When gamers think of Gearbox Software, they think of Borderlands. Sadly, over the past couple of months, this isn’t why the company has made headlines, with in-house drama surrounding the company’s CEO Randy Pitchford taking the fore instead. Previously, it was revealed that Pitchford’s assistant had stolen millions from him, but now, a new, uglier drama has reared its head.
It began a few months ago with a lawsuit filed against Wade Callendar, a former lawyer at Gearbox Software from 2011-2018. Gearbox was suing him for fraud and breach of fiduciary duty, stating that Callendar had borrowed money from the American video game development company for loan and tuition fees that went unpaid, as well as abusing credit card access to purchase family vacations, gun club memberships, and firearm accessories, among other related accusations.
A month after Gearbox filed its suit against Callendar, he filed a lawsuit against Pitchford, alleging that the Gearbox CEO struck a deal in 2016 to receive a secret “Executive Bonus” of $12 million to be routed through Pitchford Entertainment Media Magic LLC. This money, according to Callendar and his lawyers, belongs to Gearbox’s staff, with the lawsuit explicitly stating, “This is particularly tragic exploitation because these millions are being siphoned to Randy Pitchford’s personal accounts instead of funding the development of Borderlands.”
Furthermore, Callendar’s most shocking allegation is that underage pornography was found on a USB drive formerly left behind in a Dallas, Texas Restaurant by Pitchford himself. The lawsuit states that “upon information and belief, Randy Pitchford’s USB drive also contained Randy Pitchford’s personal collection of ‘underage’ pornography.” Concerning Callendar’s allegations, Gearbox has issued the following statement:
Hopefully, as this case moves forward, the truth comes out. Until then, it’s good to remember that the defendant should be considered innocent until proven guilty. Once this is over, Gearbox Software will likely turn its eye back to its highly anticipated title, Borderlands 3.
“Gearbox will be filing a grievance with the State Bar of Texas against our former general counsel Wade for disciplinary proceedings for filing a lawsuit that includes accusations that he knows to be untrue. The lawyer’s rules of professional conduct expressly prohibit the filing of documents that are knowingly false. The tell is within Wade’s claim itself – his use of hedged lawyer language and clever application of quotation marks betray that he knows that the impression he is trying to create is based in lies. We imagine that he used the quotation marks and lawyer language in hopes that will give him some angles of defense when we inevitably take action against him for false statements. Wade is engaged in a shakedown and he’s clearly using deceit and lies to try to cause damage by promoting a narrative that he knows is false.”
Source: Kotaku
