| By Maureen O'Gara |
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| November 22, 2012 07:45 AM EST |
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3,253 |
HP CEO Meg Whitman said Tuesday that the company complained of gross deception to the Securities and Exchange Commission and the UK's Serious Fraud Office after a seven-month internal probe of Autonomy's financials.
Bloomberg reports it was told by an unnamed source that the SEC, in turn, called in the FBI to help it prove or disprove HP's allegation of significant and willful accounting irregularities.
Historically FBI agents, who did, after all, manage to get Al Capone sent to prison for tax evasion, had to have either a law or accounting degree and HP did say it was making both criminal and civil complaints.
This can't be pleasant news for Autonomy, the cause of a massive $8.8 non-cash write-off by its acquirer, Hewlett-Packard.
Maureen O'Gara the most read technology reporter for the past 20 years, is the Cloud Computing and Virtualization News Desk editor of SYS-CON Media. She is the publisher of famous "Billygrams" and the editor-in-chief of "Client/Server News" for more than a decade. One of the most respected technology reporters in the business, Maureen can be reached by email at maureen(at)sys-con.com or paperboy(at)g2news.com, and by phone at 516 759-7025. Twitter: @MaureenOGara
