HP ex-chairwoman Patricia Dunn says detective employed since ’90s

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Washington/San Francisco, Sept 28: Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co former chairwoman, Patricia Dunn, defending her role in a probe of boardroom leaks, said the investigator who ran the checks had worked for the company since the 1990s and gave her the impression the methods he used were legal.

Dunn said she used investigator Ronald DeLia on the advice of another director and officials of the company. In testimony prepared for a US House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing in Washington on Thursday, Dunn said DeLia told her in mid-2005 that phone records were being obtained and that it was a standard method of investigation by HP. The remarks may pit her against HP and CEO Mark Hurd, who also will testify. Dunn said the board never questioned methods used in the probe and painted herself as a victim of an investigator gone wild. HP has depicted Dunn as complicit in the actions of the investigators. The scandal led to scrutiny from regulators and lawmakers and the dismissal of Dunn and two executives.

Hurd said in prepared remarks that he wasn’t involved in the investigation and briefly attended a meeting on the subject. He also said he didn’t recall seeing a memo that discussed planting a bug in an e-mail to entrap a reporter and didn’t recall approving it.

DeLia and six other investigators involved in the probe will also be called, as will Ann Baskins, the firm’s general counsel, Larry Sonsini, the outside lawyer, and former executives Kevin Hunsaker and Anthony Gentilucci, both fired for their involvement.

Palo Alto, California-based HP first gave details of the probe on September 6. Investigators used fake identities to obtain phone records, followed reporters and dug through one person’s trash in their effort to pinpoint the director who was leaking information to the media.