Business Crimes Hotline

Chairman and Senior Counsel Charged for Role in Improper Investigation

The former chairman of a major U.S. technology company, the company's former senior counsel, and three others have been charged in California state court with conspiracy, wire fraud, illegally taking copying and using computer data, and using personal identifying information without authorization, according to a four count information filed in Santa Clara County Superior Court. A declaration filed in support of the felony complaint indicates that the charges are related to an internal investigation conducted by the company to determine if a member of its Board of Directors was leaking confidential information to the media. It is alleged that in the course of that investigation, investigators obtained individual's telephone records without their consent by contacting the individual's telephone carrier and falsely representing themselves as the actual customer, a practice known as 'pretexting.' (State v. Dunn, DA No: 061027481, Sup. Ct. Ca.)

Business Crimes Hotline and In the Courts were written by Thomas M. Craig, an Associate at Williams & Connolly LLP, Washington, DC, and Associate Editor of this newsletter.

CALIFORNIA

Jail Term for Executive Guilty of Price Fixing

An executive of a major electronics company pled guilty to violating the Sherman Act and has agreed to serve 8 months in prison and pay a $250,000 fine, according to the DOJ. The executive is the 13th individual charged in an ongoing investigation into price fixing in the $7 billion market for dynamic random access memory (DRAM), a common computer component. The executive is alleged to have conspired with unnamed employees from other memory makers to fix the prices of DRAM sold to certain manufacturers in 2001 and 2002. (United States v. Quinn, No. 06-cr-00635, N.D. Ca.)

Chairman and Senior Counsel Charged for Role in Improper Investigation

The former chairman of a major U.S. technology company, the company's former senior counsel, and three others have been charged in California state court with conspiracy, wire fraud, illegally taking copying and using computer data, and using personal identifying information without authorization, according to a four count information filed in Santa Clara County Superior Court. A declaration filed in support of the felony complaint indicates that the charges are related to an internal investigation conducted by the company to determine if a member of its Board of Directors was leaking confidential information to the media. It is alleged that in the course of that investigation, investigators obtained individual's telephone records without their consent by contacting the individual's telephone carrier and falsely representing themselves as the actual customer, a practice known as 'pretexting.' (State v. Dunn, DA No: 061027481, Sup. Ct. Ca.)

Business Crimes Hotline and In the Courts were written by Thomas M. Craig, an Associate at Williams & Connolly LLP, Washington, DC, and Associate Editor of this newsletter.