SAN FRANCISCO – Hewlett-Packard Co. shares fell as much as 2 percent Wednesday after California Attorney General Bill Lockyer said his office has gathered enough evidence to indict people within the company for their role in an internal probe that used illegal means to obtain the phone records of reporters and HP board members.

HP shares fell as low as $35.87 in early trading before recovering some of their losses by the afternoon. The drop wiped out much of the gain HP stock made Tuesday, after the company said embattled Chairwoman Patricia Dunn would resign that post but keep her board seat.

The computer maker issued the announcements after a week in which Dunn came under fire for the investigation into leaks of confidential boardroom information. Private investigators who conducted the probe obtained the phone records of HP board members and journalists by misrepresenting themselves, a method known as pretexting that is illegal in California.

Speaking late Tuesday on the PBS show “The News Hour With Jim Lehrer,” Lockyer said that “crimes have been committed” and that his office has “sufficient evidence to indict people both within Hewlett-Packard, as well as contractors on the outside.”

On Wednesday, Lockyer spokesman Tom Dresslar echoed the remarks. “We said it is possible we could soon file charges,” Dresslar said.

The latest developments suggest that while HP’s management may want to put the controversy behind them, investors will remain focused on potential fallout.

HP shares, which hit multiyear highs Tuesday, are also ripe for profit-taking, according to one analyst.

“The stock has had a good run, and investors are probably locking in some gains,” said Shaw Wu, of American Technology Research. “You would expect that, because the stock isn’t cheap any more,” said Wu, who rates HP shares neutral.

The latest twist in the HP saga turns toward Lockyer, who last week launched an investigation into HP’s methods of how it obtained personal phone records of board members and reporters. HP has admitted it hired private investigators to gather information on boardroom leaks, and that a third-party contractor engaged in pretexting.

Dunn, who will remain on the HP board but be replaced as chair by Chief Executive Mark Hurd, has maintained she knew nothing about the pretexting methods until the investigators delivered their report.

Dresslar said that any charges brought against either current or former HP officials would fall under California’s privacy laws and would be criminal in nature. Dresslar said the AG’s office hadn’t determined a date by which it would file charges against HP.

“We will go when we are ready to go,” he said.

HP has so far refused to confirm the names of the private investigators, but the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday reported that people familiar with the matter said HP hired Security Outsourcing Solutions Inc. and its lead investigator Ronald DeLia, of Boston, to do some of the investigation work.

Calls to the number listed on the security firm’s Web site were answered by a receptionist at a law firm who said the company wasn’t related to Security. E-mails sent to the company were bounced back as undeliverable.