Two suggestions on why this happened (from [1])
Georgia Tech auditors accused Dr. Laskar of stealing as much as $1.5 million
to benefit Sayana. In the end, the faculty committee determined that Georgia
Tech had paid for $50,000 worth of chips in 2007 that were sent to a Korean
chip research institute to satisfy a contractual obligation that Sayana had
with it.
Dr. Laskar argues that any chips paid for by Georgia Tech and sent to the
Korean institute originally served academic purposes. He added that the
Koreans did not keep the chips, returning them to Georgia Tech after its
engineers verified that they worked. Dr. Laskar said that this was a common
practice with other companies at the chip design center and that Sayana had
the rights to do it because of its licensing deal with Georgia Tech.
The accusations followed an episode at Georgia Tech two years earlier. The
university had been caught up in a scandal that received wide publicity in
Georgia, in which employees were charged with making personal purchases on
Georgia Tech credit cards, known as procurement cards.
Second,
With Sayana, Dr. Laskar said he didn’t take the informal path that faculty
start-ups at Georgia Tech are encouraged to follow. While he accepted money
from a start-up incubator financed by Georgia Tech, he declined later rounds
of funding because it would have involved giving up equity in Sayana,
allowing the university to install board members and professional managers
of their choosing. “I’m sure that torqued people,” Dr. Laskar said.
[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/17/technology/reaching-for-si...