Posted on 10/04/2006 9:56:35 PM PDT by familyop
SAN FRANCISCO - California’s attorney general announced indictments Wednesday against Hewlett-Packard’s ousted chairwoman Patricia Dunn and former ethics lawyer Kevin Hunsaker for their roles in a snowballing boardroom espionage scandal.
“In this misguided effort, people inside and outside HP violated privacy rights and broke state law. Those who cross the legal line must be held accountable,” Attorney General Bill Lockyer told reporters.
Three private detectives involved in the US computer equipment giant’s alleged spying operations were also indicted, Lockyer said.
Dunn and Hunsaker were indicted along with Ronald DeLia, Matthew Depante and Bryan Wagner, Lockyer said at a press conference in the state capital of Sacramento.
Lockyer asked the court for warrants to arrest those accused. If convicted as charged, each would face maximum punishments of 12 years in prison and fines of approximately 65,000 dollars.
“One of our state’s most venerable corporate institutions lost its way,” Lockyer said.
Dunn, Hunsaker and the investigators were each charged with fraudulent wire communications, wrongful use of computer data, identity theft, and conspiracy to commit those crimes, according to Lockyer.
Investigators brought in by Dunn, Hunsaker and other HP executives obtained the telephone records of nine journalists, two HP workers, and seven current or former board members, along with their families, in a trick of impersonation referred to as ”pretexting”.
DeLia is a director at Security Outsource Solutions, which was contracted by HP for the investigation job. Depante was a manager at Florida-based “information broker” Action Research Group and Wagner was an employee.
DeLia had explained to Dunn last year that “telephone records were obtained by ruse” from carriers, according to the indictment.
Dunn provided DeLia with home or mobile telephone numbers for HP board members included in a fruitless first phase of a private probe into who was leaking boardroom secrets, court paperwork charged.
With the backing of the board, Dunn launched a second phase of the investigation in January.
Despite knowing of “the subterfuge,” Hunsaker gave investigators home, mobile and office telephone numbers for HP executives and board members, the indictment said.
DeLia hired ARG to trick phone companies into revealing people’s personal telephone records, according to Lockyer.
Court documents described DeLia providing Hunsaker with ill-gotten telephone data of subjects including news reporters and board member George Keyworth, who resigned after being pinpointed as the leaker.
Dunn asked for a “comprehensive summary” of the investigation and its techniques in late February, according to the indictments.
In April, Hunsaker sent Dunn an update on the operation.
An identity theft count in the indictment charged Dunn and the others with illegally getting personal information such as social security and telephone numbers of HP board members, journalists, and their family members.
The international computing equipment company declined to discuss the criminal charges and said it was continuing to cooperate with the investigation.
Private investigators obtained the telephone records of nine journalists, two HP workers, and seven current or former board members, along with their families, in a trick of impersonation referred to as “pretexting”.
Dunn and Hunsaker resigned from HP last month amid a growing controversy about unethical and potentially illegal tactics used to expose a board member that had been leaking secrets to news reporters.
Dunn was among HP executives grilled by incredulous members of Congress at a subcommittee hearing in Washington DC last week. Dunn repeatedly denied endorsing any wrongdoing.
Hunsaker was one of ten former HP executives and outside private detectives that declined to testify before the subcommittee. They shielded themselves behind the constitutional right not to incriminate oneself.
In her statement to the House panel, Dunn contended that she had been assured by company lawyers and security veterans that all the tactics were “above board”.
Representative John Dingell invoked the Watergate scandal in describing the subterfuge at HP as “a plumbing operation that would make Richard Nixon blush”.
As the corporate intrigue grew to include criminal prosecutions, Dunn was reportedly scheduled to begin treatment for ovarian cancer.
Chairman is a job title...doesn't mean you can't have ovaries (although I daresay right now Dunn could do without either the title or the plumbing. The good news is, if she croaks soon she doesn't have to die a felon).
It looks like Sonsini wriggled out of the dragnet. That no-shoulders build common to snakes, eels and lawyers has its uses.
Why am I not surprized that the lawyer they bagged is an "ethics" lawyer?
Basically, if it advertises "Ethics" on your business card it's a pretty good sign that you haven't got any.
I hope there's serious jail time for these PIs. Never met a PI that wasn't a dirtbag through and through. It's a profession full of corner-cutters, poseurs, and ex-cons.
And, it looks like, a few future cons.
If any of you indictees are reading this, check out your future digs:
http://www.bop.gov/
"We'll leave a light on for you."
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
you gotta wonder how many other fortune 100 board or company officers are looking at this and thinking they may have a problem. I have no doubt others at that level have done similar things for any number of reasons as well.
A cynical view would be not to expect Congress would actually subject any financial institution to such scrutiny (campaign finance laws or no campaign finance laws).
Outside of the financial industry, an awful lot of corporate suits must be working their shredders overtime on this one.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.