HP CEO Meg Whitman said Tuesday that the company complained of gross deception to the Securities and Exchange Commission and the UK's Serious Fraud Office after a seven-month internal probe of Autonomy's financials.

Bloomberg reports it was told by an unnamed source that the SEC, in turn, called in the FBI to help it prove or disprove HP's allegation of significant and willful accounting irregularities.

Historically FBI agents, who did, after all, manage to get Al Capone sent to prison for tax evasion, had to have either a law or accounting degree and HP did say it was making both criminal and civil complaints.

This can't be pleasant news for Autonomy, the cause of a massive $8.8 non-cash write-off by its acquirer, Hewlett-Packard.