FBI Agents Raid South Austin Semiconductor Firm

SOUTH AUSTIN, TX — FBI agents raided a South Austin business on Wednesday, although law enforcement officials are mum as to why they took the action.

Word of the raid first emerged on social media before media outlets started to pick up on the development. The federal law enforcement operation occurred at 1501 S. Mopac Blvd. (Loop 1), FBI spokeswoman Michelle Lee confirmed.

Patch reached out to Lee via email to independently confirm details that had emerged on Wednesday afternoon. She confirmed the location of the raid that seemingly targeted offices of Vorago Technologies, a tenant in the building, as other media outlets reported. The company occupies office space in Suite 350 of the MoPac Boulevard building, according to a Bloomberg overview of the company.

"Yes, I can confirm we were lawfully present early this morning conducting law enforcement operations at that location," Lee wrote Patch in an email. "There is no immediate public safety threat. As you probably know, I can’t elaborate further on why we were there or what we were doing."

According to a company overview by Bloomberg, privately held Vorago Technologies is engaged in the semiconductor business since its 2004 founding. The company previously produced a video aimed at explaining its offerings given the level of complexity of the firm's product line — essentially rocket science in the literal sense — as densely described by Bloomberg:

"VORAGO Technologies Inc. designs, manufactures, and tests radiation-hardened and extreme temperature-hardened integrated circuit (IC) components for the hi-rel marketplace. It offers high density SRAMs and micro-controllers for applications in automotive, industrial, military, aerospace, and networking markets. The company provides 16Mb asynchronous SRAM memory solutions, 8Mb dual port synchronous SRAM memory chips, and ARM-based processor systems. Additionally, it provides application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) chip design services."

Here's another video primer with more accessible language as expressed by a company spokesman:

The company was formerly known as Silicon Space Technology Corporation and changed its name to VORAGO Technologies Inc. on Aug. 25, 2015, according to Bloomberg's overview. The snapshot lists Mr. Bernd Lienhard as the company's CEO as of March 2015.

On its website, Vorago Techologies had touted its participation at the IEEE Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects Conference that began on Monday, June 8, in San Antonio before its scheduled conclusion on Friday, July 12.

Given past efforts to learn more details after previous FBI action, it's unlikely the federal law enforcement agency would be poised to release further details. Patch will update if more information is made available in the future.