Financial Adviser Sued Over 38 Studios Still Has Many Government Clients
Remember Rhode Island’s disastrous deal with former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling? The state invested $75 million of taxpayer dollars in Schilling’s video game company 38 Studios and lost it all before a lawsuit clawed back most of the money. It was one of the worst financial decisions in Rhode Island history. Yet the company that served as the state’s financial adviser on the deal has continued doing business throughout the state.
Back in 2010, the Great Recession was hammering Rhode Island. The state was desperate for jobs. In hopes of sparking a new economic sector, Rhode Island lured Curt Schilling’s video game company, 38 Studios, with a $75 million state-backed loan guarantee.
“We are no longer slaves to the winds of fate,” vowed a character in Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, the only game produced by 38 Studios. But after making that game, 38 Studios ran out of the money it needed to keep going. It went bankrupt in 2012. That left Rhode Island taxpayers on the hook for a total of $88 million.
Schilling told Providence radio station WPRO last year that it still hurts to think about what happened: "Every time I reminisce or talk about this, there’s a lot of pain involved because of the people that worked at the company and what it went through and how it ended … It ended in a real fiery wreck."
Read more: http://ripr.org/post/financial-adviser-sued-over-38-studios-still-has-many-government-clients