Ex-Head of H.P. Faces Charges

[DoYouEverWonder]

Oct. 4 — Patricia C. Dunn, the former chairwoman of Hewlett-Packard, and four other people will be named in indictments expected to be filed by California’s attorney general today in the spying case at the company, according to lawyers involved in the case.

In addition to Ms. Dunn, Attorney General Bill Lockyer intends to indict Kevin T. Hunsaker, a former senior lawyer at H.P.; Ronald L. DeLia, a Boston-area private detective; Joseph DePante, owner of Action Research Group, a Melbourne, Fla., information broker; and Bryan Wagner, a Littleton, Colo., man who is said to have obtained private phone records while working for Mr. DePante.

All of those named face four charges: using of false or fraudulent pretenses to obtain confidential information from a public utility, unauthorized access to computer data, identity theft, and conspiracy to commit each of those crimes. All of the charges are felonies.

The charges stem from an internal H.P. investigation into leaks from its board room. The company hired Mr. DeLia, the owner of Security Outsourcing Solutions, who in turn hired Mr. DePante’s firm to gather information. The state will contend that they used pretexting — pretending to be someone else —to obtain information from telephone company employees.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/04/business/04hewlettcnd.html?hp&ex=1160020800&en=d11ffe4a8eccde9e&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[Lance_Boyle]

1. The state should damned sure contend that they used FRAUD

to obtain information. "Pretexting" is a clever euphemism that the MSM is all too happy to put out there when the real term for what Patricia Dunn ordered done is FRAUD. She should go to prison for as long as CA fraud statutes dictate, and she should goddamned well be so broke she eats out of trash cans for the rest of her life once she's served her time.

[Sherman A1]

3. Agreed

I'm sorry if the report about cancer is true, but that does not mitigate her offenses. I really believe these types should spend their time working at some minimum wage job for the rest of eternity with wages garnished to repay the heavy fines that they should face.

[qanda]

2. I just heard today that she is undergoing chemotherapy

For advanced ovarian cancer. I don't know all the details about what she did wrong, but I wish her the best in her fight against cancer.

[underpants]

4. Note that there is an investigation and Cong. hearings on this,

Board members being spied on, but illegal wiretapping can not only go on but be used as a political tool and no one says a thing.