Super Vision awarded $41,200,000 in China technology theft case

PRESS RELEASE

Super Vision International Inc. has been awarded a jury verdict in the amount of $41,200,000 against a number of individuals and companies. These are Samson Mong Wu, Jack Caruso, David Winkler, Susan Sumida Wu, Debbie Wu, Thomas Wu, Ruby Lee, James Lee, Optic-Tech International Corporation, Shanghai Qiaolong Optic-Tech International Company, Ltd.(P.R.C.), Shanghai Qiaolong Optic-Tech Industrial Co., Ltd. (P.R.C.), Marsam Trading Corporation, Marsam Trading Corporation (HK) Ltd., Cosmic Corporation Ltd (HK)., and Travis Pochintesta.

The jury found the defendants liable on all counts including fraud, civil theft, violations of Florida’s RICO act, civil conspiracy, misappropriations of Super Vision’s technology and destruction of evidence. Among the witnesses testifying in the case was a Special Agent with the FBI who testified that in a phone call monitored by the FBI, Jack Caruso was overheard stating that he was paid $1.4 million by the Wu Family for information that later became a U.S. patent filed on their behalf. The original patent information was sent at 5am by Mr. Caruso from Super Vision’s fax machine while Mr. Caruso was still employed by Super Vision and contained drawings of Super Vision’s machinery and descriptions of its fibre optic cable manufacturing process.

The verdict came after years of investigation and litigation including reports from private investigators retained by Super Vision confirming that equipment stolen from Super Vision’s laboratory, as well as information including customer lists, vendor lists, chemical formulations and blueprints and diagrams of Super Vision’s plastic fibre optic cabling manufacturing process, were illegally obtained by the above stated defendants for the purposes of duplication and sale of Super Vision’s product line.

A six member jury of three men and three women awarded the verdict for damages inflicted on Super Vision for the theft of Super Vision’s technology as well as punitive damages for willful misconduct by the defendants. The jury ordered the amount of $33,100,000 for compensatory and punitive damages. Punitive damages for civil theft were also ordered for the amount of $8.1 million.

Prior to trial, by order of Judge Kirkwood on November 18, 1999 Super Vision received an injunction against the defendants enjoining them from future sales of fibre optic products utilising Super Vision’s technology and finding that the defendants as a group consisted of an enterprise under Florida’s Racketeering Influenced Corruption “RICO” act. In August, 21 of 2002, Judge Thomas Spencer found the defendants in contempt of court, finding that the parties had violated the injunction by hiding equipment stolen from Super Vision and transferred fibre optic inventory from their warehouse in Miami to China. Super Vision had a proprietary interest in this inventory, which also constituted potential evidence in the case. The Court further found the defendants had shredded documents and destroyed other potential evidence in this case.

Super Vision International, Inc. founder and CEO Brett Kingstone stated: “Although I am very grateful to the members of the Jury who were willing to sacrifice three weeks of their time to award us with such a substantial decision I would like to caution our shareholders and investors not to count this huge award as collectible. Although the defendants have vast resources, which they used to pay huge sums to individuals to steal information from our firm, they have since transferred all their financial assets outside the United States and the fact that they are not responding to any questions will make this judgment potentially very difficult and costly to collect.”