Thread by @dsmart

So there's a new Star Citizen controversy brewing and which various parties are diving into. I haven't done much digging, so I will just provide some of my own thoughts.

First of all, I want to make this clear - again...

Star Citizen devolved into an absolute scam years ago. The basis for the scam is that the creators and primaries were busy focused on unjust enrichment by taking money out of the project, rather than putting money into it. This has gone on for years now.

To the extent that not only have they done shady financial things like building a corp with backer money, then selling back that corp to themselves, but also taking out large sums from the venture, even as they run out of money year after year.

In fact, it wasn't until later 2019, after several months of rumors, that they released financial brochures (they weren't audited, have no P&L etc) for 2012-17 that showed that - shockingly - the $300M+ project was OUT OF MONEY just months prior.

As I wrote in this blog, we found out that they were in such dire straits that they had to go out and get $46M from an outside investor, who installed a director (who left after 1 yr was up) . That was Summer 2018.

dereksmart.com/2018/12/star-c…

In fact, it wasn't until several months later that Forbes did an article in which it was then made public that the husband and wife scam team of Chris & Sandi, had bought a $4.6M house - apparently from those proceeds.

forbes.com/sites/mattpere…

At the time of the financial disclosure, Chris then stated that they had a $46M investment - which was for "marketing SQ42" which was totally coming out...like right about now. He wrote a whole blog about it. That was 12/20/2018.

cloudimperiumgames.com/blog/letter-fr…

You can't find that link anymore; know why? Because after it was clear that it was complete lies (as per SQ42), they did what they always do. They deleted it. The last version was captured back 10/07/2019

web.archive.org/web/2019092504…

It's now Q4/20 and SQ42 is but a passing memory.

Of course that "marketing" money is long gone because barely months later, they got another $17.25M from the same investment group. That news is still up - and doesn't say anything about SQ42 this time.

cloudimperiumgames.com/blog

For years now there's been lots of speculation that the funding chart is just pure and utter nonsense; and just contained whatever it is they wanted to stuff it with. It supposedly tracks funding from game + MT sales + subscriptions.

robertsspaceindustries.com/funding-goals

A few days ago, a keen-eyed backer noticed that the tracker lost over $1.5M within a 24hr span.

robertsspaceindustries.com/spectrum/commu…

robertsspaceindustries.com/spectrum/commu…

Some [hilariously] speculated that it had to do with the changes to the store chart. Most of us knew that was nonsense of course - but we just played along.

robertsspaceindustries.com/spectrum/commu…

Imagine the shock and horror when the store updates later concluded...and the money in the tracker was still short.

status.robertsspaceindustries.com

Some speculated further that the discrepancy was due to recent UK filings that showed them - again - taking money out of an INSOLVENT project - to pay dividends. I kid you not.

beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/088152…

The guys over at @GuardFreq ran their own numbers to explain what was going on with that.

FF to 44:15

m.twitch.tv/videos/7591421…

Some more additional context about what's going on with that.

i.imgur.com/BO4QVie.jpg

The speculation was that this latest financial shenanigans is linked to the funding numbers in the tracker being off.

I disagree. Why?

Because that would imply that they've been updating the tracking with their internal P&L accounting, as well as investment numbers.

I checked. When they got the $46M and $17.25M, they were not reflected in the funding tracker. Those were the only two known source of external rev that us backers know about because those details are - by law - public in the UK. We don't know anything about the US side.

Also, in the 2012-2017, and then the 2018 financials, there were no entries for external funding. Which is precisely why nobody puts much stock into them. Especially since they're neither audited nor have any P&L guidance. All we know is that the project was insolvent.

Want to see what "clean" financials statements look like? Here is a thread on Frontier's - another UK game dev.

https://twitter.com/dsmart/status/1303694589522567170?s=20

Why would a $400M+ project be insolvent? Because, in between the incompetence and the greed, the primaries are taking money OUT of it. Money that's need to complete and release the two games which were due out back in Nov 2014.

So now, aside from the financial statement on SQ42 coming out in 2020, and the $46M totally being for "marketing", disappearing (much like the premise of both games), they're still taking money out of the project to pay dividends to their buddies, and to buddy own corp entities.

The connection to the companies in the latest UK filings is very interesting because it - once again - involves buddies from Chris's past ventures. Let me explain...

A fellow named Graem Anker is the CEO and founder (2014) of Fabrik Games.

fabrikgames.com

Eric Elms, the father of Elms bros who are in this venture with Chris, worked with Graem - who also just happens to own IceSprite Ltd which was formed in Oct 2017.

…te.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/110310…

Then there's Firesprite Ltd where Graem is also an officer.

…te.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/082407…

Basically, the £1.6m seen in the CIG financials as going out, was sent (loaned?) to a corp, which then used it to pay out £1m in dividends. All from a corp that's otherwise INSOLVENT.

As far we know, NONE of these companies have anything to do with the dev of these games.

As one of the lead investors who bailed them out in 2018, maybe @keithcalder knows what is going on because we sure as hell don't.

/END