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California Settles Spying Case Against HP
The State of California and Hewlett Packard recently settled a lawsuit in which HP was accused of illegally accessing its board members’ telephone records. HP had been conducting internal investigations about leaks to the media, and its investigators pretended to be the board members under investigation in order to obtain their telephone records. This fact was admitted in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing made by HP. California law allows for civil action for this kind of corporate criminal activity, and HP was sued for damages for this “unlawful business practice”.
HP agreed to pay 14.5 million dollars in the settlement, with the majority of the settlement funds being directed into a newly created fund intended to assist with the investigation and prosecution of privacy and intellectual property offences. The rest of the money will go towards damages and the cost of proceedings. In addition, HP has agreed to make internal changes to ensure legal and ethical compliance in future investigations.
HP’s former chairman was ousted in September in connection with this situation, and California’s Attorney General filed criminal fraud and conspiracy charges against her in October. HP’s settlement does not resolve the charges against her or other former HP executives and employees.
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