Fortune magazine has been poking around those court-sealed charges that HP bought Dell's printer plans from a former senior Dell executive before Dell entered the printer market and got a previously mum Dell to say that "The more we look into it, the more concerned we become."

Those claims, you'll remember, were made in a countersuit by ex-HP VP Karl Kamb, the guy HP is suing for theft of trade secrets and plain ole theft of money along with a lot of other stuff.

But in Fortune's opinion, "As outlandish as Kamb's charges seem…independent evidence suggests that the wildest of his accusations - that HP sleuths obtained confidential information about Dell and that HP pretexted him - are true."

This after the magazine says it examined 1,500 pages of court filings, exhibits, e-mails and hearing transcripts and interviewed 20 lawyers or participants in the Kamb saga.