Lawyer alleges CEO Randy Pitchford possessing Child Porn

[Burnouts3s3]

https://archive.is/tJBAu

The former general counsel of game studio Gearbox (Borderlands, Aliens: Colonial Marines) and CEO Randy Pitchford are suing one another in a messy legal battle that sees both men accused of violating their legal duties to the company. The suit against Pitchford is full of sensational allegations, including the accusation that the Gearbox CEO received a secret $12 million bonus from publisher Take-Two Interactive as an advance against Borderlands profits.

“The allegations made by a disgruntled former employee are absurd, with no basis in reality or law,” said a Gearbox spokesperson in a statement to Kotaku. “We look forward to addressing this meritless lawsuit in court and have no further comment at this time.”
Callender’s suit was filed one month after Gearbox sued him, in a separate case, for fraud and breach of fiduciary duty. Gearbox alleged that Callender borrowed money from Gearbox for a home loan and tuition that he did not pay back in full, and that Callender “abused the privilege of credit card access by charging unapproved, wholly personal expenses, including family vacations, gun club memberships and firearms accessories, and trying to get six-pack abs.”

The lawsuit alleges that Pitchford struck a deal in 2016 to receive a “personal, secretive ‘Executive Bonus’ 0f $12,000,000 to be paid directly to Pitchford entity called ‘Pitchford Entertainment Media Magic, LLC.’” That bonus, Callender and his lawyers argue, is an advance upon royalties that would otherwise go to Gearbox’s staff. “This is particularly tragic exploitation,” the lawsuit states, “because these millions are being syphoned to Randy Pitchford’s personal accounts instead of funding the development of Borderlands.”

Callender’s most lurid allegation against Pitchford is an accusation surrounding an event that he says occurred in 2014. Callender says that Pitchford left a USB drive in a Dallas, Texas restaurant containing sensitive corporate documents for Gearbox and its partners including 2K Games, Sega, Sony, Microsoft, and others. Says the lawsuit: “Upon information and belief, Randy Pitchford’s USB drive also contained Randy Pitchford’s personal collection of ‘underage’ pornography.”

Callender also accuses Pitchford of holding parties in which “adult men have reportedly exposed themselves to minors, to the amusement of Randy Pitchford.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vL6hgIyYxw

David Eddings, the voice of Claptrap, tweeted out "Yes, it's true" but without any specfications.

https://twitter.com/davideddings/status/1083827429704118273

http://archive.is/yyTaj

Pitchford went on twitter to deny these allegations.

https://twitter.com/DuvalMagic/status/1083863896010776578

http://archive.fo/gMPRR

tl;dr: There is an allegation against Randy Pitchford that he took $12 Million and have possession of child pornography.

EDIT: https://archive.fo/zWLxZ

Bizarrely enough, Pitchford corroborates some of the story's details by appearing on a podcast that went live one day after Callender's suit was filed. On the December 22 episode of The Piff Pod, Pitchford talks at length about porn that he enjoys watching, including "camgirl" pornography, in which a host exposes themself to a live feed and takes requests and financial tips from consumers. Pitchford explained that he was "a consumer of this content." He confirmed that he copied a specific video "to this memory stick" to, as he describes it, "work out the method" of how a camgirl host faked the act of female ejaculation. (Be warned: he describes how the video looks in particularly graphic detail.)

"I realized, this is not a sex worker," Pitchford said on the show. "This is a ♥♥♥♥ing magician." Pitchford, for those unaware, has a vested interest in the field of magicians and owns the magic-focused Genii Magazine.

"This was before I learned I should probably have password-protected memory sticks," Pitchford says, before admitting that he had indeed left a USB flash drive at a Medieval Times Dinner and Tournament restaurant. "Some kid, an employee of Medieval Times, discovered this memory stick, took it home? and discovered secrets of my company and future games in development, and also discovered the pornography. It was 'barely legal' porn. This girl's handle was 'Only 18.'" The USB flash drive was returned to Gearbox, Pitchford says, in exchange for "swag" and video games.

Pitchford claimed that the flash drive arrived at the studio while Pitchford was on vacation, so his executive assistant checked its contents. "Before I know it, I think the entire office looked at it. And there was one piece of content on here. And it never occurred to any of them that the reason why there was just that single porno was because of the magic trick, not because of [pause] I don't know whatever the ♥♥♥♥ they thought." Later in the podcast, Pitchford suggests putting this "Only 18" performer "on the cover" of a future Genii Magazine issue.

[Starbug]

If you're searching for legal teens, it suggests you'd prefer under age but will accept "legal" ones. And it means you're a predator looking for emotionally and physically underdeveloped women. Disgusting on a number of counts.

He should be removed as the face of this company. It's an affront to all the decent people who work for gearbox.

[Kaihlar]

It was just a magic trick guys

[Nakos]

Okay, I have no idea what did or did not occur here, and I don't want to put myself in the position of defending Pitchford.

But right now, all that's happening is a civil suit brought by a former, disgruntled employee. He's made a lot of allegations. But that's all they are. They might be true. They might also be "inflated" in order to maneuver for a better bargining position for an out of court settlement.

If there was even a shadow of a doubt that there was really "child porn" involved, Pitchford would have been arrested, and a Federal criminal case would be proceeding.

[Mister Torgue Flexington]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Nakos:

Okay, I have no idea what did or did not occur here, and I don't want to put myself in the position of defending Pitchford.

But right now, all that's happening is a civil suit brought by a former, disgruntled employee. He's made a lot of allegations. But that's all they are. They might be true. They might also be "inflated" in order to maneuver for a better bargining position for an out of court settlement.

If there was even a shadow of a doubt that there was really "child porn" involved, Pitchford would have been arrested, and a Federal criminal case would be proceeding.

smells like a possible extortion in my opinion. and you said it yourself, that these allegations are coming from a former disgruntled employee

[Mylar]

@node357, I'm not sure why you characterize a disgruntled employee countersuing as crazed or unhinged. Foolhardy, risky or ill-advised maybe, but there are countersuits filed thousands of times a day against former employers.True, if GBX's charges are proven he could land in jail, but he may be risking it because if they win and he can't repay the monies he'd likely go to jail anyway. And Pitchford's not in custody unless there's been some breaking news in the past few minutes.

I'm generally suspicious of countersuits because they tend to be purely retaliatory and I question why, if Callender says Pitchford was having underage sex parties and keeping child pornography on a USB stick, he didn't go to the authorities back when the stick was found in 2014.

The "Peacock Theater" as I understand it, is a theater in Pitchford's palatial home that's used to host magic shows and, per GBX, those shows have all been taped and will be provided to Ars Technica to review. Many industry people have attended them and not one of them has gone to the media about what this guy alleges now that he's being sued. Pitchford was a magician before he was a gaming ceo, owns one of the original magic publications, and hobnobs with people like David Copperfield, etc. His great uncle was Cardini, one of the most famous magicians of all time.

Who knows where the truth lies, but one thing I do agree on is Starbug's opinion about Pitchford watching "barely legal" porn, and I don't buy his story about taping it to use as a magic trick. I think that was an excuse to save face for being a married man with kids and having it on a work-related stick used to store company documents. Either way: UGH.

[Rivery Jerald]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Husk:

will bl3 be delayed if randy is arrested by suspiscion?

Hes a CEO he bearly develops ♥♥♥♥

[DocStrangelove]

David Eddings (Voice of Claptrap who tweeted "Yes it's true" shortly after the allegations) made another tweet. "Liar? Check. Con-man? Check. Perv? No idea."

Which sounds like he knows just as much as any other person on this planet.

https://twitter.com/davideddings/status/1084163014851526656

[Glory]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από DrStrangelove:

David Eddings (Voice of Claptrap who tweeted "Yes it's true" shortly after the allegations) made another tweet. "Liar? Check. Con-man? Check. Perv? No idea."

Which sounds like he knows just as much as any other person on this planet.

https://twitter.com/davideddings/status/1084163014851526656

You know its interesting that even people in the office dislike Pitchford. Makes you wonder if plenty of people would like to get rid of him. Then again....CEOs should never get multi million dollar bonuses under the table or over it. Give it to the devs that actually work on the projects, not the big fat shark on top.

The man is a crook, through and through.

[DocStrangelove]

He's made a name for himself as one of the sleaziest crooks in the video game business, there's no denying that

[Starbug]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Jimmy "Squeaks" Hopper:

Give it to the devs that actually work on the projects, not the big fat shark on top.

Trickle down economics they call it.

[Glory]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Starbug:

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Jimmy "Squeaks" Hopper:

Give it to the devs that actually work on the projects, not the big fat shark on top.

Trickle down economics they call it.

More like feeding trough for the fat cats.

[Mister Torgue Flexington]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Jimmy "Squeaks" Hopper:

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από DrStrangelove:

David Eddings (Voice of Claptrap who tweeted "Yes it's true" shortly after the allegations) made another tweet. "Liar? Check. Con-man? Check. Perv? No idea."

Which sounds like he knows just as much as any other person on this planet.

https://twitter.com/davideddings/status/1084163014851526656

You know its interesting that even people in the office dislike Pitchford. Makes you wonder if plenty of people would like to get rid of him. Then again....CEOs should never get multi million dollar bonuses under the table or over it. Give it to the devs that actually work on the projects, not the big fat shark on top.

The man is a crook, through and through.

true. but at the same time, he did work on "Duke Nukem 3D" as one of the original programmers/map-makers for 3DRealms, and was also responsible for putting Gearbox Software on the map with their Half-Life expansions "Opposing Force" and "Blue Shift".

[Starbug]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Mister Torgue Flexington:

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Jimmy "Squeaks" Hopper:

You know its interesting that even people in the office dislike Pitchford. Makes you wonder if plenty of people would like to get rid of him. Then again....CEOs should never get multi million dollar bonuses under the table or over it. Give it to the devs that actually work on the projects, not the big fat shark on top.

The man is a crook, through and through.

true. but at the same time, he did work on "Duke Nukem 3D" as one of the original programmers/map-makers for 3DRealms, and was also responsible for putting Gearbox Software on the map with their Half-Life expansions "Opposing Force" and "Blue Shift".

True but at the same time Ted Bundy was apparently a rising star in the republican party until his prediliction for legal teens ended any gubernatorial ambitions.

[Mister Torgue Flexington]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Starbug:

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Mister Torgue Flexington:

true. but at the same time, he did work on "Duke Nukem 3D" as one of the original programmers/map-makers for 3DRealms, and was also responsible for putting Gearbox Software on the map with their Half-Life expansions "Opposing Force" and "Blue Shift".

True but at the same time Ted Bundy was apparently a rising star in the republican party until his prediliction for legal teens ended any gubernatorial ambitions.

isn't that supposed to be Trump's job though?

[Glory]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Mister Torgue Flexington:

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Starbug:

True but at the same time Ted Bundy was apparently a rising star in the republican party until his prediliction for legal teens ended any gubernatorial ambitions.

isn't that supposed to be Trump's job though?

Lets keep this thread from getting derailed eh people? Yes, he put Gearbox on the map. However, so did John Romero for Id, and he made Daikatana and killed his own company with lavish tastes. Immediate success doesnt make you a good person, nor a standout in the industry. If anything he's gotten worse over time, becoming more arrogant, more slimy, and seemingly much more morally bankrupt.