The Federal Trade Commission has asked a U.S. district court to permanently halt operations that engage in telephone record pretexting.

Pretexting is at the heart of the scandal that led to conspiracy and identity theft charges against Patricia Dunn, Hewlett-Packard’s former chairman, and four others. Investigators hired by the company allegedly used deceptive means to obtain phone records belonging to journalists, HP employees and board members as part of a company-backed spying operation into news leaks.