The Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation (EDC), the group who gave 38 Studios $75 million dollars in tax money is now suing the founders of the studio. 38 Studios went bankrupt earlier this year and Rhode Island basically lost all $75 million of the taxpayers money to the company.
The state of Rhode Island has been desperatly trying to get back their money through selling off all of 38 Studios assets; and plan on selling the right to the Kingdoms of Amalur Reckoning franchise to try and make up the difference. However, the process of selling off all of 38 Studios assets has netted next to nothing $830,000 for the assets and they are still trying to sell the naming rights to the franchises; which has only been valued at approximately $20 million at the most.
So the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation and Governor Lincoln Chafee have decided to sue the founders of 38 Studios and a lot of other people and groups as well.
38 Studios founder Curt Schilling and CEO Jennifer MacLean, former EDC executive director Keith Stokes, Thomas Zaccagnino, a 38 Studios board member; Richard Wester, who was 38 Studios’ chief financial officer; Jennifer MacLean, who was 38 Studios’ CEO; J. Michael Saul, who was the EDC’s deputy director when the deal was struck; and Antonio Afonso Jr. and Robert Stolzman, who were lawyers for the state as the deal was put together.
Additional defendants are banks and law firms involved in structuring the deal: Wells Fargo Securities, Barclays Capital, First Southwest Co., Starr Indemnity and Liability Co. and Adler Pollock & Sheehan.
Governor Lincoln Chafee went on YouTube to talk about the lawsuit for about two minutes and stated “My message to Rhode Islanders is this, I know you work hard for your paychecks, and for your tax dollars to be squandered is unacceptable. The board’s legal action was taken to rectify a grave injustice put upon the people of Rhode Island.”
Cases like this can take years before anything gets decided; but it will be interesting to see if Rhode Island can recoup some of their massive losses. This whole thing is just one big mess; not to mention the fact that we may never see a sequel to Kingdoms of Amalur Reckoning, which is a very good game.
Here is the Governor’s announcement:
