Huai, 52, also served as CEO of Cheyenne Software before leading FalconStor for a decade. He resigned and was replaced as CEO by Jim McNiel when government agencies began investing the vendor’s accounting practices.

According to newspaper accounts, Huai was found shot in the chest Monday morning. In a statement to Newsday, a FalconStor spokesman called Huai “a visionary and a leader” who was “admired and respected by a great many people.”

Huai came to the United States from his native Taiwan in 1984 to study computer science at New York’s Stony Brook University. He joined Cheyenne Software in 1985 as a manager of research and development for its ARCserve backup product, worked at AT&T Bell Labs from 1987 to 1988, and returned to Cheyenne as director of engineering in 1987. He became Cheyenne CEO in 1993 and sold the company to CA in 1996 for $1.2 billion. After a brief stint at CA, Huai founded FalconStor in late 2000, and held its CEO and chairman titles until last September.

Huai resigned from FalconStor last Sept. 29 after he disclosed that improper payments were allegedly made in connection with licensing of FalconStor software to a customer. The company began an internal investigation at the time, and so did the New York County District Attorney, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). None of the investigations have released any findings.

FalconStor has received grand jury subpoenas from the SEC and the U.S. Attorneys’ Office, and the SEC issued a subpoena seeking documents relating to the vendors’ dealing with the customer in question. The U.S. Attorney’s Office grand jury subpoena sought documents relating to some FalconStor employees and other company information.

FalconStor executives have claimed in public statements and SEC documents that it is cooperating with both investigations.

Two class actions lawsuits were also filed against FalconStor last year alleging the company made false statements because it failed to disclose weak demand for products and that it made improper payments to a customer. Huai was named in those suits along with FaclonStor CFO James Weber and board member Wayne Lam.