Saygus CEO charged with fraud, has more lawsuits than released phones
TL; DR
- The US Attorney’s Office in Utah has charged Saygus boss Chad Leon Sayers with securities fraud.
- The lawsuit alleges that Sayers has deceived approximately 300 investors by more than $ 10 million since 2012.
- A seven-day jury trial begins on August 30th.
Do you remember Saygus? We wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t, but in 2015 Saygus did the Mobile phone for power users that should put the Galaxy Notes of the time in the shade. Unless it never happened. After several delays, a crowdfunding effort to help with “production issues”, and a reappearance in 2017 that went nowhere, the Saygus V2 disappeared from the news cycle.
Now the US prosecutor in Utah is suing Saygus CEO Chad Leon Sayers for securities fraud. The suit, first discovered by Android police, claims Sayers asked around 300 investors to invest up to $ 10 million in Saygus between 2012 and 2020. He allegedly used these funds to pay for personal expenses and to pay old investors with money from new investors. A weeklong jury trial begins on August 30th.
Cashbox: The most fascinating canceled smartphones
The Saygus V2 wasn’t even the first phone the company couldn’t deliver. Saygus was ready to launch Verizon’s third Android phone with the VPhone back in 2009. The story of the VPhone would finally repeat itself a few years later. Saygus never launched the phone after production delays and other issues.
As a consumer, it’s easy to dismiss failed launches and missed releases as vaporware. But lawsuits like this reveal that real people have invested millions of dollars in products that were never meant to be released.
