I don’t want to go into too much detail here, but the bare facts are:
[ul][li]One of my dear friends, A, was laid off from her job. This was both a relief and a slap in the face, following a year of similar slaps.[/li][li]Mutual friend B, outraged on A’s behalf, did something colossally stupid: he used someone else’s password to access the web system of the company A worked for (B used to work there too, about seven years ago) and sent an e-mail that claimed to be from the company’s president, announcing the layoffs of several senior execs (not true) and decrying the company’s sexist inequity of compensation (true). B sent this e-mail not only to everyone at the company, but (crossing the line between stupid and colossally stupid) to several members of the press as well. [/li][li]The timing of this idiotic stunt, coming as it did on the very day that five people were laid off, made it almost certain that suspicion would fall on those five people; the charges of sexism against female executives further focused the company’s suspicion on the two laid-off employees who fit that description.[/li][li]A had no idea that B was going to do this and would have done everything in her power to stop him had she known; however, she has laughed off some previous (completely harmless) invasions of the company Web site he’s done in the past.[/ul][/li]A is, understandably, freaking way the heck out; I haven’t talked to B beyond a text message from him in which he opined that he was an idiot, an assessment with which I’m inclined to agree.
So now, to my question: How much and what sort of trouble could my friends be in here? Legal? Civil? Criminal? Apparently the e-mail was very embarrassing to the company and in the one press account I’ve seen about it, the official response sounded pretty pissed off.
I hereby acknowledge that none of you folks is my lawyer, and I’m only seeking general legal information to help wrap my head around exactly how screwed they are, singly or together.
