LOS ANGELES (AP) — The founder and CEO of a software company targeted by election deniers was arrested Oct. 11 for allegedly stealing data from hundreds of Los Angeles County poll workers.
Eugene Yu, 51, of Konnech Corporation, was arrested in Meridian Township, Michigan and held on suspicion of theft of personally identifiable information, while investigators with the county district attorney’s office confiscated computer hard drives and other “Digital Evidence”. .
Local prosecutors will seek his extradition to California.
“We are continuing to identify details of what we believe are Mr. Yu’s unlawful detention by Los Angeles County authorities,” Cornech said in a statement. of Los Angeles County, so it cannot be “stolen” as suggested.
Konnech is a small company located in East Lansing, Michigan. In 2020, it signed a five-year, $2.9 million contract with Los Angeles County to track election worker schedules, training, payroll and communications, according to Dean C. Logan, the county registrar and county clerk. software.
The DA office said Konnech was required to keep the data in the United States and provided access only to citizens and permanent residents, instead storing it on servers in the People’s Republic of China.
The district attorney’s office did not specify what specific information was allegedly taken. But officials said it only involved poll workers, not voting machines or counting, and would not change the outcome of the election.
“But the security of all aspects of any election is essential so that we can have confidence in the integrity of the electoral process,” District Attorney George Gascon said in a statement.
“along with [upcoming] In the midterm elections, our focus remains on ensuring that the administration of this election is not disrupted,” said a statement from Los Angeles County Registrar/County Clerk Dean C. Logan.
The district attorney’s office said there was no evidence any election workers were bribed or extorted, and it was investigating whether any data fell into the wrong hands.
Konnech has previously said that all data of its U.S. customers is stored on servers in the U.S., The New York Times reported.
The newspaper reported that China-born Konnech and Yu were targeted by election conspiracy theorists who claimed the company had secret ties to the Chinese Communist Party and provided information on 2 million voting workers.
The paper said there was no evidence to support the claims, but Yu was threatened and went into hiding.
Cornech also has contracts with Allen County, Indiana, and DeKalb County, Georgia, The Times said.
Konnech says on its website that it currently has 32 customers in North America.
