This is the VOA Special English Economics
Report.
Computer-maker Hewlett-Packard announced this week that the
chairwoman of its board of directors will resign in January. How Patricia Dunn
came to be forced out after less than two years is a complex story.
It involves Hewlett-Packard's use of investigators who gained private
telephone records of board members and reporters. Ms. Dunn ordered the
investigation after private details of board meetings appeared several times in
news reports.
To get the phone records, the investigators used "pretexting." Pretexting is
when private investigators identify themselves as someone else so they will be
given personal information. Commonly they identify themselves as the person
whose records they seek.
H-P is based in Palo Alto, California. The attorney general of the state,
Bill Lockyer, discussed the case on national television Tuesday. He said there
is enough evidence to bring criminal charges against people inside and outside
the company. Federal officials are also investigating the case.
Patricia Dunn and the man appointed to replace her, H-P Chief Executive
Officer Mark Hurd, have apologized for the methods used. She says the
investigation was necessary but that it "went beyond what we understood."
The investigators reported that board member George Keyworth gave information
to CNET News. The former science adviser to President Ronald Reagan is a
longtime Hewlett-Packard director. In May, the board asked Mr. Keyworth to
resign. He refused. But his friend, board member Thomas Perkins, resigned in
protest over the company's actions.
In June, Mr. Perkins wrote to Larry Sonsini, an outside lawyer for H-P, to
ask for details of the investigation. Mr. Sonsini, in an e-mail back, said
"pretext calls" were made to phone service providers. But he said the process
appeared "within legal limits."
Some members of Congress are now calling for federal laws against pretexting.
Patricia Dunn is to remain on the board after she resigns as chairwoman in
January. She replaced Carly Fiorina who in February of last year was forced to
resign as chairwoman and H-P's chief executive. Carly Fiorina had led H-P to
take over Compaq Computer. The move was opposed by some directors and the
families of the two men who started Hewlett-Packard.
And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report for this week, written by
Mario Ritter. I'm Steve
Ember.
attorney
general : 首席檢察官；司法部長
（來源：VOA 英語點(diǎn)津姍姍編輯）
