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Hi readers,
I was introduced to Sherlock Holmes by my sister. Once, she brought a book from the library, and I found myself pulling an all-nighter just to read about Holmes’ adventures.
I loved how details that were seemingly unimportant to others captured Holmes’ attention, allowing him to uncover details no one else could.
Last month, I believe we made the late Sir Arthur Conan Doyle proud when I – along with my colleagues Collin, Terence, and Candice – investigated Jon Lee, the founder and CEO of Vizzio Technologies, and exposed him for having a sham degree.
Comparing our experience to a Holmes adventure might be a stretch, but we certainly had our own fun.
Upon further deeper investigation, we discovered more inconsistencies in his claims and those made by the company. Turns out, the Ph.D. degree from the University of Cambridge was not the only thing he lied about.
For instance, he had overstated the number of patents held by a huge margin. He even inflated the customer list and uploaded plagiarized videos on various channels.
(Update – Feb. 28, 2024, 10:30 a.m. SGT): Vizzio says that with the assistance of external legal advisors, WongPartnership, it has conducted a review of the intellectual property (IP) applications said to be filed by Lee as well as its customer records. The AI startup says that it has confirmed the accuracy of Lee’s claim that he and/or his companies have filed more than 400 IP applications.
Vizzio says it has also confirmed that most of the entities previously listed as customers on its website had directly contracted with it for goods and/or services in the past. Meanwhile, a few were not direct customers of Vizzio but had received its goods and/or services through third parties that contracted with it.
The startup adds that even though most of the entities were correctly listed as its customers, it took down the list from its website as several customers had asked for their logos to be removed in light of negative media attention.)
He even misrepresented the revenue of Elipva, his previous startup, in an alleged sale to Temasek. Interestingly, Elipva was another startup from where he was ousted for faking credentials.
Back to the Vizzio case: The board initially backed the founder a few weeks back, though one of the board members had stepped down several days before Tech in Asia’s exposé came out. Now the board has appointed an interim CEO.
The company will send Lee to professional development and corporate governance courses at the Singapore Institute of Directors. Vizzio also said it’s refining its employee code of ethics and setting up an ethics committee.
— Lokesh Choudhary, journalist at Tech in Asia
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