Calif AG says no evidence to link HP CEO to crime
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California Attorney General Bill   Lockyer said on Friday he does not yet have evidence linking   Hewlett-Packard Co. HPQ.N Chief Executive Mark Hurd to crime   in the state's investigation of the computer maker.
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By Mike Langberg, San Jose Mercury News, Calif.  Sep. 13--Hewlett-Packard and its directors took an ineffective half-step Tuesday toward resolving the spying scandal at Silicon Valley's largest company.
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Hewlett-Packard Co. HPQ.N   Chairman Patricia Dunn on Friday defended her role in an   inquiry into a boardroom leak that has led to a California   state investigation, and said she has no plans to resign unless   asked by the board.
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California Attorney General Bill  Lockyer said he has enough evidence to indict people at  Hewlett-Packard Co.  in an investigation into whether  the computer maker had illegally obtained the private phone  records of directors and reporters.
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Hewlett-Packard Co.  Chief Executive Mark Hurd is not expected to face charges when California's attorney general seeks indictments over a boardroom leak probe, BusinessWeek reported in its online edition on Wednesday.
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Despite the California attorney generalÂs assertion that he has enough evidence to press charges against people inside and outside Hewlett-Packard, a criminal case may be hard to prosecute, legal specialists say.
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(InfoWorld) - A state judge in California on Thursday dismissed charges against the three remaining state criminal defendants in theÂ Hewlett-Packard spying case. Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Ray Cunningham dropped charges against former HP attorney Kevin Hunsaker and private investigators Ron DeLia and Matthew DePante. The charges were dropped for their part in the use of false pretenses to obtain phone records of individuals they were investigating for leaking HP board deliberations to news media. Cunningham agreed to the dismissal after each of the defendants performed at least 96 hours of community service. In fact, each of them did more than required. According to each of their attorneys, the defendants did the following: DeLia, the owner of Security Outsourcing Solutions, a security firm hired by HP, performed 100 hours of community service at a veterans' organization; DePante, of Action Research Group, an investigative firm hired by DeLia, performed 120 hours at a church organization; and Hunsaker performed 165 hours at a nonprofit legal organization "At worst, the conduct in this case amounted to boardroom politics and a betrayal of trust rather than criminal activity," Cunningham said from the bench in his courtroom in San Jose, Calif. None of the defendants were in the courtroom but were represented by their attorneys. Deputy State Attorney General Ralph Sivilla said the state agreed to the dismissal. "I think everybody at Hewlett-Packard thought they were doing the right thing, the legal thing," Tom Nolan, Hunsaker's attorney, said after the hearing. "They had a serious problem and they relied upon counsel.... But as the [judge] said, they really didn't commit any crimes." The serious problem Nolan referred to, of course, was the leaking of board deliberations to the media. To trace the source of leaks, the private investigators obtained calling records of HP directors, some employees, and several reporters covering HP. At a hearing in March, Cunningham dismissed all charges against former HP chairman Patricia Dunn and said he would dismiss the charges against the other three if they performed community service. The scandal "has achieved much public good," Cunningham said, in that it has brought attention to the problem of "pretexting," or using false pretenses to access private records. It has resulted in the passage of state and federal laws specifically banning the practice. Also, HP agreed to a $14.5 million civil case settlement with the State of California in December 2006 that will support a state program focused on privacy protection. Cunningham noted that The Wall Street Journal editorialized that his dismissal decision in March showed "wisdom and compassion." Given that a Journal reporter was one of the victims of the pretexting, that's a notable endorsement, he said. Bryan Wagner still faces sentencing in federal court in San Jose on one count of conspiracy and one count of aggravated identity theft. HeÂ pleaded guilty to those chargesÂ in January. Wagner was hired by Action Research Group to do the actual pretexting to obtain the phone records, according to court testimony.DeLia's attorney, John Williams, said his client hopes "he gets to go back to work and get on with his life." This story was updated on June 28, 2007
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California Attorney General Bill   Lockyer said he has enough evidence to indict people at   Hewlett-Packard Co. HPQ.N in an investigation into whether   the computer maker had illegally obtained the private phone   records of directors and reporters.
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Hewlett-Packard Co. chairwoman Patricia Dunn, a former company lawyer, and three outside investigators wereÂ charged Wednesday in CaliforniaÂ on felony charges related to the conduct of an investigationÂ to track down news leaks from the HP board that allegedly broke state law.
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Ousted Hewlett-Packard Chairman Patricia Dunn, a former company lawyer, and three outside investigators were charged Wednesday in California on felony charges related toÂ the conduct of an investigationÂ to track down news leaks from the HP board that allegedly broke state law.
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(InfoWorld) - A day after Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP)Â chairman Patricia Dunn promised to step down for her role in a spy scandal, the state of California is continuing its effort to indict her and the private investigators she used. Dunn's actions were not merely unethical but actually violated the law, and the state now has enough evidence to indict people both within HP and contractors outside the company, according to Thomas Dressler, a spokesman for California Attorney General Bill Lockyer. In her efforts to discover the source of press leaks about board deliberations,Â HP has acknowledged that Dunn hired a private investigation firmÂ to pose as the 10 suspected board members and journalists in order to convince the phone company to disclose private phone records. This is a practice known as pretexting. In an interview on The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer Tuesday, Lockyer said that under California law, people involved in the probe could be charged with crimes both for falsely taking another person's identity and for accessing computer records with their personal information. Dressler confirmed Lockyer's comments. HP hired investigation firm Security Outsourcing Solutions Inc. (SOS), which shares its Boston offices with a law firm called Bonner, Kiernan, Trebach and Crociata, according toÂ a report in The New York Times that sited sources close to the case. The Times also said that the California and Massachusetts attorney generals were working together on the case. Dressler declined to confirm the name of the security firm HP hired, or whether California and Massachusetts are working together on the case. "I'm not going to deny it, but beyond what the attorney general said I'm not going to comment. It's not prudent for prosecutors to mention names before bringing charges," Dressler said. A call to SOS on Wednesday was answered by a woman who recited the name of the law firm, but denied the two businesses were connected. She declined to give her name, and said that no one was immediately available for comment. Ironically, an SOS newsletter posted on the firm's Web site warns corporate executives that their privacy is at risk since their Web surfing and e-mail records can be traced by Internet browsers and cookies. It advises clients to shield their identities by using a Web site called Anonymizer.com. Â
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(InfoWorld) - Hewlett-Packard board members and journalists were under physical surveillance by investigators trying to find out who was providing information to reporters, and private investigators tried to put tracking software on a journalist's computer to keep tabs on e-mail, according to a New York Times report. Patricia Dunn, HP's chairman, the company's general counsel and a staff attorney oversaw the internalÂ investigation of news leaks, the Times reported, citing anonymous sources who have been briefed on HP's findings so far regarding the secret investigation. It isn't clear how much involvement in the investigation there was by Dunn and others at HP, the Times reported Monday. HP announced last week that Dunn willÂ step aside as chairmanÂ in January, although she will remain as a director. Two others also have resigned from the board in the wake of the scandal. Over the weekend, HP identified Michael Moeller, director of corporate media relations, as one of two HP employees who was targeted in the internal investigation. "Investigators' suspicions were misdirected and unfounded," Robert Sherbin, HP's vice president for external communications was quoted as telling the Times on Sunday. The internal investigation reportedly was conducted in two stages, with the first from January 2005 to August of that year, which came up with nothing to go on, and then a second phase beginning in January 2006 after the technology news site of CNET NetworksÂ posted an article about an HP senior management meeting held that month. The board first clamored for an investigation into leaks of information to journalists in January 2005 following an article in The Wall Street Journal that spoke of board discussions regarding management reorganization and changes in the responsibilities to be handled by Carly Fiorina, who was then chief executive officer and chairman. She was ousted by the board in February 2005. Within days of that board action, The New York Times published a detailed account of a directors' meeting that was crucial to her ouster. Reporters from the Times, the Journal, CNET and Business Week have been informed by the California attorney general's office that HP investigated them. California and federal authorities are investigating HP's conduct and the California attorney general has said that charges are likely. HP has admitted that its the private investigative firm it hired used "pretexting," with investigators pretending to be journalists in order to obtain their personal telephone records. Even after a summary of the internal investigation was presented to leaders at HP, in Palo Alto, California, those in charge were unaware that possibly illegal methods had been used to obtain information, the Times reported. In May, the investigation's findings were relayed to the board of directors, including the allegation that its longest-running member, George Keyworth, was the source of the leaks to journalists. He refused to resign, but Vice Chairman Thomas Perkins, an influential and important Silicon Valley venture capitalist, was incensed over the probe and quit the board. He then turned his attention to pressuring Dunn to resign. His surprising departure was announced in a mildly worded HP statement that offered no clue as to the fractious nature of what had transpired, details of which began to emerge in news accounts earlier this month.
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California Attorney General Bill   Lockyer may file criminal charges within a week in an   investigation into the tactics employed by Hewlett-Packard Co.   HPQ.N to probe boardroom leaks, a spokesman said on   Wednesday.
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A spokesman from the California attorney general's office Friday said that Attorney General Bill Lockyer at this point does not have any evidence to charge Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP) Chief Executive Officer and President Mark Hurd with a criminal offense in the ongoing investigation intoÂ HP's probe of journalists and board members.
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(InfoWorld) - Ousted Hewlett-Packard chairwoman Patricia Dunn is expected to be indicted Wednesday in California on charges related toÂ the spying scandal that has hit the company, the New York Times reports. To be indicted along with Dunn are Kevin Hunsaker, a former senior lawyer at HP; Ronald L. DeLia, a Boston-area private detective; Joseph DePante, owner of Action Research Group, a Melbourne, Florida, information broker; and Bryan Wagner, a Littleton, Colorado, man who is said to have obtained private phone records while working for DePante, the Times reported. The charges are expected to come from California Attorney General Bill Lockeyer,Â whose office has been investigating reportsÂ that HP hired private detectives and may have used illegal methods to track the source of news leaks from the board of directors. The charges are expected to include using false or fraudulent pretenses to obtain confidential information from a public utility, unauthorized access to computer data, identity theft, and conspiracy to commit each of those crimes, the Times reported. All of the charges are felonies. The private investigators hired by HP allegedly used "pretexting," pretending to be journalists from a number of various publications to obtain their telephone records in an attempt to find out who from the board provided information to the reporters.
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By Pete Carey, San Jose Mercury News, Calif.  Sep. 18--Hewlett-Packard faces a deadline today to provide Congress with  documents about its boardroom-leak probe, which is under criminal  investigation by the California attorney general.
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(InfoWorld) - Former Hewlett-Packard Co. chairwoman Patricia Dunn made a brief court appearance Thursday in Santa Clara County, California, to face four state felony charges in the HP boardroom scandal. Superior Court Judge Alfonso Fernandez scheduled her arraignment for Nov. 17, at which she will enter a plea to charges in the case. Also making an initial court appearance earlier in the day was Kevin Hunsaker, HP's former ethics counsel, who surrendered, was booked and was scheduled for an arraignment December 6, according to the office of California Attorney General Bill Lockyer. Three private investigators hired by HP to investigate suspected leaks to news media by HP directorsÂ were also charged Wednesday, but since they are from out-of-state, their court appearances will likely occur sometime next week, Lockyer's office said. Each of the five defendants face charges of fraudulent wire communications, wrongful use of computer data, identity theft and conspiracy. The state alleges that Dunn and Hunsaker authorized an investigation of leaks and hired the private investigators. The investigators allegedly obtained, under false pretenses, the phone records of individuals targeted in their investigation, including HP directors, some employees and journalists who cover the technology company.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.