A private investigator charged in connection with the Hewlett-Packard (HP) pretexting case is expected to appear in U.S. Federal District Court Friday and, according to news reports, to plead guilty to charges filed Wednesday.Bryan Wagner is scheduled to appear in a federal courtroom in San Jose, Calif., at 11 a.m. local time, according to the U.S. attorney’s office in San Francisco. There, he is expected to plead guilty to a charge of impersonating a journalist in order to obtain that reporter’s phone records from a telephone company, The New York Times reported Thursday.A call to Wagner’s defense attorney, Stephen Naratil, was not returned to IDG News Service late Thursday night.Wagner, of Littleton, Colo., was charged with aggravated identity theft and conspiracy for his alleged role in the scandal in which HP hired private investigators to trace the source of leaks of board deliberations to news media. Private investigative firms in Massachusetts and Florida, in turn, hired Wagner. He allegedly used false pretenses, a practice called “pretexting,” to get phone companies to divulge calling records of reporters, HP board members and others who were targets of HP’s investigation. Wagner is also one of five people facing state felony charges in California in connection with the scandal. No trial dates have been set in any of those cases. Also charged in state court is former HP board Chairwoman Patricia Dunn and former HP legal counsel Kevin Hunsaker, both of whom were forced from their jobs last fall in the wake of the scandal.According to Kevin Ryan, the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of California, under the charges filed Wednesday, Wagner faces up to five years in prison and a US$250,000 fine for the conspiracy charge, and two years in prison and a $250,000 fine for the charge of aggravated identity theft and aiding and abetting. -Robert Mullins, IDG News Service (San Francisco Bureau)Related Link: HP Spying Scandal—CIO.com online featureCheck out our CIO News Alerts and Tech Informer pages for more updated news coverage. Related content brandpost Sponsored by SAP What goes well with Viña Concha y Toro wines? Meat, fish, poultry, and SAP Viña Concha y Toro, a wine producer that distributes to more than 140 countries worldwide, paired its operation with the SAP Business Technology Platform to enhance its operation and product. By Tom Caldecott, SAP Contributor Dec 04, 2023 4 mins Digital Transformation brandpost Sponsored by Azul How to maximize ROI by choosing the right Java partner for your organization Choosing the right Java provider is a critical decision that can have a significant impact on your organization’s success. By asking the right questions and considering the total cost of ownership, you can ensure that you choose the best Java p By Scott Sellers Dec 04, 2023 5 mins Application Management brandpost Sponsored by DataStax Ask yourself: How can genAI put your content to work? Generative AI applications can readily be built against the documents, emails, meeting transcripts, and other content that knowledge workers produce as a matter of course. By Bryan Kirschner Dec 04, 2023 5 mins Machine Learning Artificial Intelligence feature The CIO’s new role: Orchestrator-in-chief CIOs have unique insight into everything that happens in a company. Some are using that insight to take on a more strategic role. By Minda Zetlin Dec 04, 2023 12 mins CIO C-Suite Business IT Alignment Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe