autoweek says he was living in a 2 bedroom apartment in Morristown NJ at the time of his death, having gone through bankruptcy, he was selling watches over the internet to earn money - and amazingly, was involved in a project to develop a new sports car.
Our opinions on him differ - the guy was a brilliant engineer - and was targetted in that drug sting because it was known he was desperate to raise money to keep his company going. GM didn't everything they could to try and stop him from succeeding.
You are right, the feds targeted him for their own reasons. They used his little son in their sting which is probably why the jury acquitted him.