WHAT A HEEL!: Hewlett-Packard Spies On Its Own Board Of Directors – And Anyone Who Phoned Them
California Attorney General Bill Lockyer is looking into how Hewlett-Packard Co. obtained the phone records of its board members last year to determine who was leaking information about the removal of former Chairman and Chief Executive Carly Fiorina:
In a filing ... with the SEC, the Silicon Valley computer giant acknowledged "pretexting" had been used in the course of its investigation into the leaks. That investigation was conducted on the company's behalf by an unidentified private investigator who in turn hired a contractor who used pretexting to obtain directors' phone records. ...
H-P spokesman Mike Moeller said the company … didn't know pretexting would be involved. "[P]retexting will not be used in any future investigation if we have to do another one of these."
The Wall Street Journal notes that pretexting – pretending to be someone other than a private investigator to trick people into divulging private phone or other information about themselves or others - is illegal in California. The paper also reports that two of its own reporters’ personal phone records – along with those of seven other journalists - were obtained in the investigation:
Nine journalists' phone records were targeted … including the personal phone records of Wall Street Journal reporters Pui-Wing Tam and George Anders, according to the company and the California attorney general's office. …
CNET News.com reported yesterday that phone records of two of its staff reporters, Dawn Kawamoto and Tom Krazit, were obtained during the investigation. Yesterday, The New York Times said on its Web site that phone records of one of its reporters, John Markoff, were targeted.
H-P Chairman Patricia Dunn is shocked, shocked (actually she said she was "appalled") to find out that the private dick the company hired had outsourced the job to another dick who made the pretext calls to obtain phone records. But she’s not so appalled that she plans to fall on her sword:
In her first public comments since the investigation was disclosed earlier this week, Ms. Dunn told The Wall Street Journal that she has no plans to resign. However, she said she would step down as both chairman and an H-P board member if fellow directors want her to do so. H-P's board is to hold a special meeting by phone this weekend to discuss fallout of the leak probe.
Given that H-P admits that its business practices will continue to include hiring a PI to snoop on corporate insiders and employees The Stiletto thinks someone would be crazy to accept a position as a director, officer or executive of that company.
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