Dunn and Four Others Named  in Criminal Complaint in HP Spy Scandal
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UPDATE: Dunn's lawyer responds to felony charges against his client; former HP senior lawyer, a security contractor, and two others also charged.
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Five additional witnesses have been subpoenaed to appear Thursday before a Congressional hearing on the Hewlett-Packard spying case.
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Patricia C. Dunn came under scrutiny because of her role in ordering an investigation of news leaks from the board.
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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.
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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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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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Hewlett-Packard Co. Chairman Patricia Dunn will answer questions on the spying scandal that has embroiled her company during a House committee hearing on Capitol Hill next week.
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Hewlett Packard's former chairwoman Patricia Dunn faces criminal charges along with four others.
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(InfoWorld) - A U.S. government panel has asked a corporate ethics lawyer from Hewlett-Packard (HP) to testify in its Sept. 28 hearing onÂ the company's use of "pretexting"Â to spy on journalists, board members and other employees. The investigative unit of the U.S. House Energy and Commerce CommitteeÂ said Wednesday that it has asked HP Senior Counsel Kevin Hunsaker and Fred Adler, a company computer security investigator, to join a growing list of witnesses. The subcommittee had also previously requested testimony from outgoing HP Chairman Patricia Dunn, HP General Counsel Ann Baskins, HP Global Security Manager Anthony Gentilucci, outside attorney Larry Sonsini as well as outside investigators. The practice of "pretexting" usually involves pretending to be a person, in order to obtain that person's personal information. An HP spokesman declined to comment. Up until now, Dunn has insisted she merely initiated the probe of boardroom leaks, and was ignorant of specific techniques used by investigators. "Unfortunately, the investigation, which was conducted with third parties, included certain inappropriate techniques. These went beyond what we understood them to be, and I apologize that they were employed," Dunn said in a recent statement. ButÂ e-mail correspondence examined by newspapersÂ including The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times indicates that top HP officials solicited Dunn's opinion and questioned investigation techniques throughout the course of the leak probe. As early as Aug. 6, 2005, HP's Gentilucci asked for Dunn's advice about using "internal and external sources" to gather intelligence on "interested parties," according to company e-mail seen by The Wall Street Journal. Gentilucci offered to brief HP management on more details of "Project Kona" in a proposed meeting on Aug. 31. It is still unknown if that meeting took place, but Dunn replied to the e-mail, promising to respond. By Jan. 28, 2006, e-mail from Hunsaker to Adler shows that HP's own lawyers were closely questioning investigation techniques, The Wall Street Journal reports. Asked whether HP could legally spy on board members' cell-phone text messages, Adler replied: "Even if we could legally obtain the records, which we can't unless we pay the bill or get consent, I would highly suspect text-messaging records are not kept due to volume and expense." It is unclear if HP obtained text messages. But in an April 28 e-mail to Gentilucci and an outside investigator, Ron DeLia of Security Outsourcing Solutions Inc., in Boston, Hunsaker said he was writing at General Counsel Baskins' request to confirm the details of how the investigation team obtained phone records, The Wall Street Journal reports. In the e-mail, Hunsaker described how investigators were making "pretext calls." Hunsaker also said in the e-mail that his legal research confirmed that pretexting is legal. However, California Attorney General Bill Lockyer has said that using fraudulent means to obtain personal information is not legal in the state. Lockyer has said he has evidence to charge people outside and inside HP. House investigators have also asked for testimony from DeLia and private investigator Joe Depante, owner of Action Research Group, which was reportedly hired by HP to help in the investigation. Dunn agreed on Sept. 12 to resign her own position, and will be replaced in January by current chief executive Mark Hurd. Â
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(InfoWorld) - Hewlett-Packard Co. Chairman Patricia Dunn will answer questions on the spying scandal that has embroiled her company during a House committee hearing on Capitol Hill next week. HP's general counsel, Ann Baskins, will also appear at the hearing of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, being held next Thursday, said HP spokesman Ryan Donovan. HP's lead outside counsel, Larry Sonsini of the Palo Alto law firm Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati, will also testify, according to Terry Lane, a committee spokesman. Sonsini advised HP on the legality of its investigation into media leaks of details from the company's board meetings between 2005 and 2006. Earlier this month, HP revealed it had hired outside investigators to find the leaker and that they had impersonated the subjects of their investigation in order to gain access to private telephone records. In the course of the search, HP board members and reporters were impersonated. The committee is looking into HP's methods and is considering new federal legislation that would make this practice, called 'pretexting,' illegal. HP is also being investigated by the Attorneys General of California and Massachusetts, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Attorney's office. Ronald DeLia of investigation firm Security Outsourcing Solutions is also set to appear, but Lane said it is possible he will invoke his Fifth Amendment right to not testify to protect against self-incrimination. Prosecutors reportedly are looking into DeLia's company and a Melbourne, Florida, investigation company, Action Research Group, in connection with the scandal. In a June 11 Congressional hearing on pretexting, several investigators invoked their Fifth Amendment rights and refused to answer questions on the practice, which is considered to be in a legal gray area. The committee has also asked HP Global Security Manager Anthony Gentilucci and Action Research Group owner Joe Depante to testify, but has not heard back from them, Lane said. HP has already provided the committee with "thousands of pages of documents" in connection with its investigation, Lane said. The pretexting scandal has been front page news for several weeks now and has forced Dunn to step down from her chairman's role, effective January. But it has not had much of an effect on the company's financial performance. HP's (HPQ) stock has hovered in the $36 range since news of the affair first broke three weeks ago. HP Executive Vice President Vyomesh Joshi, who runs the company's printing business, downplayed the effect that the scandal was having on HP's management. "I think our focus is business," he said in response to a question on the matter at the Bank of America's Annual Investment Conference in San Francisco Tuesday. "We have a very solid team who is focusing on the business, focusing on the execution. At the end of the day, that is what we want to do." Â
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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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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¦
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California's attorney general  filed a criminal complaint on Wednesday seeking indictments of  former Hewlett-Packard Co. Chairman Patricia Dunn and four  others for their roles in a probe into board leaks.
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By RACHEL KONRAD SAN FRANCISCO - Hewlett-Packard Co. Chairwoman Patricia Dunn is under scrutiny from business and ethics experts after she oversaw an invasive and possibly illegal effort to snoop into the home phone calls of fellow HP board members.
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A U.S. House of Representatives   panel on Wednesday extended its probe into Hewlett-Packard   Co.'s HPQ.N use of private telephone records by subpoenaing   five private investigators to testify at a Thursday hearing.
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Saying "those who crossed the legal line must be held accountable," California Attorney General Bill Lockyer today filed charges against former Hewlett-Packard Co. chairman Patricia Dunn, a former HP legal counsel and three private investigators involved in the company's boardroom leak probe.
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Prosecutors in California filed criminal charges yesterday against former Hewlett-Packard Co. chairwoman Patricia Dunn and four others implicated in a corporate spying campaign, including a private investigator from Needham.