However, a US federal judge yesterday ordered the former exec to withdraw his lawsuit and resubmit it under a court seal, which means its contents would no longer be publicly available.
The judge also issued a restraining order forbidding any parties in the case to discuss it with the media.
The lawsuit was filed late last week by former HP VP of business development and strategy Karl Kamb as part of a countersuit against HP. In 2005, HP filed a federal lawsuit accusing Kamb and other former HP workers of setting up a flat-screen TV company to rival HP while they were being employed HP to develop such technology. In its suit, HP sought as much as $100m in damages.
Now, years later, Kamb is not only claiming innocence but also alleging several illegal business practices at HP, including HP allegedly using fraudulent methods to secretly obtain Kamb’s private phone records, a practice known as pretexting.
HP denied the allegations, in an e-mailed statement issued before the judge’s restraining order.
This counterclaim is wholly without merit, HP said. It’s a blatant attempt to delay the prosecution of the original case against the persons filing the counterclaim. We intend to vigorously pursue our original claim and to defend ourselves against this action with equal vigor.
Kamb’s lawsuit comes just months after a separate case that alleges private detectives hired by HP used pretexting to hunt down the source of board-room leaks to the media, as part of an internal investigation.
HP also denied any wrongdoing in this case. But one PI hired by HP has already pleaded guilty to felony identity charges relating to the investigation. Former HP employees, including former board chair Patricia Dunn and former HP counsel Kevin Hunsaker, as well as other PIs also face felony charges and have pleaded not guilty.
Now, Kamb is accusing Dunn and Hunsaker, among others at HP, of using pretexting to spy on him.
HP said, in the same statement, that the claim that pretexting was involved in this investigation is, to the best of our knowledge, patently untrue. Furthermore, as we’ve said in the past, HP strongly rejects such methods of investigation and has said that those methods will not again be employed on behalf of the company.
Before the HP scandal, there was no clear-cut federal law against the standard. But a new law signed by President Bush a couple of weeks ago says violators could now get fined or imprisoned for up to 10 years.
Kamb’s suit also claimed that HP hired Katsumi Iizuka, who at the time was a president of Dell Japan, to feed it private documents and information about Dell’s plans to enter the printer market in competition against HP. Kamb claims HP top brass approved the payoff arrangement.
HP, in its lawsuit, said Iizuka was hired in 2002 by HP as a market-research consultant, as per arrangements made by Kamb while he was still with HP. Iizuka left Dell in 1995.
