Police arrest millionaire technology guru John J. Donovan Sr on false testimony

Millionaire technology guru John J. Donovan Sr. was charged Friday with falsely testimony. He told police that he was shot in an attack arranged by his son.

Photo: Police arrest millionaire technology guru John J. Donovan Sr on false testimony

Judge Kenneth Fishman found Donovan, 65, guilty of filing a false police report, a misdemeanor, in the bench trial. Donovan faces up to a year in prison and a $500 (372 EUR) fine.

Donovan claimed he was attacked and shot by two strangers in the parking lot of his Cambridge office on the night of Dec. 16, 2005. He told a police dispatcher then that his son had laundered $180 million (133.79 million EUR) from his accounts and had threatened to kill him.

But prosecutors argued he made up the story to get revenge against his son and gain the upper hand in a bitter family battle over trusts that may be worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Donovan has battled his five children in court for years over the money.

During the trial, prosecutors said a surveillance video showing Donovan adjusting the camera away from the parking lot days before the shooting proved premeditation. They also said they found a "to-do list" in the front pocket of Donovan's sports jacket that seemed to outline details for the shooting.

But Donovan's defense attorney said prosecutors mistakenly read a normal chores list, and the state's investigation was incomplete.

Donovan was a business professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1969 to 1997. He commanded big fees as a sought-after speaker to Fortune 500 companies, started more than a dozen companies and published 11 books.

He is a founder of Cambridge Technology Partners, a computer services consulting company that was once valued at more than $1 billion (740 million EUR). He also was a clinical professor of pediatrics at Tufts University for 10 years, doing research to track birth defects.