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Saygus CEO charged with fraud, now has more lawsuits than released phones
- The US Attorney’s Office in Utah has charged Saygus CEO Chad Leon Sayers with one count of securities fraud.
- The suit alleges that Sayers deceived around 300 investors of more than $10 million since 2012.
- A seven-day jury trial will begin on August 30.
Remember Saygus? We wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t, but back in 2015, Saygus was making the phone for power users, which was expected to put the Galaxy Notes of the time to shame. Except, it never materialized. After multiple delays, a crowdfunding effort to help with “production issues,” and a re-emergence in 2017 that didn’t go anywhere, the Saygus V2 disappeared from the news cycle.
Now, the US Attorney’s Office in Utah is charging Saygus CEO, Chad Leon Sayers, with one count of securities fraud. The suit, first spotted by Android Police, alleges that Sayers solicited around 300 investors for up to $10 million in investments into Saygus from 2012 to 2020. He allegedly used these funds to pay personal expenses and pay old investors with the money received from new investors. A week-long jury trial will begin on August 30.
Check out: The most intriguing canceled smartphones
The Saygus V2 wasn’t even the first phone that the company failed to deliver. All the way back in 2009, Saygus was all set to launch Verizon’s third Android handset ever with the VPhone. The VPhone’s story would ultimately 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 bring to light that real people have invested millions of dollars into products that were never destined to release.