US federal agents on Friday raided a software company which counted the FBI and other government agencies on its client list, but played down reports of a terrorist link to the firm.
Agents from US Customs, the FBI, the Secret Service and local state police carried out the pre-dawn raid on the offices of Ptech Inc in Quincy, Massachusetts.
"The search was conducted in connection with an ongoing financial crime investigation," Massachusetts US Attorney Michael Sullivan said in a statement.
PHOTO: AFP
"Media characterizations of this as a terrorist investigation are premature" Sullivan said.
Ptech provides software to a host of government agencies, including the FBI, the Federal Aviation Administration, the air force, navy and the Department of Energy.
Television reports quoting anonymous law enforcement sources had said the raid was sparked by information that Ptech was financed by a Saudi millionaire, Hassan Al-Qadi, who is on the US terrorist watch list.
US companies are prohibited from knowingly doing business with anyone on the list.
The law enforcement sources said an investigation was also underway into whether Ptech officials were involved in a charitable organisation that sends money to the Middle East and whether some of those funds may have been diverted to the al-Qaeda network.
Al-Qadi once headed the Muslim charitable organization called the Muwafaq Foundation. He has repeatedly denied any connection with al-Qaeda or its leader, Osama bin Laden.
The main concern, the sources said, was that the software provided to government departments by PTech might in some way be compromised or contaminated.
However, the White House said government agencies that used software from Ptech had found no cause for concern in the computer applications.
"The products that were supplied by this company to the government all fell in the non-classified area, none of it involved any classified products used by the government," said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer.
"The material has been reviewed by the appropriate government agencies, and they have detected absolutely nothing in their reports to the White House that would lead to any concern about any of the products purchased from this company," the spokesman told reporters.
One of Ptech's vice presidents, Joe Johnson, said the raid was not wholly unexpected given the sensitivity of the company's client list.
"It's no great surprise. We live in different times right now," Johnson told reporters.
"We do have people here who are Muslim. They are American citizens. We fully expected this. I don't think it's any different than when you go to the airport today, and you have to go through additional security," he said.
"We just have to try and get through it."
Ptech was launched in 1994 by chairman and CEO Oussama Ziade, chief product officer James Cerrato and vice president and chief scientist Hussein Ibrahim.
WASHINGTON’S INCENTIVES: The CHIPS Act set aside US$39 billion in direct grants to persuade the world’s top semiconductor companies to make chips on US soil The US plans to award more than US$6 billion to Samsung Electronics Co, helping the chipmaker expand beyond a project in Texas it has already announced, people familiar with the matter said. The money from the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act would be one of several major awards that the US Department of Commerce is expected to announce in the coming weeks, including a grant of more than US$5 billion to Samsung’s rival, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), people familiar with the plans said. The people spoke on condition of anonymity in advance of the official announcements. The federal funding for
HIGH DEMAND: The firm has strong capabilities of providing key components including liquid cooling technology needed for AI servers, chairman Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday revised its revenue outlook for this year to “significant” growth from a “neutral” view forecast five months ago, due to strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers from cloud service providers. Hon Hai, a major assembler of iPhones that is also known as Foxconn, expects AI server revenues to soar more than 40 percent annually this year, chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) told investors. The robust growth would uplift revenue contribution from AI servers to 40 percent of the company’s overall server revenue this year, from 30 percent last year, Liu said. In the three-year period
LONG HAUL: Largan Energy Materials’ TNO-based lithium-ion batteries are expected to charge in five minutes and last about 20 years, far surpassing conventional technology Largan Precision Co (大立光) has formed a joint venture with the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院) to produce fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, mobile electronics and electric storage units, the camera lens supplier for Apple Inc’s iPhones said yesterday. Largan Energy Materials Co (萬溢能源材料), established in January, is developing high-energy, fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries using titanium niobium oxide (TNO) anodes, it said. TNO-based batteries can be fully charged in five minutes and have a lifespan of 20 years, a major advantage over the two to four hours of charging time needed for conventional graphite-anode-based batteries, Largan said in a
Taiwan is one of the first countries to benefit from the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, but because that is largely down to a single company it also represents a risk, former Google Taiwan managing director Chien Lee-feng (簡立峰) said at an AI forum in Taipei yesterday. Speaking at the forum on how generative AI can generate possibilities for all walks of life, Chien said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) — currently among the world’s 10 most-valuable companies due to continued optimism about AI — ensures Taiwan is one of the economies to benefit most from AI. “This is because AI is