Chip was forced out by the Slav finance lot who had as I understand it provided much of the finance for Chip's expansion to enable SportCruiser production. They then formed CSAW when they got rid him (pretty close to the original company name of CZAW?) by making CZAW bankrupt.
They are an interesting and pretty hard headed bunch as it would appear Piper have now found out. It will be interesting to see where it all ends!