Paper Jam At HP
Timeline recapping the recent turmoil, leaks and corporate spying investigation at Hewlett-Packard.
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The Wall Street Journal publishes a front-page story based on anonymous sources that the HP board is dissatisfied with Chief Executive Carly Fiorina and considered a management reorganization during a private retreat.
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Board member Patricia Dunn announces that Fiorina has been fired. Dunn assumes role as nonexecutive chairwoman and oversees the hunt for Fiorina's successor.
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Dunn announces that Mark Hurd has been hired as the new CEO. Dunn retains the chairwoman title.
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At Dunn's urging, HP launches an investigation to root out the sources of numerous boardroom leaks. Dunn contacts Ronald DeLia and his investigations firm, Security Outsourcing Solutions Inc.
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SOS reports its findings at a meeting attended by several HP executives and briefly by Hurd. A short time later, the investigation ends without unmasking the source of the leaks.
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CNet Network Inc.'s News.com publishes a story quoting an anonymous HP source who described a confidential gathering of HP directors. Although the source doesn't say anything inflammatory, the leak angers Dunn. Investigation resumes.
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Someone creates an online account in the name of HP board member and noted Silicon Valley venture capitalist Thomas Perkins and orders his home phone records from AT&T Inc.
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Investigations team led by Kevin Hunsaker, HP's chief ethics officer, briefed Dunn, Baskins and Hurd on its findings and identified the source of the leak. It also prepared a written report that outlined the techniques — including "pretexting," the practice of impersonating a person in order to access their private information. Hurd said he didn't read the report.
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During a board meeting, Dunn identifies the leaker as George Keyworth II, the longest-serving HP director. The board asks Keyworth to resign, but he refuses. Perkins gets angry, resigns and storms out of the meeting.
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HP files a routine document with the Securities and Exchange Commission to notify investors that Perkins has resigned.
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Perkins and his attorney demand information from HP about the methods used to identify Keyworth as a leaker. Perkins begins asking HP to submit details of his resignation — and the probe into his home phone numbers — to the SEC. HP's outside counsel, Larry Sonsini, assures Perkins in an e-mail that the investigation "was well done and within legal limits."
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Investigators for California's attorney general and the California Highway Patrol Computer Crimes Investigation Unit meet with AT&T executives. AT&T confirms that it's conducting an internal review of pretexting.
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The State of California issues a search warrant for Cox Communications Inc., which owns the Internet address where Perkins' phone records were sent.
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HP reports to the SEC that it used pretexting to get phone records of "HP directors and individuals outside of HP."
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California Attorney General Bill Lockyer announces that the pretexting broke two state laws governing identity theft and illegal access to computer records, and that his office is investigating whether criminal charges were warranted.
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Dunn calls journalists who were targeted by pretexters to apologize, but defends the right of the company to determine the source of the leaks.
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A House committee requests documents related to the leak investigation as part of its ongoing probe of pretexting, while the U.S. Attorney's Office in San Francisco and the FBI confirm they are conducting their own probe of HP's conduct.
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HP announces that Dunn will step down as chairwoman in January 2007 and be replaced by Hurd. Lockyer says he has enough evidence to indict HP insiders and contractors.
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A shareholder lawsuit is filed in a California state court accusing the top HP brass of breaching their duties.
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News reports link Hurd to a plot to dupe a reporter by sending bogus e-mail news tips. HP's stock price dips more than 5 percent.
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Dunn resigns. Hurd becomes chairman. HP reveals identities of other key employees involved in the probe: Kevin Hunsaker, the company's chief ethics officer who directed the investigation; Tony Gentilucci and Vincent Nye of its Global Security team; and Fred Adler of its IT security team. Company reveals investigators also tailed some targets and sent an e-mail with embedded tracking technology to a reporter.
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Gentilucci, manager of HP's global investigations unit in Boston, resigns.
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Hunsaker leaves the company.
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HP announces the resignation of General Counsel Ann Baskins, who helped oversee the leaks probe. The House Energy and Commerce Committee holds hearing into the scandal.
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California's attorney general sought felony indictments against former Hewlett-Packard Co. Chairwoman Patricia Dunn and four others involved in the corporate spying scandal at the computer and printer company. Attorney General Bill Lockyer filed criminal complaints naming Dunn, ousted HP chief ethics officer Kevin Hunsaker, private investigator Ronald DeLia, and outside investigators Joseph DePante of Melbourne, Fla. and Bryan Wagner of Littleton, Colo. They each face four felony charges.
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Former chairwoman Patricia Dunn pleaded not guilty to four felony identity theft and fraud charges for allegedly instigating the company's ill-fated spying probe into boardroom leaks.
Dunn appeared briefly for her arraignment in Santa Clara County Superior Court and was released on her own recognizance after her lawyer entered the plea for her.
Each charge carries a fine of up to $10,000 and three years in prison.
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Hewlett-Packard Co. agrees to pay $14.5 million to settle a lawsuit brought by California Attorney General Bill Lockyer accusing the company of unfair business practices in its crusade to unmask the source of boardroom leaks to the news media.
The vast majority of the settlement — $13.5 million — will fund state and local investigations into privacy rights and intellectual property violations, Lockyer said in a statement as the lawsuit and settlement were filed in Santa Clara County Superior Court.
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The charges against former Hewlett-Packard Co. board Chairwoman Patricia Dunn, who was accused of fraud in the company's boardroom spying scandal, were dropped. Three other defendants in the case will also avoid jail time after their lawyers entered no contest pleas to misdemeanor charges of fraudulent wire communications. The charges against former HP ethics chief Kevin Hunsaker, and private investigators Ronald DeLia and Matthew DePante will also be dropped in September after they complete 96 hours of community service and make restitution.
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Atul Malhotra, 42, of Santa Barbara, Calif., a former vice president of imaging and printing services at the Hewlett Packard Co., pleads guilty to stealing IBM trade secrets. He was charged on June 27, 2007, on one count of information with theft of trade secrets. According to plea documents, shortly after starting in his new position at HP, on July 25, 2006, Malhotra shared IBM trade secrets with his superiors.
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Credits:
CBS/AP
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