Charges against the CEO of an election technology company have been dismissed after Los Angeles County prosecutors found “potential bias” in an investigation.
Last month, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office brought charges against Eugene Yu, the head of Konnech, an election technology business out of Michigan. The charges concerned allegations of keeping information about poll workers on servers in China. Yu has maintained that he never provided any data to China. However, if the allegations were true, they would violate the company’s contract with L.A. County.
The district attorney’s office said that the investigation was initiated because of a concern raised by Gregg Phillips, who is connected to True the Vote, a nonprofit out of Texas that aims to promote election integrity.
“We are concerned about both the pace of the investigation and the potential bias in the presentation and investigation of the evidence,” Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón’s office said in a statement. “As a result, we have decided to ask the court to dismiss the current case, and alert the public in order to ensure transparency.”
“Mr. Yu’s good name was tarnished by false narratives from fringe conspiracy theorists who bragged about enlisting Los Angeles prosecutors to further their political agenda,” Gary Lincenberg, an attorney for Yu in the criminal case, said in a statement. “Mr Yu is an innocent man.”
New charges could still be brought as the Los Angeles Superior Court judge agreed to the dismissal without prejudice.
Over the summer, True the Vote announced that it had discovered and downloaded Konnech’s poll worker information from China-based servers. The group reportedly gave no proof but said it had given a hard drive to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Phillips and Catherine Englebrecht, who is also connected to True the Vote, were sued by Yu over hacking and defamation allegations. They were put in jail on October 31 after they refused to provide information on a “confidential FBI informant” connected to their alleged hack of Konnech’s information. They were imprisoned for contempt of court and released earlier this week.
After her release, Engelbrecht told the Texas Tribune that she was “hours from home” and could not do an interview.
“Those who thought that imprisoning Gregg and I would weaken our resolve have gravely miscalculated. It is stronger than ever,” Engelbrecht said in a statement. “We are profoundly grateful for that. We will continue to protect and defend those who do the vital work of election integrity, and we will make sure that their findings become a matter of public record.”
