   to deceptively obtain private telephone records.
214129
Patricia Dunn, the former chairman   of Hewlett-Packard Co., said she believed the investigation   into leaks had been authorized by the company's chief financial   officer and the methods used were legal, according to testimony   to Congress released on Wednesday.