Patricia Dunn: I Am Innocent

The Hewlett-Packard board of directors was a leaky ship. Secret board deliberations were ending up in the press left and right, and it was decided something had to be done.

That something is arguably the most famous leak investigation since Watergate, and because of it Pattie Dunn, who was chairman of the HP board of directors, now faces criminal charges, and could go to jail.

As correspondent Lesley Stahl reports, the charges stem from the use of something called pretexting, where phone records are retrieved by subterfuge and pretense – where someone calls the phone company and pretends to be someone else in order to obtain the records.

The tactic was apparently used to retrieve the phone records not only of HP board members but of reporters as well. Social security numbers were also obtained, board members and journalists were followed, and there was even discussion of planting spies in newsrooms.

On Thursday, Pattie Dunn was booked on four felony counts in connection with the investigation.

Pattie Dunn, 53, is a former business CEO who just two weeks ago was inducted into the Bay Area Business Hall of Fame. She talked to 60 Minutes about what happened at HP only hours after the criminal charges against her were announced.

"Maybe someone will come in here while we're talking and put handcuffs on me. I don't know," Dunn tells Stahl.

"Let me ask you the obvious question that I think every lawyer who's watching this is asking himself or herself. Why are you giving us an interview right after you've been indicted? It's pretty unusual," Stahl asks.

"So my lawyer tells me," Dunn replies, laughing.

But her lawyer did approve of the interview. "I have a story to tell. I'm innocent. I need people to understand what happened. And I'm glad to have the chance to do it," Dunn says.

Her story involves the investigation into who from the board was leaking confidential information to the press, about corporate strategy, HP's interest in buying another tech company, even deliberations over who they would hire as CEO.

"The idea that the most sensitive discussions of the board would end up on the front page of the Wall Street Journal was destructive. It destroyed the trust between people and if they don't trust each other," Dunn says, "they can't function as a board."

Dunn says a majority of the board asked her to initiate a leak inquiry, which soon ran amok and has made her the public face of one of corporate America's biggest scandals.

She accepts no responsibility, admits no wrong. At the heart of the case is: what did Pattie Dunn know about the pretexting, or the use of pretenses to get phone records. Evidence includes a conference call, apparently with Dunn, during which pretexting was allegedly discussed, and notes of an interview with Dunn about the case.

"Quote, 'Dunn thinks it is probable that she was told in some circumstances they may need to use false pretenses,'" Stahl states.

"I refute those notes. I was never given a chance to review them," Dunn says. "This is not a deposition; this was not recorded. If it's going to be used as evidence against me, somebody needs to take my deposition."

And perhaps the most serious charge against her involves passing along personal information to the investigators to enable the pretexting.

"The complaint specifically mentions that you gave the investigators the home phone numbers of your fellow board members," Stahl says.

"I don't remember giving the investigators the home phone numbers of my fellow board members. But those are not hard to get within HP. They're public information within the board infrastructure," Dunn says.

At a recent news conference an HP lawyer said Dunn had instigated and closely monitored the probe, and CEO Mark Hurd also weighed in.

"And he termed the tactics 'disturbing.' He's the one who pointed the finger at you," Stahl says.

"Well, that's a mischaracterization of my role," Dunn replies.

Asked why he would do that, Dunn says, "You'd have to ask him, Lesley. I'm not going to speculate on other people's motivations here."

She maintains that at every step of the way she relied on senior HP lawyers to ensure everything was done legally.

"Isn't it just wrong – isn't it just ethically wrong, forget whether it's legal or not, to go in and get people's phone records?" Stahl asks.

"People who sit on public company boards have a very different attitude about this than probably the general public. First of all, you give up a lot of privacy when you go onto a board. You have to make all kinds of declarations," Dunn says. "Your life is a much more open book when you have this kind of a public trust."

"But what about the reporters? It wasn't just board members. It was reporters as well," Stahl remarks.

"That was just wrong. That was wrong. I found out about that on September 6th, 2006," Dunn says. "The idea that I supervised, orchestrated, approved all of the ways in which this investigation occurred is just a complete myth. It's a falsehood. It's a damaging lie."

The focus on her started, she says, after the investigation identified board member and nuclear physicist Jay Keyworth as the source of many of the leaks. Another board member, Tom Perkins, she says, wanted to keep that secret from the full board.

Hewlett-Packard, in a press release, said this about Jay Keyworth: "At HP's request, Dr. Keyworth often had contacts with the press to explain HP's interests. The board does not believe that Dr. Keyworth's contact with CNET in January 2006 was vetted through appropriate channels, but also recognizes that his discussion with the CNET reporter was undertaken in an attempt to further HP's interests. HP board chairman Patricia Dunn expressed regret for the intrusion into his privacy."]

"I don't understand how you have an investigation and there's even a discussion of not revealing who the culprit is?" Stahl asks.

"What Tom believed was that we would simply tell the leaker never to do it again. Then, we would inform the board that we had identified the leaker, that he had confessed, and agreed he would never do it again. Next item on the agenda," Dunn says.

60 Minutes couldn't reach Tom Perkins since he is currently out to sea on his new boat, said to be the largest and most expensive private sailboat ever built. He's a founding partner of the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins, that has bankrolled AOL, Google and Amazon, among others. Dunn says, he's a guy who definitely knows how to get his way.

But he couldn't get his way with Pattie Dunn. She refused to keep that Keyworth was the leaker a secret. The board asked Keyworth to resign – and in a peek behind-the-scenes at how things can explode on a board, Dunn says Perkins walked out in a huff.

"He turned to me sitting nearby and pointed at me and said, 'You betrayed me.' He said that several times. 'You betrayed me, Pattie. You said that we would handle this off-line and a good man is being ruined as a result.' And, he snapped his brief case shut and stormed out of the room and said, 'I resign.' And, one of the other directors said, 'Can we accept his resignation?' The general counsel said yes. He put the motion on the table. It was seconded and passed within seconds," Dunn says.

"So he drove off and ended up going onto his mega yacht in the Mediterranean. And I suspect he thought over the ensuing days that it was just unacceptable that he was off the board, Jay was going to be off the board, and I was still chairman," she adds.

After that, Perkins blew the whistle on HP's leak investigation and she says he began a campaign of deceit about her.

"It was a disinformation, a classic disinformation campaign," Dunn says. He set the mindset for basically everything that's believed about this right now."

She says he sent out an e-mail disparaging her, and influenced the media.

"The Newsweek cover that said 'The Boss,' which I wasn't, 'Who Spied,' which I didn't, 'On Her Board,' is really now fixed in the minds of the public, as a result of a campaign to put it there," Dunn says.

She even accuses him of bringing his campaign against her to law enforcement.

"He and his team went to see various agencies of government and law enforcement agencies," Dunn says.

"About you?" Stahl asks.

"That's what I am told, that's exactly what they did," Dunn replies.

A spokesman for Perkins confirmed that indeed, he did go to the SEC, FTC, the Justice Department and the California attorney general to complain about the tactics used in the leak investigation.

"If you have enough money and you're willing to spend enough, you can buy and sell somebody's reputation," Dunn says.

Asked whether she's charging that that is what he did, Dunn says, "That is what he did."

"You're saying, if I understand you, that he, Tom Perkins, set out to get you and that," Stahl began asking.

"He wanted me off the board. This was to get me off the board. I don't know if he ever thought through the consequences that would go beyond my getting off the board," Dunn says.

"Well, you said he went to law enforcement. That takes it another step," Stahl remarks.

"It does take it another step. Here I am today with an indictment over my head," Dunn replies.

"Are you saying he's responsible for that?" Stahl asks.

"Well, I don't think I'd be sitting here today if Tom had handled this differently," Dunn says.

60 Minutes has learned that Perkins made several settlement demands on HP: that the company pay his legal fees, that Pattie Dunn be forced to resign; and that the company not disparage him or Jay Keyworth.

This is what CEO Mark Hurd said on September 12th in a news release:

"He said, 'Jay Keyworth leaves the board with our best wishes and gratitude,'" Stahl reads from the release. "Here's what I have trouble understanding. Everybody says leaks are bad. The leaker is identified and now there's a settlement with him."

"Uh-huh. Go figure," Dunn replies, laughing.

Asked if she understands this, Dunn says, "Well, at that point I think the company thought it was in the best interest of HP to get Tom off its back, so to speak."

Pattie Dunn appeared in a San Jose courtroom on Thursday.

She's not just fighting for her reputation, she's also fighting for her life. This has all happened as she battles stage IV ovarian cancer.

Dunn was preparing to start a full round of chemotherapy, severe chemotherapy, on Friday morning. "8:45 a.m.," she told Stahl on Wednesday.

"And you're charged with this. It's just all piling on you at once. It's just all piling on you at once. And you're so strong," Stahl says.

"What's the alternative?" asks Dunn.

"Well, breaking down, getting in the back of the closet and sitting there. I can think of lots of things that other people might do," Stahl remarks.

"Oh, the Golden Gate Bridge is always out there," Dunn jokes, laughing. "It's not going away. But I mean, you just have to fight back."

"Do you think your illness has made you – what's the word? Philosophical?" Stahl asks.

"Definitely," Dunn answers. "Having a criminal indictment is the last thing I ever expected in my entire life. But if I hadn't had four diagnoses of cancer, I would probably think it was the worst thing that could ever happen to anyone. And I know it's not."

Dunn says she is innocent of the charges she and four others connected to the case are facing: using false pretenses to obtain confidential information from a public utility, unauthorized access of computer data, identity theft and conspiracy. She admits she's not sure what's next.

"I know the complaint has been filed and I know that I am going to be following a path to defend myself," she tells Stahl. "But at this instant, it's just a couple hours since [the prosecutor] made his announcement."

"Maybe someone will come in here while we're talking and put handcuffs on me. I don't know," says Dunn.
Produced By Richard Bonin and Caroline Cooper