FINDING A PHONY
We found a four-million-dollar Texas mansion operating tax free as a dubious charity but wait till you see where the trail leads. There are growing questions for Sath Sivasothy and his electronics company Vyrian and what else may be phony about this guy. Does it spell fraud?
Finding A Phony
We’re waiting to see if the Fort Bend Central Appraisal District ever gets to the bottom of this multi-million-dollar mansion story. But you know, the family that runs this dubious charity, they also run a company. And the charity may be just as fake as the parts that company sells.
Few of us live in the world of high-tech manufacturing, but every one of us lives in a world dependent on those high-tech products working correctly. Lives depend on them.
“I would say as semiconductor devices continue becoming smaller and complex, the process requirements definitely become significantly tighter,” says Steve Harshbarger.
Steve Harshbarger is CEO of Sono Tek. His company makes ultrasonic, ultra-thin spray coating systems for the electronics, energy and medicinal technology industries.
“And a defect there… you’re talking about a human’s life in their operation,” Steve’s concern.
Rob “Bob” Engle adds, “I mean, you’re talking about one little 100-dollar valve preventing the shipping of a half a million-dollar system.”
Vice President, Rob Engle, said during a part shortage, he looked on the open market and found the part he needed here at Vyrian, a Houston Electronic Parts distributor. But what Engel said he ordered is not what he got.
Bob continues, “They were misrepresented valves. I think they were both used, and badly remanufactured. There’s no way my company would ever do business with them again.”
Vyrian is a 15-year-old. company located near the West Park corridor in Houston, Texas. Privately owned by the Sivasothy family. Dad- Tony, his son- Sath, and Sath’s wife- Audrey. Profiles on government contractor websites put Vyrian’s most recent annual revenue at about $11 million. 110 employees worldwide.
Wayne interviews Janessa Sutton, Vyrian’s Purchasing & Procurement’s Manager at Vryian’s headquarters. Janessa claims Sath is not currently available, yet he was indeed there at the office after all.
We first told you about the elusive Sath Sivasothy after we saw him leaving his $4 million mansion early one morning. But guess what? His family lives here tax-free. There are houses associated with the family in at least two counties getting total tax write-offs. Part of the charity the Sivasothy’s run, the Texas Urban Redevelopment Foundation.
A charity that doesn’t want to talk to me? How come?
“Holy cow! Why would that even be exempt?” asks Brenda Lim, an auditor of the Harris County Appraisal District.
The charity has finally responded to the Fort Bend County Appraisal District investigation. They’re claiming this 12,596 square foot mansion a family violence project, providing no-call shelter to abused or battered spouses, or children, in need of temporary shelter.
You guys should all go there because it sure beats the Star of Hope, don’t you think?
Hey, Sath! I was just here to tell the folks who work at the charity’s headquarters, that there was a charity there.
“Let’s say I’m an old, sick, poor guy, and I want to get cheaper rent. And this is the address of the headquarters of Texas Urban Redevelopment Foundation. Have you ever heard of it?” asks Wayne Dolcefino.
“No, I’m not familiar with it,” responds employee Jenessa Sutton.
So, are the Sivasothy’s cheating their neighbors? The government? We will see. But we’re now getting tips about the company itself, Vyrian.
“They’re just up to something. I mean, they’re just genuinely dishonest people,” said an anonymous former Vyrian employee.
Wayne calls Vyrian to which, there was no answer. Guess they don’t want the business.
Vyrian first started its testing laboratory in 2019, just months after it was flagged by an industry watchdog group for supposedly getting caught selling counterfeit parts. The watchdog group is the Electronic Resellers Association International; a database for alleged counterfeit components and high-risk suppliers. ERAI distributes the information to paying members. They say on their website that anyone can get one report free, either about a part, or a company. But they told us to take a hike instead.
But someone else did give us a copy of a report, and this is what it says right at the top, quoting: “Vyrian is considered a high-risk supplier for knowingly selling remark or counterfeit parts.” Vyrian has at least three alerts in its ERAI profile going back to 2018.
And that’s when Varian shipped parts that an independent research lab had already evaluated as quote “suspected of being counterfeit.” The buyer got his money back in that case, but only for the return parts. Not for the fake parts that were installed, and the cost of reworking the product later on. That complaint was unresolved.
The report says parts from a $13,000 order fulfilled by Vyrian were also found to be defective. Vyrian wouldn’t refund his money unless the parts were returned. The other guy didn’t want to return the parts because he was afraid they’d try to sell them to someone else.
Another complaint unresolved. A year later, Vyrian was identified as the supplier of a counterfeit Murata part, and Murata wasn’t happy. It went unresolved. Then, in 2021, Murata wrote a cease-and-desist letter to Vyrian for unauthorized sales of a different alleged counterfeit part labeled with Murata’s brand. They demanded payment for damages.
We don’t know if Murata and Vyrian ever settled their dispute. Neither lawyers will call us back, but we do know that Vyrian is still selling those exact same parts on the open market today. We’ve tried to get answers.
Our interviewer called a sales representative, asking about the serious allegations concerning the counterfeit parts, to which Giancarlo Giacona responded, “I mean we don’t sell those, so that’s why I’m not sure what you’re talking about. I haven’t heard anything about this. I’ll relay this to someone and we will get back to you.”
Meanwhile another call with Rob Engle, “So, I placed an order with them, knowing that I was taking a risk, and sure enough…”
He never tried to get his money back.
“It was such an egregious violation of industry standards that I just assumed that these people are running a very shady operation,” says Mr. Engle.
Engel says he did not report the counterfeits to ERAI, but he did leave reviews about Vyrian online. This is an investigation that stretches from Houston to India.
“Because if you are in another country or in another region, there’s basically nothing you can do,” says the former Vryian employee.
This isn’t the only former employee to tell us about Vyrian’s alleged lack of ethics. They are all afraid of retaliation, they say. But here we have a firsthand account of how Vyrian customers would get the cheapest parts available, or sometimes nothing at all.
“They would say, ‘You have to pay in advance for us to fulfill what you’re asking us to get.’ They send the money, and then Vyrian just cuts them off,” explains the former employee.
Andrea Palacio, our team member, continues to ask the anonymous former employee on why Vyrian would break off a relationship with a good customer?
To which he responds, “Money in their hand today outweighs anyone. It could be a good customer that has sent nine good orders, and on the 10th order, they’ll just take the money. And if they think they can get away with it, they’ll do it.”
This former employee calls Vyrian the “king cobra of snakes in the den of global electronic parts.” Which is definitely not a compliment.
“Vyrian’s the worst. It’s a bad house in a bad neighborhood. They are the best at listing all these parts in stock, when they literally have nothing at all,” continues the former employee.
If you refuse to do business with Vyrian, you still might end up dealing with the Sivasothy’s.
“They have 100 aliases, and what they’re doing is they’re just listing other parts as Digiode, as Dana, whatever…”
Vyrian’s former vice president of operations is in a lawsuit with Varian that we are watching closely now. Millions of dollars in back wages and commissions claimed, allegations of counterfeiting, wire fraud. The Sivasothy’s accused of lying to customers, claiming parts originated from Hong Kong, Malaysia, or Taiwan were actually manufactured in communist China.
So, why would they lie about that?
“Because they didn’t have to pay the tariff. If you marked it as China, then there was a 25% increase. So, $1,000 part would come out to be $1,250. And when you get it delivered, you must pay the tariff fee,” explains the employee.
Oh, so like tax evasion. And like evading your county property taxes. But by evading tariffs, you can get yourself in big trouble with the federal government, and Vyrian is a government contractor.
Look at the affected customers listed in the lawsuit alleging fraud. They include the Defense Logistics Agency, the DLA, the buying arm for the United States military. Six contracts have already been canceled. Vyrian simply didn’t deliver the parts on time, and maybe that’s a good thing, because one of the contracts was for a nuclear reactor program.
Sath is hiding from us, and he must be worried. Just days after our turf war investigation about his possible tax fraud was posted, Vyrian posted a job opening for a quote “online reputation specialist.”
We know what that means. They’re trying to bury the bad stuff, because getting caught selling counterfeit electronic parts isn’t so good for business.
Vyrian’s Better Business Bureau page shows no reviews currently. But back in July, you could have read about Emma J’s complaint about Vyrian costing her $6,000 quoting, ‘Vyrian presents itself with a polished and professional image, but our experience suggests that this presentation may mask questionable business practices.’
“It’s just one bad behavior stacked on top of another. The Sivasothy’s in general are genuinely evil people,” states the previous employee of Vyrian.
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