Both of the subpoenaed execs, HP global security manager Anthony Gentilucci and HP senior counsel Kevin Hunsaker, left the company yesterday, according to HP spokesman Ryan Donovan.
Gentilucci quit on Monday and his resignation was effective yesterday, while Hunsaker resigned yesterday, effective immediately, Donovan said.
Also subpoenaed by Congress was Ron DeLia, operator of Security Outsourcing Solutions Inc, a Boston-based private eye firm hired by HP to discover an internal source of leaks to the media.
HP has admitted to hiring third-party investigators who falsely assumed other people’s identities in order to open online phone bill accounts — a questionable practice known as pretexting.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee defines pretexting as the use of lies and deception to gain access to information that is not publicly available and without the victim’s consent.
DeLia initially had been invited to voluntarily appear at the congressional hearings, but reportedly declined. However, during a press conference on Friday, an outside attorney hired by HP to investigate its internal probe Mike Holston said DeLia’s firm had used pretexting as part of its work for HP.
I want to stress that to the best of our knowledge, this activity was conducted by an outside investigator, Holston said at the press conference.
Still, Holston admitted that Gentilucci gave an HP employee’s Social Security number to Security Outsourcing Solutions, presumably in order to help the company in its pretexting efforts.
Hunsaker headed the internal probe, which came to be called Kona II and reportedly focused on two HP media relations reps, Brigida Bergkamp and Michael Moeller.
The probes eventually outed HP director George Keyworth as the leaker. He retired soon after the story broke a couple of weeks ago.
In addition to pretexting, HP has also admitted to physically surveilling at least two people and sorting through the trash of at least one person in order to find information about the leaks.
Tomorrow the panel begins its HP hearings, in which it will also question HP chief executive Mark Hurd and former chairwoman Patricia Dunn.
Dunn quit the company’s board on Friday, two weeks after the spying scandal broke and her announcement that she would resign as chair in January. Dunn maintained that she acted in the company’s best interests by authorizing the internal probe into the media leaks.
Hurd, meanwhile, has tried to distance himself from the company’s leak investigation, which involved nine reporters, seven HP directors, two HP employees and various family members during 2005 and early 2006.
HP general counsel Ann Baskins, HP computer security investigator Fred Adler, outside attorney Larry Sonsini and Joe Depante, owner of Action Research Group, a Florida information broker, also will be questioned by the congressional panel.
