The Jury found against Linspire's former CEO Kevin Carmony and former CFO Chad Olson on multiple counts of Fraud, Conspiracy, and Fiduciary Duty. They concluded that both had conspired to take thousands of dollars from Linspire Inc while leaving the company.
Linspire (formerly known as Lindows) was a Linux software company I founded. The goal was to make Linux user friendly and compete with Microsoft on the desktop. We helped make Linux more usable and pioneered one-click software installs over the net — one of the first app stores.
After a 2 week trial, a 12 person jury ruled Kevin and Chad are liable for fraud, conspiracy, breach of fiduciary duty and other counts. I do hope that people realize anyone can claim anything on the net — even deceptive lies with phony quotes. That's the downside to freedom of speech. Hopefully people put more weight in the findings of an objective jury.
--MR
