Before getting caught, the furthest that Chien got to was setting up his Xiaoyu (meaning "little jade") mobile phone design firm in Taiwan, as well as Yu ("jade") in mainland China ahead of collaborating with the Chengdu government. Chien and his two accomplices -- ex-R&D director Wu Chien-hung and ex-design team senior manager Justin Huang -- also used an external design firm to invoice HTC NT$20 million (about US$668,000, and twice as much as previously reported) between May and July for the One's design, when in fact the project was all done in-house.

Reports also say in the first hearing of the case today, the court heard that investigators found NT$7.8 million (about US$262,100) worth of cash -- all fresh NT$1,000 bills (about US$34) -- in Chien's Audi car which was, ironically, still parked at HTC; but Chien said he couldn't remember where the money came from. This goes on top of near NT$8 million (about US$268,800) confiscated from Chien and Wu -- NT$6 million and over NT$1 million, respectively.

Chien and Wu are still in custody, whereas Huang was released on bail over the weekend. We will keep an eye out for further developments.