Are you being deliberately obtuse? Dude stole $50k then turned down a follow-on investment, giving Georgia Tech a valid cause and motive to pursue his criminal behavior.
I'll give you this to think about: If you stole $50K from some institution do you honestly believe they would then offer you a follow on investment? And then if you turn that 'offer' down that that would give valid cause and motive to pursue for criminal behavior?
That makes absolutely no sense at all.
If you steal from me I don't need further motive to pursue so the whole 'follow on investment' thing is utterly pointless.
And I would never demand to do a follow on investment in a company that I'm alleging stole from me. That's ridiculous.
So either he stole and they should have pursued it there and then or they should have dropped the matter. But to only pursue after he turned them down makes this look like a business deal gone sour and the whole criminal thing just being tacked on as some kind of revenge.
I've had a similar thing happen to me once. A guy - who will remain nameless but he was a German businessman - bought himself in for a small amount in a company I had founded, then when he offered to buy another stake we refused. The next thing we knew we were going to be sued for all kinds of infractions, just a way to up the pressure from his position as a shareholder. This story here has way too many parallels with that story to just believe GT outright.
And in that other story I happen to know exactly what happened. So, either you're going to have to do a lot better to answer those two questions I asked at the top of this comment or you're going to have to admit that it really doesn't make any sense.
To me it simply sounds like GT wanted a larger piece of the action and when they were told to walk they came up with this theft story to up the pressure.
Are you seriously claiming people have never let $50k slide as part of a business deal, then when things have gotten acrimonious, pursed every available avenue? Because I've seen it happen (well, more like $30k, but this just used for personal stuff).
And he did steal the $50k -- notice on his website he nowhere refutes that bit. It's blah blah blah GT invested (yes), he was in an incubator (yes), but that doesn't make your GT funds for your academic work into your Sayana funds for your Sayana work. And as mentioned elsewhere, everyone involved: prosecutor, judge, GT, peers at GT, peers at other universities, ie everyone without the last name Laskar, agree he stole at minimum that $50k.
How exactly did he steal 50k? It says georgia tech paid 50k for some chips which where sent to korea for verification, and then back to georgia tech, which the professor said is allowed by tje licensing deal. And which was not shown in any way in court to be "stealing".
He used Georgia Tech money to pay for a chip run for his private corp Sayana. The professor claims this is allowed by the licensing deal. The judge, prosecutor, Georgia Tech, his peer professors, and professor friends at other universities all believe this to be theft of Georgia Tech funds.
