Calif. seeks indictment of ex-HP chairman Dunn
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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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(InfoWorld) - Huge, ugly scandals have a way of planting new terms in the lexicon. Consider the way the Watergate affair of the early 1970s made -gate an all-purpose suffix denoting scandal, or the way last yearâs Sony digital rights management imbroglio made ârootkitâ an unlikely term heard around the dinner table. Thanks to Hewlett-Packardâs daring board of directors, weâve got another one: âpretexting,â which describes the technique of impersonating someone else to obtain personal information. In the case of HP, that personal information was the private phone records of board members and journalists, unknowingly caught up in an all-out effort by HP Chairwoman Pattie Dunn to plug press leaks at the company. Last week, HP announced a board shakeup to try to put the whole mess behind it, but it may be looking over its shoulder for some time, experts say. Dunn will relinquish her chair to CEO and President Mark Hurd in January. The scandal created two other board vacancies: director Thomas Perkins quit in protest last May over the companyâs investigation; and director George Keyworth, identified as the source of the leak, resigned the same day as Dunnâs announcement. At print time, Californiaâs Attorney General Bill Lockyer said that the state was working with authorities in Massachusetts and that he had the evidence he needs to indict people connected to the pretexting scandal both inside and outside of HP. The scandal is a teachable moment for American business, said Kirk O. Hanson, executive director of the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University. âIt is a cautionary tale about how companies conduct investigations into employee conduct and give direction to outside vendors,â Hanson said. This case will help them clarify what they can and cannot do to protect their interests. âExpect the word pretext to begin showing up in corporate handbooks,â Hanson said.
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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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Calif. attorney general is expected to file charges Wednesday against Patricia Dunn and four others, according to news reports.
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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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California State Attorney General   Bill Lockyer said on Wednesday he does not know when his office   will issue indictments in its investigation into   Hewlett-Packard Co..
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California's criminal charges against former Hewlett-Packard Co. chairwoman Patricia Dunn and four associates have put the spotlight on privacy in the business world and could spark internal corporate reforms or even legislation to counter privacy abuses.
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Arraignment dates were set Thursday for former HP chairman Patricia Dunn and former HP lawyer Kevin Hunsaker on felony charges in the HP board 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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Patricia Dunn, the ex-Hewlett Packard boss facing criminal charges over corporate spying, appears in court.
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Hewlett-Packard Co. said Chairman Patricia Dunn was unaware of tactics used in an investigation into boardroom leaks to reporters. Meanwhile, reports say the California attorney general is likely to bring criminal charges.
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Former Hewlett-Packard Co.  Chairman Patricia Dunn is due to surrender to authorities on Thursday afternoon on felony charges for spying on reporters and company directors, the California attorney general's office said.
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WASHINGTON -- A Needham private investigator told Hewlett-Packard Co. representatives that he kept former chairwoman Patricia Dunn briefed about the questionable methods he used to find boardroom leaks, according to testimony at congressional hearings yesterday and documents filed in connection with the hearings.
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(InfoWorld) - 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. Patricia Dunn, chairman of HP's board, and Ann Baskins, HP's general counsel, have been invited to testify at a hearing of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee in Washington, D.C. Also invited to testify is Larry Sonsini, lead outside counsel for HP, and Ronald DeLia, managing director of Security Outsourcing Solutions Inc., a Needham, Massachusetts, corporate security company identified as having been hired by HP to investigate who on the board leaked news of a confidential strategy session to the media. HP and outside firms it hired to conduct the investigation are facingÂ possible criminal charges in California for using pretexting to surreptitiously gain access to the personal phone records of HP directors and nine journalists. Dunn has agreed to resign as chairman come January as a result of her role in the investigation, but will remain on the board. Sonsini, chairman of the law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, advised HP on the legality of its investigation of the leaks. The committee is considering federal legislation to outlaw pretexting in the U.S. and put other limits on the work of so-called data brokers who gather information for clients. Sometimes their means are duplicitous, such as impersonating an individual to gain unauthorized access to confidential records. HP is being investigated by the Attorneys General of California and Massachusetts, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Attorney's office for actions it took to investigate the board leaks that may have violated the law. Terry Lane, a spokesman for the House committee, said the witnesses have not been subpoenaed to testify but could not say what the committee might do if they declined the invitation. Although HP has said it is willing to cooperate on investigations into the pretexting case, spokesman Mike Moeller said the company would not comment specifically on whether Dunn and Baskins would accept the invitation to testify. Neither of the others responded to a request for comment. Â
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The attorney for ousted Hewlett-Packard chairman Patricia Dunn fired back Wednesday at public comments made by board rival Thomas Perkins about theÂ HP pretexting scandal.
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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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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.