HP's Patricia Dunn gets "out of jail free" card

There is some closure to the boardroom scandal at Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HPQ). The company's former chairwoman, Patricia Dunn, as well as Kevin Hunsaker (a former HP executive), Ronald DeLia and Matthew Depante (both are private investigators), were facing four felony charges that related to listening-in on board members. One of the practices was "pretexting," which involves impersonating people to get private information.

Now the four have pled guilty to one misdemeanor each. Thus, there will be no prison time. But there may be fines (up to $10,000) and community service. The whole thing is unfortunate, really. Dunn has had a stellar career in Corporate America. And, it was clear that HP had a dysfunctional boardroom.

While her intentions were good -- to root out the leakers -- it ultimately went out of control.

This is also a wake-up call to board members. While it's good to be vigilant, there are certainly limits.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including the Complete M&A Handbook and the EDGAR-Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements.