After his company was hit with a lawsuit, and lost, to the tune of $2.8 billion in 2006, CEO Jianping “Tony” Qu of PrediWave fled the country. Mr Qu had allegedly received more than $25 million in annual bonuses from a company which posted no profits and no sales. His current whereabouts are unknown.
March 22, 2010 brought a new charge that PrediWave’s legal counsel was fully aware of the shady accounting that brought the company down but did not pass that information on to PrediWave Corporation’s investors. The lawsuit not only charges that PrediWave’s counsel, Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett, knew about the cover-up, but in fact, were full participants. The law firm is now undergoing scrutiny for the approximately $100 million fraud. Among the allegations are charges that Simpson, Thatcher & Bartlett hired private investigators to gauge the likelihood of the fraud becoming public.