A smoking gun? But very few answers from HP

“If Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard were alive today, they’d be appalled,” he said, referring to the company’s revered founders. He pledged to “redefine our company.”

Earlier, Dunn blamed bad advice from others in the company, including Baskins. “I deeply regret that so many people, including me, were let down by this reliance” on such advice, Dunn told the panel.

Dunn stumbled at turns and corrected herself when asked how much she knew of the shady tactics, including when she learned that the investigators had used pretexting. But while saying she was unaware of the details, she repeatedly defended the probe as necessary to stem serious leaks of confidential information.

“I dispute having ever understood or being told that the fraudulent use of identity was ever a part of this investigation,” Dunn insisted.

She noted that she was pretexted as well; the probe targeted every member of the board, HP investigator Fred Adler testified. Pretexting also was used in previous investigations by the company.

Elsewhere, Verizon Wireless filed a lawsuit Thursday against 20 unnamed individuals who allegedly used deceptive means to obtain telephone records on behalf of HP.

In documents filed in federal district court in Trenton, N.J., Verizon said a total of 20 individuals engaged as data brokers were hired directly or indirectly by HP to investigate leaks of confidential information from the company’s board of directors.

The lawsuit said the defendants used “fraud, trickery and deceit” to access call records from Verizon customer service centers and through online customer accounts.

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