by Micaela Burrow
A Michigan-based election infrastructure firm stored poll workers’ private data in China, a new whistleblower complaint obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation says, matching earlier allegations against the company and CEO Eugene Yu.
Grant Bradley, a former employee at Konnech, a software firm that provides logistics for poll stations at 32 locations across the U.S., also said that the company’s “developers, designers and coders are all Chinese nationals based out of Wuhan, China,” in the complaint, which was first disclosed by the Federalist on Friday and filed in Michigan court on Dec. 22, shows. Bradley claimed to witness information of poll watchers “being made accessible” to individuals in China but did not comprehend the extent of the data routed through China until True the Vote, an election integrity advocacy organization, lodged allegations in 2021.
“Even Konnech employees who have seen evidence of wrongdoing are acting to tell their story,” True the Vote told the DCNF.
Konnech illegally provided “Chinese programmers private data of poll workers, to include social security numbers and other personal identifying information,” the complaint says.
The firm originally employed the Chinese nationals, but Yu later claimed that public pressure to cut off ties with Beijing compelled him to fire the nationals, according to the complaint.
“However, internally, Defendant Yu had no intention of severing the relationship with the Chinese nationals,” the complaint says. Instead, Yu contracted with them for the same services they provided as full-time employees, it added.
After raising concerns with management, Bradley was told that “everyone,” referring to software companies like Microsoft and Apple, “was doing it,” the complaint says.
Authorities arrested Yu in Michigan on Oct. 5 after True the Vote reported concerns about Yu and Konnech to the FBI in 2021, claiming their researchers had accessed Konnech data from servers in China, The New York Times reported. The Los Angeles County district attorney began investigating Konnech after receiving a tip from Gregg Phillips, a True the Vote associate.
Bradley also said in the complaint that his supervisors instructed him not to cooperate with the ensuing police investigation and, when he failed comply, unfairly terminated him.
Konnech said that True the Vote, which contributed to the “2,000 Mules” documentary several fact check organizations debunked for failing to demonstrate proof of voter fraud, made a number of false claims about Konnech and Yu, according to a complaint filed in September.
True the Vote leaders Phillips and Catherine Englebrecht were detained for failing to identify the individual behind their initial allegations against Konnech, whom they claimed was an FBI informant, on Oct. 31, according to Reuters. Prosecutors dismissed the case against Yu without prejudice, meaning it can still be reopened, on Nov. 9.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney created a team of cybersecurity experts to help determine whether any criminal activity occurred and has also engaged with an “independent expert,” the office told the DCNF.
“Our office has an ongoing obligation to continually reassess the case in light of all of the available evidence,” the district attorney’s office said in a statement to the DCNF, adding that the office has an “immense” volume of data. “We cannot comment further as this is an active and ongoing investigation,” the attorney said.
True the Vote said “Konnech’s role in U.S. elections exposes national security breaches that can no longer be ignored” in a statement to the DCNF.
Konnech and Gary Lincenberg, Yu’s attorney, did not respond to the DCNF’s requests for comment.
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Micaela Burrow is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation.
Photo “Election Day” by Phil Roeder. CC BY 2.0.
