Full List of Charges Sounds Pretty Dang Crazy
Randy Pitchford and Gearbox’s Former Lawyer are suing the pants off one another, and the charges are pretty wild. Pitchford is being accused of, among other things, taking a secret $12 million payout from Take-Two Interactive as an advance against Borderlands profits. Meanwhile Pitchford filed a suit against Wade Callender, the aforementioned lawyer, for fraud and breach of fiduciary duties.
The Pitchford payout was allegedly money that should have gone to the staff at Gearbox, which Randy pocketed directly instead. Allegedly! The timing of this lawsuit, coming hot on the heels of Pitchford’s allegations against Callender, is crazy convenient. For the record, Callender is being accused of abusing the company credit card and failing to repay money that Pitchford lent him for tuition and a home loan. He used Gearbox money to (allegedly) buy family vacations and firearms accessories.
Plus, Callender is accusing Pitchford of losing a USB drive full of company secrets and ‘underage pornography.’ Yikes! The current defense is that this was barely legal porn (what a relief!), although the whole losing company secrets thing is so far uncontested. You can read more about this bananas lawsuit, including the full text of the suits themselves, here (thanks Kotaku!).