California Attorney General Bill Lockyer filed criminal complaints Wednesday against Patricia Dunn, former Hewlett Packard board chairwoman, and four others on charges related to HP's media leak probe.

During my long career in tech, HP has been used as a shining example of a company with "progressive" management.

I'm puzzled as to how "progressive" management could engage in such reprehensible behavior.

Did they do it out of a desire to prevent injury to the company and protect the shareholders from financial loss?