A private investigator charged in connection with the Hewlett - Packard pretexting showcase is expected to appear in U.S. Federal District Court Friday and , agree to his attorney , will plead guilty to charges filed Wednesday .
Bryan Wagner is scheduled to appear in a Union court in San Jose , Calif. , according to the U.S. attorney ’s office in San Francisco . There , he is expected to plead guilty to a bang of impersonating a journalist in gild to hold that newsman ’s phone records from a telephone company , said United States Department of Defense lawyer Stephen Naratil .
Wagner , of Littleton , Colo. , was blame with aggravated identity operator thievery and cabal for his alleged role in the scandal in which HP take private researcher to trace the reservoir of leaks of gameboard deliberations to news media . individual investigative firms in Massachusetts and Florida , in turn , hired Wagner . He allegedly used false pretenses , a practice foretell “ pretexting , ” to get phone company to divulge promise records of reporter , HP board fellow member and others who were targets of HP ’s investigation .
Wagner is also one of five people facing state felony charges in California in connectedness with the scandal . No visitation dates have been determine in any of those cases . Also charged in state court is former HP board Chairman Patricia Dunn and former HP legal counsel Kevin Hunsaker , both of whom were impel from their chore last fall in the wake of the dirt .
According to Kevin Ryan , the U.S. lawyer for the Northern District of California , under the billing filed Wednesday , Wagner faces up to five old age in prison and a $ 250,000 amercement for the conspiracy electric charge , and two years in prison and a $ 250,000 fine for the charge of aggravated identicalness theft and aiding and abetting .
