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SEC goes after Infinium Labs

There's really nothing I can add to this that hasn't already been said.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6136934.html
Phantom maker in hot water with SEC
Infinium Labs failed to pay payroll taxes; company founder given notice of pending charges for violation of federal securities laws.

In March of 2004, Infinium Labs exchanged legal maneuverings with hardware information site HardOCP after that site published an investigative piece looking into the business history of company founder Tim Roberts. The article painted an unflattering portrait of Roberts by detailing shady practices and a history of failed businesses that left the then-Infinium CEO coming off like an incompetent businessman at best, and a scam artist at worst.

Roberts stepped aside as Infinium CEO earlier this year, but problems from his tenure still dog the company. In a Friday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Infinium revealed that Roberts, currently chairman of the company's board of directors, has been given notice by the SEC that the group is planning to bring charges against him for violating federal securities law. While the SEC notice didn't specify what the charges would be in connection to, Infinium believes they are related to an SEC investigation relating to "phony fax scams," where several penny stocks, Infinium among them, were unlawfully promoted to investors.

What's more, under Roberts' tenure as CEO, the company wasn't properly reporting its payroll and payroll taxes. Due to the fines and interest the company now owes due to the erroneous reporting, Infinium has scrapped its previous financial guidance for investors.

"We recorded accrued payroll and payroll taxes of $834,682 at December 31, 2004 and $1,225,903 at June 30, 2005," the filing stated. "These amounts did not include interest and penalties. As a result, we believe that the recorded amounts should have been approximately double that which was actually recorded."

During this period, it came to light that Infinium was operating with $134,000 cash-on-hand, so the company might have been unable to pay those taxes regardless. At the time, a company executive said it was just business as usual. In the company's most recent 10-Q filing with the SEC, it claims $90,100 cash-on-hand as of June 30, 2005.

Infinium Labs opened the day trading at $0.025 a share, and as of press time, it had lost 15 percent of its value, down to $0.0215.

By Brendan Sinclair -- GameSpot
Posted Oct 31, 2005 1:50 pm PT
 
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Holger Øystein, CEO Infinium Labs, former head of Kvænangen mafia
 
:lol

If I could get a proper certificate, it might be worth buying $50 of stock or so just for the memorabilia of the biggest video game scam ever.
 
Yup and execs will take their fat checks, close shop and move on to another scheme...
 
The end.

Too bad I'll never get to play Reader Rabbit Teaches Typing. I was looking forward to that. I mean it's not ever.....

Oh shit Wal-Mart has it for like two bucks!!!!!111

*egress*
 
SiegfriedFM said:
:lol

If I could get a proper certificate, it might be worth buying $50 of stock or so just for the memorabilia of the biggest video game scam ever.

As far as I know, you should be able to request an actual stock certificate for any security you purchase. Infinium would have to be able to make it available to you.. its been a while since my series 7, but IIRC its one of the rights of stockholders.

Of course, I dont know of anyone with an actual certificate anymore, so your broker might look at you like the worlds biggest asshole if you requested one.
 
DarienA said:
Yup and execs will take their fat checks, close shop and move on to another scheme...
Reminds me of that Chappelle Show skit parodying how white corporate criminals are treated like royalty by the police. There's nothing stopping them from repeating the cycle. Anyhow, bad news about Infinium is always good... I just hate this kind of behaviour and wish they could catch more of these scoundrels instead of a couple of scapegoats.
 
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