A new book sets out to prove that Hewlett-Packard’s chief executive was as responsible for Spygate as its chairman. Kanika Datta reviews Anthony Bianco’s account of the saga 

The Big Lie: Spying, Scandal
and Ethical Collapse at
Hewlett-Packard
Anthony Bianco
PublicAffairs
Rs 987; viii + 360

When he started writing this book, Anthony Bianco could not have known that Mark Hurd would unwittingly vindicate his version of the Hewlett-Packard (HP) boardroom spy scandal. Just months after The Big Lie was published Hurd had to, in short order, resign as HP chief executive following a sexual harassment investigation and then defend a breach of contract suit for swiftly accepting Oracle President-ship.

That, at the very least, provides circumstantial evidence for the burden of Bianco’s argument: that Hurd, who emerged mysteriously unscathed from Spygate, was as guilty as non-executive chairman Patricia Dunn of suborning HP’s security apparatus to spy on board members and journalists. Dunn, then suffering from terminal cancer, took the hit, was forced to step down, publicly pilloried and indicted on four felony counts by a criminal court.

How did the CEO escape similar censure? It’s an obvious point that few journalists chose to explore in depth. The story Bianco unfolds is one of moral cowardice as much as turpitude, sharply at variance with Hurd’s positive public image.

Full review here Business Standard