Former Hewlett-Packard Co. chairwoman Patricia Dunn and four other individuals, including Bryan Wagner of Littleton, were indicted Wednesday in California on four charges related to HP’s controversial investigation of board member press leaks.
In addition to Dunn and Wagner, the others indicted are Kevin T. Hunsaker, formerly a senior attorney at HP; Ronald DeLia, a Boston-area private investigator; and Matthew DePante, manager of Action Research Group, Wagner’s former employer.
“In this misguided effort, people inside and outside HP violated privacy rights and broke state laws,” said California Attorney General Bill Lockyer. “Those who crossed the legal line must be held accountable.”
Lockyer’s office has been investigating whether illegal tactics were used by Dunn and others tracking down leaks from the company’s board.
Dunn resigned last month amid the scandal.
All five individuals were charged on four felony counts: fraudulent wire communications, wrongful use of computer data, identity theft, and conspiracy to commit those crimes. Conviction on each charge carries a maximum sentence of three years in prison plus fines.
Lockyer filed the complaint in Santa Clara County Superior Court and asked the court to issue a warrant for Wagner’s arrest and extradition to California to stand trial. HP, based in Palo Alto, Calif., employs several thousand people in Colorado.
The case revolves around the shady practice of pretexting, or pretending to be someone else to gather personal information, such as phone and financial records. Pretexters generally know some information about the person, such as a Social Security number and birth date. They use that to gather other personal information from phone companies, banks and others.
Wagner allegedly used pretexting to access the phone records of HP board member George Keyworth. Wagner reportedly told California investigators that he later used a hammer to destroy the computer he used to obtain those records.
Reached by phone Wednesday, Wagner, 29, told The Denver Post he was “on the other line” with the FBI but declined to talk about that conversation or the indictment. His attorney, Stephen Naratil of Santa Rosa, Calif., declined to comment.
Action Research, based in Melbourne, Fla., did not return a call for comment Wednesday.
Lockyer’s complaint alleges “beginning in January 2006, with full knowledge of the methods used to obtain phone records, Dunn participated in renewing Hewlett-Packard’s leak investigation, subsequently received regular briefings on its progress.”
James Rapp, Wagner’s uncle, has worked as a private investigator and pleaded guilty in 1999 to violating the Colorado organized-crime-control act in a case involving pretexting. He has also performed investigations for Action Research Group.
“If in fact Action did use Bryan, I would hope that (California) would use him as a pawn to get to the people responsible, not just the little peon that does the work,” said Rapp, who lives in Elizabeth. “Truly I don’t think he had any clue about the type of cases he was working on if he was working on this.”
Felony charges on pretexting are not common but have taken center stage in the HP case due to heightened sensitivity around corporate governance, said Anthony Accetta, a former federal prosecutor, now a financial- crimes investigator in Denver.
“I think this is the first of its kind,” Accetta said. “It’s a reflection of the general reaction to corporate governance and bad conduct,” he said.
But he disagreed with Lockyer’s indictment against Dunn.
“This case has no legs at all if it’s just a private investigator in Littleton,” he said. “But Dunn’s name is attention-grabbing and I think that’s what the AG is interested in.”
Other HP executives – including chief executive Mark Hurd and former general counsel Ann Baskins – were not charged. They, along with Dunn and Wagner, were called to testify at a U.S. House subcommittee hearing last week.
Dunn told congressional leaders that she was not aware of illegal practices used to obtain phone records.
Baskins, Wagner and several other private investigators cited their Fifth Amendment right not to testify on grounds of self-incrimination.
Meanwhile, Dunn, 53, was told Tuesday that she must begin chemotherapy treatments Friday for a recurrence of ovarian cancer, said a person close to Dunn who asked to remain anonymous because a formal announcement wasn’t planned.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Staff writer Kimberly S. Johnson can be reached at 303-954-1088 or kjohnson@denverpost.com.
