Two HP execs subpoenaed by House panel: source
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Two Hewlett-Packard Co. HPQ.N   officials were subpoenaed to testify at a House Energy and   Commerce subcommittee hearing Thursday on the company's probe   into leaks from its board, a source familiar with the   investigation said on Monday.
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(InfoWorld) - The U.S. Department of Justice is asking questions about conduct by Hewlett-Packard Co. that has embroiled the technology company in controversy. HP acknowledged in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing Monday that it isÂ cooperating with an inquiryÂ by the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California intoÂ possibly illegal tactics used by investigators hired by HP to investigate news leaks from the company's board members. HP described the U.S. Attorney's inquiry as "informal" and said the questions are similar to those asked by the attorney general of California. HP is based in Palo Alto, California. "We are cooperating fully with these inquiries," HP said in its SEC filing. The probes are looking into the use of "pretexting" to search phone records to determine which board members may have been talking to reporters. The phone records of nine reporters from various news organizations were also obtained to determine who their sources from within HP might have been on stories about the company. Pretexting refers to posing as a phone company customer to get access to personal records. California Attorney General Bill Lockyer says a crime was committed in connection with the pretexting, but his office is still investigating what crime and by whom. The scandal has brought pressure on HP Chairman Patricia Dunn, who ordered the investigation, but claims she didn't know the outside investigative firm hired to trace the leaks would engage in pretexting. HP's board is meeting Monday for the second straight day to discuss its response to the controversy. Former HP director Thomas Perkins, who quit in protest in May because of the way the investigation was conducted, called on Dunn to resign. His statement, released Saturday by his attorney, was prompted by Dunn's comments in media interviews last week in which she alleged that it was Perkins who wanted "more aggressive measures" used to investigate the leaks, including use of lie detectors on board members. "I am saddened, but not surprised, that Patricia Dunn has attacked me personally for doing my job. I acted not from any ill will toward Ms. Dunn but to protect the best interests of HP. I think the past months and days have shown that those interests are best served if Ms. Dunn would resign from the board," said Jenkins in his statement. The U.S. Federal Communications Commission also is investigating HP. The FCC reportedly sent a "letter of inquiry" to AT&T Inc. asking how its customer phone records may have been accessed, according to an Associated Press report. An FCC spokesman could not confirm that. HP's internal probe identified director George Keyworth as the source for a CNet Networks Inc. story about HP's strategy, which the technology news Web site posted in January. He refused to resign when asked to doÂ so by Dunn in May, but theÂ board has since voted not to renominate him to his seat. Â
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(InfoWorld) - Hewlett-Packard has turned over thousands of documents to a U.S. House subcommittee investigating methods the company used to find out who was leaking company information to the media, a subcommittee spokesman said Monday. "The committee did receive thousands of pages of documents from HP. Staff investigators are reviewing them now," said Terry Lane of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. HP confirmed it responded to the subcommittee's request but didn't go beyond that. "We are complying with the House Subcommittee'sÂ request for informationÂ but are not releasing the details of what's being provided for the committee's inquiry," said HP spokesman Ryan Donovan. The inquiry springs from revelations that HP hired an outside investigative firm that used questionable tactics to find theÂ source of leaks from the HP boardÂ to news media in 2005 and 2006. HP, in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing Sept. 6, acknowledged that unnamed outside investigators used "pretexting," a form of subterfuge where investigators pose as someone else, to obtain personal phone records of people it was investigating. The committee is considering federal legislation to make pretexting illegal. The House panel, in a Sept. 11 letter to HP Board Chairman Patricia Dunn, asked HP to: Identify the outside investigative firms it hired; identify the people within HP who authorized, participated in or had knowledge of HP's investigation; provide copies of contracts between HP and any outside firms; disclose the identities of everyone whose phone records were procured, or were attempted to be procured; and provide other information. HP, of Palo Alto, California, has refused to identify the outside firms it hired, but various media reports have identified them as Security Outsourcing Services, of Needham, Massachusetts, and Action Research Group, of Melbourne, Florida. Although HP has claimed that its legal advisors told it that the pretexting was within the law, an HP security specialist reportedly questioned its legality earlier this year. Fred Adler, a computer-crimes specialist within HP's global security division, and a former U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation agent, notified his supervisors that acquiring people's phone records under false pretenses could be against the law, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. The subcommittee has invited Dunn and HP General Counsel Ann Baskins to testify at a committee hearing Sept. 28 and a committee source told the Journal they would appear. HP's Donovan would not comment. Larry Sonsini of the Palo Alto law firm Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati was also invited to testify but it's not known if he will appear. Ronald DeLia of Security Outsourcing Solutions, also invited, hasn't replied, but the Journal quoted a committee source as saying that if DeLia were to testify he said he would invoke his Fifth Amendment right to not testify to protect against self-incrimination.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.
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California officials investigating the corporate spying issues at Hewlett-Packard Co. are examining the role of a Massachusetts investigations firm, Security Outsourcing Solutions Inc., in the events leading to Tuesday's decision by H P chairwoman Patricia C. Dunn to step down, according to published reports.
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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.
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SAN FRANCISCO -- The congressional panel investigating Hewlett-Packard Co.'s boardroom spying probe has demanded that CEO Mark Hurd explain $1.37 million worth of options he exercised just before the scandal became public, two congressmen said Wednesday.
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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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Internal documents say HP has pretexted before and that its investigators trailed a reporter while on vacation.
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Two U.S. Congressmen have asked Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP) Chief Executive Officer Mark Hurd to explain why he sold US$1.37 million worth of HP stock just before theÂ company's spying scandal became public.
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A U.S. House of Representatives  panel on Wednesday extended its probe into Hewlett-Packard  Co.'s  use of private telephone records by subpoenaing  five private investigators to testify at a Thursday hearing.
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By Clint Swett, The Sacramento Bee, Calif.  Sep. 15--The most high-profile casualties of the boardroom spying scandal  at Hewlett-Packard Co. are the two directors who resigned their posts on  Tuesday.
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By JORDAN ROBERTSON  SAN JOSE, Calif. - A congressional panel wants to question key figures in the scandal surrounding Hewlett-Packard Co.'s investigation of media leaks, while a shareholder lawsuit was filed in state court accusing the company's top brass of breaching their duties.
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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.
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(InfoWorld) - Hewlett-Packard has entered into mutual agreements with two former directors caught up in theÂ board spying scandalÂ not to file lawsuits over the dispute. The company disclosed the agreement in a filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday. In the same filing, HP said it has agreed to pay some of the directors' legal expenses in connection with the investigations. The SEC has asked for more information on the circumstances surroundingÂ Thomas Perkins' resignationÂ from HP's board of directors over the spying scandal, HP said in the filing. HP also revealed the terms under which Perkins and directorÂ George Keyworth left the board. They resigned after it was revealed that private investigators hired by HP may haveÂ used illegal methodsÂ to identify Keyworth as the source of leaks of board deliberations to the news media. Separately on Thursday, HP said chief executive officer Mark Hurd "has offered to appear" before a House subcommittee probing the scandal. Other HP executives, Chairman Patricia Dunn and others implicated in the scandal haveÂ accepted invitations to appearÂ at a Sept. 28 hearing. HP said in the SEC filing that it has entered into a "Mutual Release and Indemnification Agreement" with Perkins and Keyworth in which the two former directors agreed not to file claims against other directors, officers or employees of HP. In turn, the company agreed not file claims against them. HP will also pay legal fees Perkins and Keyworth may incur in cooperating with government investigations of the scandal. Besides the House inquiry, the California Attorney General and the U.S. Attorney for Northern California are conducting probes. The SEC filing also said Perkins and Keyworth reserve the right to take legal action against private investigation companies that HP allegedly hired to probe the source of board leaks. HP told the SEC on Sept. 6 that it had discovered those outside firms engaged in a possibly illegal practice called "pretexting" while digging into the personal phone records of directors, HP employees and journalists. The investigators' probe identified Keyworth as the confidential source. He initially refused to resign when confronted by the board in May, but he quit on Sept. 12. HP also said in the filing that it is cooperating with an SEC request for additional information about the circumstances of Perkins' resignation in May. HP's SEC filing at that time noted Perkins' resignation without elaborating. Perkins, who said he resigned in protest of the way HP was conducting its investigation, later lobbied the company to amend its notice with more detail. Hurd is set to lead a news conference Friday at HP headquarters in Palo Alto, California, to reveal the results of a separate investigation of HP's leak probe. After the scandal broke and reports surfaced about how involved HP executives may have been in overseeing the private investigators' activities, HP brought in the law firm of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius to investigate. A representative of the firm will present its findings at the news conference. News reports in recent days have revealed Hurd, Dunn and other HP executives were moreÂ involved in the leak probeÂ than they had earlier indicated. Â
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(InfoWorld) - 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. California Attorney General Bill Lockyer's office said charges have also been filed against Kevin Hunsaker, a former senior lawyer at HP; Ronald L. DeLia, a Boston-area private detective; Matthew DePante, manager 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 Action Research. TheÂ charges were announced at a press conference held Wednesday at the California Department of Justice. The charges include using false or fraudulent pretenses to obtain confidential information from a public utility, wrongful use of computer data, identity theft, and conspiracy to commit each of those crimes. All of the charges are felonies. "One of our state's most venerable corporate institutions lost its way as its board sought to find out who leaked confidential information to the press," said Lockyer in a statement, released Wednesday. "In this misguided effort, people inside and outside of HP violated privacy rights and broke state law." Lockyer's office has been investigating the spying allegations because HP is based in Palo Alto, California. The U.S. Attorney's Office in San Francisco and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have been conducting separate investigations of HP. In a statement released Wednesday in advance of the Sacramento press conference, HP said it was continuing to cooperate with state and federal investigators. The private investigators hired by HP allegedly used "pretexting," pretending to be someone they are not, to obtain the telephone records of HP directors, other employees and journalists who cover the company in an attempt to find out who from the board provided information to the reporters. The scandal has attracted the attention of the U.S. Congress.Â On Sept. 28,Â Dunn told the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee that she believed employees and lawyers who said that the HP's leak investigation complied with the company's standards of conduct. The subcommittee was holding hearings into the use of pretexting. The committee passed a federal ban on pretexting but the Congress adjourned before the full House or the Senate voted on the legislation. When questioned about the techniques used to track down the leaks arose in the latter part of the investigation, Dunn said, she passed concerns to company Chief Executive Officer Mark Hurd. Before then, the company's lawyers had assured her the techniques were being done "legally and properly," she said. "At no time in the investigation did I authorize its methods," Dunn said. "I asked this to be done in the HP standard way." On his part, Hurd told the subcommittee that he was not aware of the details of the techniques being used. He said he did not read a report from the investigating team that detailed the use of pretexting. Ann Baskins,Â who resigned right before the subcommittee hearing as HP's senior vice president and general counsel, and Hunsaker both asserted their rights not to testify under the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution during the hearing. Also taking the fifth before the subcommittee were Delia, Wagner and Action Research owner Joe DePante. Dunn faces these criminal charges at a difficult time in her personal life. Dunn, is scheduled to begin chemotherapy Friday for a recurrence of advanced ovarian cancer, according to a Wednesday report in the San Jose Mercury News. She was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2004 and had been treated for breast cancer and melanoma dating back to 2001, the paper reported. (Stephen Lawson and Robert McMillan contributed to this story) Â
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(InfoWorld) - A U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee probing theÂ Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP) pretexting case has issued more subpoenas to compel witness testimony at a Thursday hearing. The Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations of the Energy and Commerce Committee issued subpoenas Wednesday for five people identified as "pretexters," data brokers who sometimes obtain access to confidential records under false pretenses. HP has been embroiled in a scandal over its hiring of private investigators who engaged in possibly illegal pretexting to investigate news leaks from HP's board to reporters. Served with subpoenas, according to the Subcommittee, are: Bryan Wagner, a private investigator from Littleton, Colorado; Charles Kelly, of the CAS Agency in Villa Rica, Georgia; Cassandra Selvage of Eye in the Sky Investigations, of Dade City, Florida; Darren Brost, of Austin, Texas; and Valerie Preston from InSearchOf Inc., of Cooper City, Florida. Wagner was identified in a Wednesday Wall Street Journal article as a suspect in the pretexting of phone records of HP directors, employees and journalists who cover the Palo Alto, California technology company. The Journal reported that Wagner told an investigator that he smashed his computer to pieces with a hammer, destroying data that was saved on it. The article also said that the destruction of the computer may hamper an investigation by California Attorney General Bill Lockyer's office into possible illegal activity by people at HP or by the private investigators HP hired. The five who were subpoenaed Wednesday have been added to a list of witnesses that also includes HP's Chief Executive Officer and President Mark Hurd and former board chairman Patricia Dunn, who resigned last Friday because of the scandal. While Dunn and Hurd have volunteered to appear, two other HP executives involved in the investigation were subpoenaed: senior counsel Kevin Hunsaker and Global Security Manager Anthony Gentilucci. Hunsaker "left the company" and Gentilucci "resigned" effective Tuesday, said HP spokesman Ryan Donovan. Also subpoenaed are Ron DeLia, operator of Security Outsourcing Solutions Inc., a Needham, Massachusetts, private investigations firm, and Joe Depante, owner of Action Research Group, of Melbourne, Florida. HP has acknowledged hiring both those firms in its leak investigation and that they used pretexting to track down personal phone records. Â
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Five additional witnesses have been subpoenaed to appear Thursday before a Congressional hearing on the Hewlett-Packard spying case.