Ex-Statek Director Held

Frederick Johnston, a U.S. businessman accused of plotting to kill five people in a dispute over control of his former company in Orange, was ordered held without bail for four weeks Thursday by a British court.

Johnston, who once controlled electronics manufacturer Statek Corp., was arrested last week by London police on charges he conspired to kill three American lawyers and two Swiss executives. The 71-year-old Johnston, looking frail and walking with a cane, is due back in court May 28.

Johnston, former director of Statek and its holding company, Technicorp International II, lost control of the companies in a legal dispute with Miklos Vendel in the Delaware courts, court papers show.

The murder-for-hire conspiracy involved the payment of money to Irish criminals to kill Johnston’s corporate opponents and their lawyers, the FBI said. No one was killed in the plot, according to the FBI.