CALIFORNIA : London Jury Convicts Firm’s Ex-Chairman in Murder Plot

The former chairman of an Orange-based electronics company was sentenced to six years in prison Thursday after being convicted in London of hiring hit men to kill former business associates.

The evidence against Hans Frederick Johnston, 72, of Stamford, Conn., included a letter he had written in which he admitted he had decided to “eliminate” his former associates.

After deliberating just one hour, a jury at the Old Bailey criminal court convicted Johnston of solicitation to murder and using false documents.

Judge Richard Hutchinson told Johnston that the sentence would have been longer, but he took the defendant’s age and poor health into consideration.

The judge also recommended that the prisoner, who will be eligible for parole in three years, be deported when he is released.

Johnston was facing bankruptcy and wanted revenge after losing control of Statek Corp. in Orange, said prosecuting attorney John Kelsey-Fry.

Johnston denied soliciting Louis Keats to murder former partner Miklos Vendel and a company director, Margaritha Werren, between November 1997 and April 1998. No attempt on their lives was actually made.

Johnston was chairman of Technicorp International II Inc., the holding company that owns Statek, until being ousted by Vendel in 1996. Statek manufactures quartz crystals and oscillators, primarily for timing devices with medical applications.

Their dispute resulted in a series of lawsuits, which Johnston lost. Police arrested Johnston in April 1998 on a tip. In the course of their investigation, they found an incriminating letter that Johnston left with his landlady in London.