Ex-Slync CEO’s Wire Fraud Convictions, Sentence Upheld on Appeal

The co-founder and former CEO of Dallas-based logistics software startup Slync Inc. lost on Monday an appeal to undo convictions for misleading investors and misappropriating company funds.

Christopher Kirchner claimed the trial judge’s questioning of witnesses displayed bias and bolstered the government’s case. But the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit said the evidence of his guilt “eclipsed” the district court’s allegedly problematic questioning.

The district court’s interventions over the course of the four-day trial were limited and sometimes cut against the government, the appeals court said. And the judge instructed jurors they shouldn’t draw inferences about its ...