California AG considering civil suit against HP
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State's top cop is gathering information about damage that may have been caused by covert attempts to unearth leaks to the media.
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California's top insurance regulator said yesterday that he will file a civil suit shortly in the widening scandal over insurance industry sales practices.
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Hewlett-Packard Co. said on Thursday it would pay California $14.5 million to settle a civil case related to board-leak investigations that led to the resignation of Chairman Patricia Dunn.
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SACRAMENTO, CALIF. - California&#39;s top insurance regulator said Wednesday that he will be filing a civil suit shortly in the widening scandal over insurance industry sales practices.
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The California local governments are asking a judge to make the case a class action on behalf of all the state&#39;s cities and counties.
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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.
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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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(InfoWorld) - 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. 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. The 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 LockyerÂ 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 charges were filed in Santa Clara County Superior Court. 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 after the filing, Dunn's attorney, James Brosnahan, said his client will fight the charges. "These charges are being brought against the wrong person at the wrong time and for the wrong reasons. They are the culmination of a well-financed and highly orchestrated disinformation campaign," Brosnahan said. He did not elaborate on his charge of a disinformation campaign. "As her many supporters fully expect, she will fight these charges with everything she has,â he said. 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 HPÂ allegedly used "pretexting,"Â 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, Dunn toldÂ 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 resignedÂ 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  Â
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SAN JOSE, Calif. - Hewlett-Packard Co. agreed Thursday to pay $14.5 million to settle a lawsuit brought by state Attorney General Bill Lockyer accusing the company of unfair business practices in its crusade to unmask the source of boardroom leaks to the news media.
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SACRAMENTO, Calif  - California's attorney general on Wednesday sought felony indictments against former Hewlett-Packard Co. Chairman Patricia Dunn and four others in a leak scandal that involved spying on board members and journalists.
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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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A lawsuit filed against California's San Bernardino County regarding the region's suburban sprawl may represent a new legal tactic to fight global warming.
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The wireless carrier's lawsuit is aimed at those responsible for obtaining the phone records of a CNET News.com reporter in an HP probe.
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By Ryan Blitstein, San Jose Mercury News, Calif.  Dec. 7--The California attorney general's office will announce this afternoon it has reached a civil settlement with Hewlett-Packard regarding the computing company's board-spying scandal, CNET News.com has reported.
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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) - Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP) agreed to a US$14.5 million settlement in the California civil lawsuitÂ related to the company's spying scandal. Under terms of the settlement with the California attorney general, HP will pay $13.5 million to create a "Privacy and Piracy Fund" for law enforcement activities related to privacy and intellectual property rights operated in the state Attorney General's Office. The company will also pay $650,000 in civil penalties and $350,000 to cover expenses of the investigation, California Attorney General Bill Lockyer announced Thursday afternoon. HP executives and private investigators retained by the company still face criminal charges in the scandal, which involves the alleged use of "pretexting," or pretending to be someone to obtain their personal phone records.
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California's Attorney General announced a $14.5 million civil settlement with Hewlett-Packard Co. this afternoon, three months after the Silicon Valley computer giant was engulfed in an ethics and spying scandal that led to criminal charges against former top executives.