Eating Gold while Acclaim Bled to Death
Dead company'e co-founders accused of insatiable lust for wealth
Fischbach - shielding his eyes from the glare of gold, perhaps.
The games industry has its fair share of swindlers at the top of its various trees. The rapid and exponential expansion of the business since its inception has seen its leading lights assume control of quantities of money beyond their wildest dreams. And often, unaccustomed as they are to the trappings of enormous wealth, people can’t resist creaming a little off the top for personal use. Well, who could blame them?
Allegedly guilty of this are Gregory Fischbach and James 'Jim' Scoroposki. A year since the bankruptcy of once mighty publishing behemoth Acclaim, New York Newsday reports that its co-founders are being sued by the attorney tasked with liquidating the company, one Allan Mendelsohn. The really quite damning charge sheet accuses the pair of ‘numerous acts of self-dealing, corporate waste and other acts of gross mismanagement’.
While we of course are bound to stress that these are allegations at this stage and nothing more, if even half of it is true, it does look as if there’s been a fair amount of nest-feathering going on. In the five years preceding the bankruptcy filing, when 600 employees were laid off, Acclaim paid a staggering $7.3 million dollars to a law firm in which Fischbach’s brother, Bernard Fischbach, just happened to be a partner. Indeed, Bernard himself used to be on the board at Acclaim. And it’s said that the legal bills paid were not even essential to Acclaim, with the company having forked out $4.8 million over the same period to Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP, for legal advice that it actually needed.
Even more direct self-dealing is said to have gone on, with respect to payments of $1.1 million and $1.3 million respectively to Jansco Inc. and Jaymar Marketing, two sales firms which just so happened to be owned by one James Scoroposki. Another company owned by Scoroposki, CIDC LLC, received $102,000 over the five years for use of a private plane by the co-founder, which also appeared to benefit Acclaim in no tangible way.
Also damaging to the company was the fact that no tax returns had been paid since 2001, with a huge bill being run up. And $800,000 of company money was used to purchase artwork to adorn the walls of the founders’ offices. Following the filing for bankruptcy, these works of art had mysteriously disappeared.
In all, an impressively roguish bout of palm greasing, we’re sure you’ll agree - if it's true that is, and we're not saying it is. We’ll keep you posted on how the dynamic duo fare in the courtroom, or whether they make any public comment on the allegations (they have not as yet), as it happens.
Allegedly guilty of this are Gregory Fischbach and James 'Jim' Scoroposki. A year since the bankruptcy of once mighty publishing behemoth Acclaim, New York Newsday reports that its co-founders are being sued by the attorney tasked with liquidating the company, one Allan Mendelsohn. The really quite damning charge sheet accuses the pair of ‘numerous acts of self-dealing, corporate waste and other acts of gross mismanagement’.
While we of course are bound to stress that these are allegations at this stage and nothing more, if even half of it is true, it does look as if there’s been a fair amount of nest-feathering going on. In the five years preceding the bankruptcy filing, when 600 employees were laid off, Acclaim paid a staggering $7.3 million dollars to a law firm in which Fischbach’s brother, Bernard Fischbach, just happened to be a partner. Indeed, Bernard himself used to be on the board at Acclaim. And it’s said that the legal bills paid were not even essential to Acclaim, with the company having forked out $4.8 million over the same period to Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP, for legal advice that it actually needed.
Even more direct self-dealing is said to have gone on, with respect to payments of $1.1 million and $1.3 million respectively to Jansco Inc. and Jaymar Marketing, two sales firms which just so happened to be owned by one James Scoroposki. Another company owned by Scoroposki, CIDC LLC, received $102,000 over the five years for use of a private plane by the co-founder, which also appeared to benefit Acclaim in no tangible way.
Also damaging to the company was the fact that no tax returns had been paid since 2001, with a huge bill being run up. And $800,000 of company money was used to purchase artwork to adorn the walls of the founders’ offices. Following the filing for bankruptcy, these works of art had mysteriously disappeared.
In all, an impressively roguish bout of palm greasing, we’re sure you’ll agree - if it's true that is, and we're not saying it is. We’ll keep you posted on how the dynamic duo fare in the courtroom, or whether they make any public comment on the allegations (they have not as yet), as it happens.
Read More Like This