On Tuesday, a controversial software company CEO was arrested on charges of stealing the personal information of election workers and storing the data on Chinese servers.
As reported by the New York Post, the charges were brought against Eugene Yu, the founder and CEO of Konnech, by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. The 51-year-old Yu was arrested in Michigan, and the LA district attorney’s office seized numerous pieces of physical and “digital” evidence, including computer hard drives.
Yu had previously won a five-year contract in 2020, to the tune of $2.9 million, to track the schedules, training, payrolls, and communications of election workers in Los Angeles County. However, Yu was required to keep all of his company’s data within the United States and only allow access to citizens and permanent residents.
“Security in all aspects of any election is essential so that we all have full faith in the integrity of the election process,” said District Attorney George Gascón in a statement. In another statement, L.A. County Clerk Dean Logan said that “with the mid-term General Election 35 days away, our focus remains on ensuring the administration of this election is not disrupted.”
Gascon’s office is currently seeking Yu’s extradition from Michigan to California to face trial. The DA’s office said that the information stolen by Yu included data on hundreds of poll workers, but also claimed that the stolen information did not involve voting machines or vote counts, and thus allegedly had no impact on the election results.
“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 defending its CEO. “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.”
This bombshell development could breathe new life into theories regarding widespread voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election. Although the general consensus remains that voter fraud was most likely committed by domestic actors, some have claimed that foreign adversaries such as China may have also been involved in altering the election results, shifting votes away from President Donald Trump and in favor of Democrat Joe Biden.