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May 12, 2003
The United States Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California announced that Amr Mohsen, 55 of Los Gatos, CA and his brother, Aly Mohsen, 50 of Springfield, MO were indicted March 25, 2003 by a federal grand jury on 19 counts including conspiracy to commit perjury and obstruct justice in violation of Title 18 U.S.C. § 371; perjury in violation of Title 18U.S.C. § 1621(1); subornation of perjury in violation of Title 18 U.S.C. § 1622; Obstruction of Justice in violation of Title 18 U.S.C. § 1503 and Mail Fraud in violation of Title 18 U.S.C. § 1341. The indictment was unsealed this morning in federal court in San Francisco.
According to the indictment, Amr Mohsen, the founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Aptix Corporation and his brother Aly Mohsen conspired to defraud QuickTurn Design Systems by falsifying key evidence in a civil patent infringement case that was pending before Judge William H. Alsup in San Francisco federal court, which had been brought by Aptix. The indictment alleges that Amr and Aly Mohsen conspired to commit perjury in testimony given in connection with the Aptix lawsuit and to obstruct justice by fabricating an Engineering Notebook and other evidence to support Aptix's patent claims against QuickTurn.
The indictment alleges that Amr Mohsen listed July 31, 1988 as the date of conception of a patent and attempted to support that date with an Engineering Notebook that Amr Mohsen supposedly authored in 1988 and 1989. Aly Mohsen supposedly witnessed in the entries in the Notebook in1988 and 1989. The indictment further alleges that Amr Mohsen secretly retained a forensic examiner during the pendency of the patent lawsuit in order to determine what forensic testing would reveal about the 1988 Notebook.
The indictment further alleges that after Amr Mohsen received a briefing from the forensic document examiner which described the results of the examiner's tests on the "original" 1988 Notebook, Amr Mohsen staged a theft of the Notebook. The staged theft occurred before Judge Alsup could rule on a motion QuickTurn filed seeking to compel Aptix to produce the original Notebooks so that QuickTurn could have the Notebooks tested by a forensic document examiner. The indictment also alleges that after Amr Mohsen staged the theft of the Notebook, he and Aly Mohsen produced additional fabricated documents to QuickTurn in an effort to demonstrate the authenticity of the "stolen" 1988 Notebook.
The Indictment alleges that both Amr and Aly Mohsen perjured themselves during deposition testimony given in connection with the Aptix lawsuit. The Indictment also alleges that Amr and Aly Mohsen created a fraudulent 1988 Notebook and backdated the Notebook and then falsely testified under oath that they actually created and witnessed the entries on the dates reflected in the fabricated 1988 Notebook in an effort to prove that Aptix had created the hardware emulation technology one month earlier than the technology used by QuickTurn was invented.
The maximum statutory penalty for each count in violation of Title 18 U.S.C. Sections 371, 1621, 1622 and 1341 is five years for each count and a fine of $250,000. The obstruction of justice count carries a maximum penalty of ten years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine. However, any sentence following conviction would be dictated by the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of factors, and would be imposed in the discretion of the Court. An indictment simply contains allegations against an individual and, as with all defendants, Amr and Aly Mohsen must be presumed innocent unless and until convicted.
Amr Mohsen made his initial appearance in federal court in San Francisco on April 8, 2003. Bail was set at $1 million. The defendant's next scheduled appearance is at 9:30 a.m. on June 11, 2003 for status on a Notice of Related Case order before Judge Chen.
The prosecution is the result of a two year investigation by agents of the FBI. Robin Harris is the Assistant U.S. Attorney who is prosecuting the case.
A copy of this press release may be found on the U.S. Attorney's Office's website at www.usdoj.gov/usao/can. Related court documents and information may be found on the District Court website at www.cand.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.cand.uscourts/gov.
All press inquiries to the U.S. Attorney's Office should be directed to Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew J. Jacobs at (415)436-7181.
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