Tiger Woods Video Game Developer Jailed for Not Paying Staff
US game dev fined $1.2 million for not paying wages...
David M. Rushton owes $1.2 million in "a rare criminal case for nonpayment of wages" according to Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff. David M. Rushton ran Sensory Sweep, a company that worked on several games on Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft platforms.
Court records show that Rushton, whose company worked on Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2005, Justice League Heroes and Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting among others, is now serving a one year sentence in Salt Lake County Jail. This follows a si months in jail in 2010 for tax fraud and racketeering.
The Washington Post reports Brent Asay, a wage-claim manager at the Utah Labor Commission - the organisation that helped authorities to nab the errant employer - as stating: "We thought that Mr. Rushton was trying to continue his business on the backs of his employees. It just appeared fishy to us.”
Also quoted is 29 year old developer Adam Hunter who worked for Rushton's Sensory Sweep for two years. He indicated that he saw, "Rushton sometimes handing out checks selectively and demanding confidentiality while blaming companies that licensed games for being slow to pay for their development or royalties."
In terms of geting paid himself, “The phrase ‘next Friday’ became a joke,” Hunter said of promised paychecks. “It was always ‘next Friday.’”
Thankfully, something like this just couldn't happen in the UK... right?
Court records show that Rushton, whose company worked on Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2005, Justice League Heroes and Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting among others, is now serving a one year sentence in Salt Lake County Jail. This follows a si months in jail in 2010 for tax fraud and racketeering.
The Washington Post reports Brent Asay, a wage-claim manager at the Utah Labor Commission - the organisation that helped authorities to nab the errant employer - as stating: "We thought that Mr. Rushton was trying to continue his business on the backs of his employees. It just appeared fishy to us.”
Also quoted is 29 year old developer Adam Hunter who worked for Rushton's Sensory Sweep for two years. He indicated that he saw, "Rushton sometimes handing out checks selectively and demanding confidentiality while blaming companies that licensed games for being slow to pay for their development or royalties."
In terms of geting paid himself, “The phrase ‘next Friday’ became a joke,” Hunter said of promised paychecks. “It was always ‘next Friday.’”
Thankfully, something like this just couldn't happen in the UK... right?
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