A Taiwanese businessman, accused of purloining advanced technology from US firms he was purporting to help finance, faces racketeering and conspiracy charges in a trial that began this week in San Francisco of the first of some 40 charges against Shi Huang and his Ching Fong Investment Co: attorneys for the founding shareholders of Matrix Impact Technology Corp, Fremont, California allege a pattern of deception in which the defendents, apparently acting as venture capitalists, committed funds to high-technology firms such as Matrix and became controlling shareholders but never fully funded the companies or the development of their new products, but instead took the designs for disk drives and other computer equipment back to Taiwan for development; Matrix shareholders claim Ching Fong owes them at least $17m in lost profits on sales of a printer that was never developed; Ching Fong answers the claims by alleging the design for the printer was poorly conceived and is counterclaiming for the return of the investment it made in the company.
