Zeroing in on sources HP used

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Prosecutors said to be focusing on the Action Research Group,known as one of most prolific users of pretexting.
The New York Times

By Damon Darlin and Matt Richtel
The New York Times

Published: September 16, 2006, 9:31 AM PDT
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SAN FRANCISCO--Prosecutors looking into the internal spying operation at Hewlett-Packard are beginning to link together a chain of investigators from the company down to the detective agencies that may have been involved in obtaining the phone records of its directors and a number of journalists.

According to people briefed on HP's review of its internal investigation, prosecutors are focusing on the role of the Action Research Group of Melbourne, Fla. Congressional investigators identified the company this year as one of the most prolific users of subterfuge for obtaining phone records, a method known as pretexting.

HP has said that it hired investigators who used such a technique in their search to identify a director who the company said was leaking information to the news media. California and federal prosecutors are investigating whether the internal investigation broke any laws, and the California attorney general has said indictments are likely.

An owner of the Action Research Group, Joseph DePante, when asked by telephone on Friday about the HP investigation, said: "I don't know anything about that. Thank you for calling." He refused to comment further.

DePante, 59, started his business in 1989 and is a licensed private investigator. The firm's Web site says it has databases of records that help collection agencies, lawyers and other private detectives collect debts. The site also advertises searches for criminal, financial and employment records. The company's manager, Matthew DePante, 27, is described as "knowledgeable in all areas of telephone research."

In addition to the Florida firm, prosecutors have been examining the role of Security Outsourcing Solutions, a tiny Boston-area private detective firm. The firm and its principal, Ronald R. DeLia, have ties to HP through the company's Global Investigations Unit, which is based in Massachusetts.

Anthony R. Gentilucci, manager of global investigations for HP, is president of the New England chapter of the High-Tech Crime Investigation Association, an organization of law enforcement officials, private detectives and corporate security officers. Two of the five other elected officers, Glenn Tandy and Kevin Mazza, also work for HP's security arm, and DeLia has been a member of the association.

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DeLia did not respond to e-mail and telephone messages requesting comment, and Gentilucci's office referred all inquiries to HP's headquarters.

The links between the men were personal. Gentilucci and DeLia were fellow groomsmen in a 1997 wedding in Boston, according to a wedding announcement in The Boston Herald. One of the two best men in the wedding was John Kiernan, a partner in the law firm of Bonner Kiernan Trebach & Crociata, which shares a Boston address and phone number with Security Outsourcing Solutions.

The House Committee on Energy and Commerce has sent a letter to DeLia requesting that he testify at a subcommittee hearing on the HP matter on Sept. 28 in Washington. The subcommittee is expected to put Gentilucci on its witness list as well, a committee staff member said. It has already requested the appearance of Patricia C. Dunn, HP's chairwoman; Larry W. Sonsini, HP's outside lawyer; and Ann Baskins, the company's general counsel.

The same panel, the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, held hearings this year on the use of fraud in obtaining phone records. The panel's subsequent inquiries identified Action Research, the Florida firm, as "the biggest of the big" among companies using pretexts to obtain phone numbers, said Rob Douglas, an information security consultant who worked for the subcommittee. The company, he said, "is in the inner core" of pretexters.