Los Angeles County has agreed to cough up $5 million to settle a legal battle with Eugene Yu, owner of the Michigan-based Konnech Corp., who was snagged and then dumped by the county's DA over data theft accusations that vanished as quickly as they appeared, as per ABC News. The tech CEO was originally cuffed and accused of misusing data on county poll workers in a clown show of a case he claims was fueled by the fever-dream ramblings of conspiracy nuts, and now after the charges have been tossed like last week's trash, the county's Board of Supervisors has shyly okayed the multimillion-dollar settlement behind closed doors.
Without any grandstanding, the Supervisors signed off on the payment Tuesday, sending a message that their October 2022 episode of arrest-and-retract might've been a bit hasty — an embarrassing flip-flop that has now cost taxpayers a chunk of change. In a statement obtained by NBC Los Angeles Yu's attorney Dean Z. Pamphilis said “utterly false charges” and ensuing bad press “cost Mr. Yu his life savings and Konnech over 50 percent of its customers,” adding insult to financial injury.
This costly misadventure began when Yu, born in China, found himself in the crosshairs of the LA County District Attorney's Office, which threw around allegations that Konnech was involved in some international data hide-and-seek with servers in China and dabbling in grand theft of public funds. These accusations proved to be fake, fizzling out just over a month later, leaving Yu and his company to pick up the pieces of their battered reputation and finances.
During this fiasco, Yu even had to lay low to dodge threats after his reputation was compromised, according to NBC Los Angeles. Yet despite kicking Yu to the curb, the county continued to use Konnech's software in an unsettling display of "sorry, not sorry," before flipping the script and making nice with their oversized checkbook.
Konnech's website now boasts that the company holds contracts with 32 clients across North America — a sign that even after a stumble through the legal wringer, Yu and his company are staging a comeback, ready to put this costly chapter behind them and reload their data-crunching engines.
