Avanti execs indicted again

Avanti execs indicted again
FREMONT, Calif. — One of the longest-running court cases in the electronics industry took a new twist Aug. 10, as criminal indictments were re-filed against Avanti Corp. and four of its employees, including Gerry Hsu, president and chief executive officer. The Avanti employees are accused of stealing IC layout code and algorithms from Cadence Design Systems.

The new charges are similar to those originally filed in 1997 and dismissed in April 2000 on procedural grounds. At the time, assistant Santa Clara County district attorney Julius Finkelstein made it clear he would pursue new charges. A related civil case against Avanti, in which Cadence is seeking millions of dollars in damages, is also in progress.

The new indictments returned by the Santa Clara County grand jury allege conspiracy to commit trade secret theft, conspiracy to withhold and conceal stolen property, conspiracy to commit securities fraud, theft of trade secrets, withholding or concealing stolen property, making an unauthorized copy of an article containing a trade secret and committing a fraudulent practice in connection with the offer or sale of a security.

Avanti employees named in the indictment include Hsu, Stephen Wuu, Y.Z. Liao and Eric Cheng. All face heavy fines and long jail sentences if convicted.

Avanti continues to profess innocence on the criminal charges, and will "vigorously defend" itself, said Dennis Heller, Avanti's head of U.S. corporate marketing. Avanti, a public company, is the fourth-largest EDA vendor.