Eugene Yu, founder and CEO of Konnech Inc, was charged with violating the company’s contract with Los Angeles County, which limits the sharing of voter workers’ personal information to citizens and permanent residents within the United States. He was charged with robbery, embezzlement and conspiracy to commit a crime.
Yu’s arrest earlier this month was hailed by some right-wing organizations focused on election fraud as a vindication of their warnings about the vulnerability of US electoral systems, including hacking by foreign opponents.
The Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office, who filed the allegations, said the investigation was triggered by a complaint from Gregg Phillips of True the Vote, a Texas nonprofit and a leading prosecution provider. of denied election fraud.
In a filing with the California Superior Court in Los Angeles County, Yu’s attorneys asked for the case to be dismissed, arguing that prosecutors mistakenly tried to criminalize a trivial contract dispute.
“This is a deeply misleading case,” wrote attorneys Gary Lincenberg, Thomas Reichert and Alexis Wiseley. “This is a civil breach of contract lawsuit that he was dressed in the wrong costume.”
The district attorney’s spokesman declined to comment on a pending motion.
The denunciation is the latest development in a months-long saga between Konnech, a small company of about 20 people that makes software to manage the wages and hours of voting workers, and the executives of True the Vote.
Phillips and Catherine Engelbrecht, the organization’s founder, released a series of incendiary statements about Konnech and Yu, claiming that the company held sensitive personal information about an estimated 1.8 million election workers on a server in China and accusing Yu, who had immigrated to the United States decades ago to be a Chinese agent.
Konnech said the allegations were false and last month sued Phillips, Engelbrecht and the organization for defamation.
That case is unfolding in Texas federal court, with a hearing scheduled for Thursday to determine whether Phillips and Engelbrecht should be convicted of violating a temporary restraining order put in place last month.
Phillips and Engelbrecht’s attorneys did not respond to a request for comment.
