A pair of private investigators hired hackers to infiltrate private computers to help clients who were involved in lawsuits against rival companies, alleges an indictment returned by a federal grand jury in California.

In an indictment revealed Wednesday, federal prosecutors accused five defendants of orchestrating a plot to illegally forage in private computers, hacking into e-mail and Skype accounts on behalf of their clients, the San Jose Mercury News reported.

Each of the defendants were charged with conspiracy, six counts of accessing a protected computer to obtain information and two counts of intercepting electronic communications.

Private investigators Nathan Moser and Peter Siragusa – a former San Francisco police officer – hired Trent Williams and Sumit Gupta to allegedly hack into victims’ computers and access their e-mail and Skype accounts, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

The alleged hackers also allegedly installed “keyloggers,” software that secretly monitors keystrokes made by a computer user.

Although Moser and Siragusa ran separate private investigation firms, they often collaborated.

One of Moser’s clients was Carlo Pacileo, the director of security for ViSalus, a network marketing company. According to the indictment, the defendants targeted the co-founders of Ocean Avenue, a Utah firm and ViSalus competitor that had hired several former ViSalus employees.

ViSalus filed a lawsuit against Ocean Avenue employees, and Pacileo hired Moser to investigate Ocean Avenue, the indictment said.

Siragusa and Moser were also hired by the widow of a co-founder of a Santa Clara company who had a child out of wedlock with a company employee, prompting the employee to sue the man’s estate and the firm for child support and employment benefits, the Chronicle reported.

All the defendants have appeared in court, with the exception of Gupta, who lives in India. FBI agents in California are working with their counterparts in India to secure Gupta’s prosecution.