In a move that had been expected for some time, several lawsuits alleging "illegal and reprehensible conduct" have been filed against Hewlett Packard as well as the company's former CEO, Patricia Dunn and Kevin Hunsaker, PH's former ethics chief.

These would be the two company executives most closely associated with the hiring of private investigators, who among other things, used pretextual tricks to obtain private phone records of several individuals who HP suspected of facilitating media leaks of sensitive company information.

Amongst the plaintiffs in the five cases are journalists from the Associated Press and CNET. More on the pending cases via MLive. Loads of background on HP corporate spying fiasco is available via the tags below.

-- MDT

Labels: HP, Kevin Hunsaker, Patricia Dunn, pretexing, Wilson Sonsini