Eugene Yu, CEO of election software firm, held in US for alleged data theft
- Prosecutors alleged Yu’s Konnech Corporation improperly stored information on servers in China
- US election deniers have claimed that the software company has ties to the Chinese Communist Party
The founder and CEO of a software company targeted by election deniers was arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of stealing data on hundreds of Los Angeles County poll workers.
Konnech Corporation’s Eugene Yu, 51, was arrested in Meridian Township in Michigan and held on suspicion of theft of personal identifying information, while computer hard drives and other “digital evidence” were seized by investigators from the county district attorney’s office, according to the office.
Local prosecutors will seek his extradition to California.
“We are continuing to ascertain the details of what we believe to be Mr Yu’s wrongful detention by LA County authorities,” Konnech said in a statement that ended: “Any LA County poll worker data that Konnech may have possessed was provided to it by LA County, and therefore could not have been ‘stolen’ as suggested.”
Konnech is a small company based in East Lansing, Michigan. In 2020, it won a five-year, US$2.9 million contract with LA County for software to track election worker schedules, training, payroll, and communications, according to the county registrar-recorder/county clerk, Dean Logan.
Konnech was required to keep the data in the United States and only provide access to citizens and permanent residents but instead stored it on servers in the People’s Republic of China, the DA’s office said.
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