This would not be the folks from the Boston-area firm, Security Outsourcing Solutions, that you've read about previously, but rather P.I. Bryan Wagner our of San Francisco.

Wagner has been indicted in California on charges of utilizing the social security number of a journalist to obtain that individual's telephone records. He apparently did so at the direction of HP execs, their legal team or other investigators working on HP's behalf as a part of their internal "Kona 2" investigation to identify the source of HP's persistent high-level media leaks.

Wagner is facing charges of conspiracy and identity theft, which could carry penalties of up to seven years in jail. That California AG's office had previously announced that they were going to go hard on this matter and it looks like they are following through on the threat. It is expected, though, that the Wagner indictment is just bait to catch bigger fix. He is expected to cooperate with authorities.

Read more on the Wagner indictment via the IHT.

-- MDT

Labels: Bryan Wagner, HP, identity theft, Joseph DePante, Patricia Dunn, pretexting, Ronald DeLia, Wilson Sonsini