Posted on 09/13/2006 10:48:40 PM PDT by stainlessbanner
SAN JOSE, Calif. - California's attorney general could file criminal charges within a week in the boardroom spying scandal at Hewlett-Packard Co., a spokesman said Wednesday, and experts say the company's top brass and third-party detectives are all possible targets.
Also on Wednesday, the company disclosed that the scope of the investigation into media leaks was wider than it initially reported. In a message Tuesday to HP's 150,000 employees, embattled Chairwoman Patricia Dunn acknowledged the investigation extended beyond board members and included two HP employees and "a number of individuals outside the company including journalists."
"I extend my sincere apologies to those individuals who have been affected," she said. "What happened here is contrary to HP's values and business practices. And for that I will always be deeply sorry."
The company announced on Tuesday Dunn would step down in January and be replaced by Hurd. Dunn has admitted authorizing the investigation into who was leaking boardroom secrets to reporters, but said she was appalled that private investigators hired by the company used Social Security numbers to impersonate HP directors and reporters, then persuaded phone companies to turn over detailed logs of their home phone calls.
Tom Dresslar, a spokesman for Attorney General Bill Lockyer, did not say on Wednesday who would be charged or what the charges would be. He also emphasized that it may take longer for the detailed investigation to produce charges.
"We're not going to confine ourselves to any particular timetable," Dresslar said. "We'll go when we're ready to go, and not a minute before that."
Lockyer said Tuesday that he already had enough evidence to charge HP insiders and the private investigators who impersonated board members and journalists to access logs of their personal phone calls. The ruse — known as "pretexting" — was part of the HP board's efforts to root out media leaks in its ranks.
While pretexting is not specifically banned by California law, Lockyer's office is investigating the case to see if it violates laws against identity theft and computer intrusion. The FBI is also investigating. The FBI and U.S. Attorney for Northern California are focused on illegal computer intrusion and wiretapping, the bureau's deputy director said.
Legal experts said the AG's probe — and a separate one being conducted by the FBI and federal prosecutors — will likely reach from the hired gumshoes all the way to HP CEO Mark Hurd and the company's top legal advisers.
Other possible high-profile targets include Dunn and general counsel, Ann Baskins, the experts said. But the investigation is likely clouded by legal ambiguity around pretexting.
Dunn and Baskins are the subjects of the most speculation by observers of the criminal probe, but legal experts said prosecutors must prove they knew the investigators would be engaging in illegal activity.
"The real focus is going to be on what evidence the prosecutors have that demonstrates knowledge and intent of those up the chain," said James Aquilina, a former federal cybercrimes prosecutor in Los Angeles.
To charge HP insiders with those crimes, prosecutors will need to prove that they knew the crimes were going to be committed.
Prosecutors will likely focus on two periods of time to establish whether HP insiders knew or sanctioned illegal behavior: The initial discussions the company had with its lawyers prior to launching the investigation, and when directors and executives began learning of the tactics and findings of the investigation.
Ken Sukhia, a former U.S. attorney in Tallahassee, Fla., said prosecutors could look into Hurd's actions, but he is unlikely to be named as a defendant because he doesn't appear to have been involved at the outset of the investigation.
Sukhia said prosecutors would focus on whether anyone at the company was involved in any obstruction or after-the-fact cover-up. He said Baskins, whose office worked with the outside investigators, could be held criminally liable if it was apparent to her that she was authorizing one of the specific offenses.
It's unclear who knew that personal phone records were being compromised by the investigators.
One of the firms HP hired to conduct the probe has been identified by The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with authorities' probes, as Security Outsourcing Solutions Inc.
That business' address and phone number match those of a law firm with an office in downtown Boston, Bonner Kiernan Trebach & Crociata. One staff member who would not identify herself Wednesday told The Associated Press she had never heard of Security Outsourcing Solutions. Another woman referred inquiries to partner John Kiernan, who was not immediately available for comment.
Two other board members who became ensnared in the leaks investigation are unlikely to be charged.
At a board meeting in May, Dunn identified director George Keyworth II as the source of a January article on CNET Networks Inc.'s News.com. The board asked Keyworth, 66, to resign, but he refused. HP then barred him from seeking re-election.
Keyworth, HP's longest serving board members, resigned Tuesday. He acknowledged speaking to reporters but said he did so with the company's approval.
The attempt to oust Keyworth last spring riled another board member, longtime Silicon Valley venture capitalist Tom Perkins, 74, who stormed out of the May 18 meeting. His lawyer later pressed HP to reveal the reason for his resignation, which led to the SEC filing last week in which the company revealed its leaks investigation.
Larry Sonsini, a noted Silicon Valley legal mind, served as an outside adviser to the HP board during the investigation. In an e-mail exchange with Perkins in June and obtained by the Wall Street Journal, Sonsini said he was not involved in "the design or conduct of the investigation," but that it appeared to be legal.
Sonsini also warned Perkins not to talk to outsiders about confidential board processes and deliberations because that would be a breach of his responsibilities as HP board member.
Witchhunt.
I agree. Why not prosecute child molesters, rapists and killers.
If this is illegal then why isn't Chuck Schumer under indictment for using that very ploy to access Steele's credit records. He had his aide illegally obtain Steele's social security number.
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