Criminal Charges May Be Filed Against H-P Insiders
632406
By Jordan Robertson  California's attorney general said Tuesday that Hewlett-Packard insiders are likely to face criminal charges, putting a damper on the news HP was reshuffling its board because of the scandal surrounding its efforts to root out media leaks.
320825
UPDATED Two former Hewlett-Packard executives, plus three others outside of the company were indicted with in California late Wednesday on four felony charges. Those named in the indictments include former chairwoman Patricia Dunn.
421601
By James S. Granelli and Charles Piller  The boardroom intrigue at Hewlett Packard Co. intensified Tuesday as California Attorney General Bill Lockyer said he has "enough evidence to indict" people inside the Silicon Valley icon for snooping confidential phone records.
449933
California Attorney General Bill   Lockyer may file criminal charges within a week in its   investigation of tactics used by Hewlett-Packard Co. HPQ.N in   an inquiry into boardroom leaks, a spokesman said on Wednesday.
85314
Patricia C. Dunn, the former chairwoman of Hewlett-Packard, and four other people will be named in indictments expected to be filed by CaliforniaÂs attorney general today in the spying case at the company, according to lawyers involved in the case.
310005
SACRAMENTO, Calif  - California's attorney general will seek indictments on Wednesday in Hewlett-Packard Co.'s  boardroom leak probe against former Chairman Patricia Dunn and others but not Chief Executive Mark Hurd, BusinessWeek reported in its online edition.
595360
Former Hewlett-Packard Co. chairwoman Patricia Dunn, charged Wednesday in connection with an internal leak probe at the computer maker, appeared in court yesterday in San Jose, Calif. , to face fraud and conspiracy charges.
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¦
611134
Several people connected to the Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP) board scandal have been invited to testify at a U.S. House subcommittee hearing Sept. 28 on the issue ofÂ pretexting to get confidential phone records.
724217
The Justice Department has launched a probe into Hewlett-Packard's methods to uncover the source of press leaks, the company has disclosed. The state of California and the House Commerce Committee are also investigating, it said.
630384
Former Hewlett-Packard Co. Chief  Executive Carly Fiorina's account of how she tried to plug  boardroom leaks in 2005 is likely to attract the interest of  prosecutors in view of HP's current scandal, but the tactics  she outlined appear legal, lawyers say.
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.
680726
(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.
670855
(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
9556
California Attorney General Bill Lockyer yesterday said crimes were committed in a Hewlett-Packard Co. investigation of board members ' possible involvement in corporate information leaks , and charges are likely to be brought against either company executives or private investigators they hired .
495889
Pressure is mounting on H.P.Âs chief to explain his role in the companyÂs spying operation after his name figured in new documents in the investigation.
246881
Needham private investigator Ronald R. DeLia is cooperating with probes of Hewlett-Packard Co.'s conduct, his attorney said yesterday.