Robertson blew over a half million dollars unsuccessfully
attacking Linspire Employees, who ended up ahead $217,000.
As I predicted earlier in this blog, Robertson is taking his massive losses in the courts and trying to spin it as a victory for himself. He lost hundreds of thousands of dollars attacking innocent employees, yet in his most recent Michael's Minute, he tries to justify his greedy behavior by pointing to the few counts that went in his favor, but of course, he leaves out the DOZENS of counts that didn't go his way.
I'm proud of the small amount of damages awarded against me as I fought for the innocent employees. The time, energy and money I spent was DEFENDING good people, and trying to see employees treated with some respect, where as Robertson spent over a half million dollars attacking them. In the end, the court OVERWHELMINGLY sided with the wrongfully accused employees, but you'd never know that reading Robertson's blog.
Some of you have emailed me asking for my response to Robertson's latest Michael Minute, so I'll just refere you to my earlier blog. It gives the FULL story, including what the Judge had to say on the matter. In his final ruling, Judge Taylor summarized the jury's findings, highlighting that all of the funds transferred were authorized, all the employment agreements valid, and that not one penny of money was taken from Linspire inappropriately. Judge Taylor stated that the ONLY portion of Linspire's claim that had "any merit" was that I and the CFO had a fiduciary duty to have informed Robertson when I laid off the CFO (this is what got called by the scary terms fraud and conspiracy). Judge Taylor points out that the jury was fine with my authority in letting the CFO go as well as the severance amount the CFO received and how he received it. Taylor states that the jury simply felt I should have informed Robertson immediately after I laid the CFO off, not a week later. (View full ruling here, summary on page 13.)
Don't just take my word about the REAL Michael Robertson, visit Freespire.com and read the comments from dozens of people who know and have worked with Robertson.
The bottom line is Robertson spent huge amounts of money attacking innocent employees, while I spent my energy defending them, not taking one dime for myself. Oh, and of course, the Linspire shareholders are still waiting to hear from Robertson what happened to their investment.
Kevin
PS: Not surprisingly, given the source =), there were several blatantly false statements in Robertson's blog, which I have pointed out to him.
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4 comments:
Hello Kevin, having read both your account and Michael Robertson's account of the legal decision one could be forgiven for thinking that they are different cases!
As an onlooker I cannot understand why you should have been convicted of fraud and conspiracy to defraud. Those are serious charges and could potentially harm your prospects going forward. Your only failure, as far as I can tell, was to wait for a week to tell MM what you had done, as the CEO of the company. In hindsight, it is just as well that you took such action as otherwise MM may have circumvented the payment(s) and himself defrauded his employees in much the same way as he continues to defraud those who became minority shareholders in the company.
Hopefully now you can put this whole sorry saga behind you. Don't let it sour the rest of your life. It's not worth it, IMHO.
Paul
Thanks Paul. You're absolutely correct. The jury ruled AGAINST robertson on all the employees and every count, EXCEPT for Chad and I, and as the Judge summarized, that was just for not having had informed Robertson a week sooner. The jury found nothing wrong with the severance at all, and let everyone keep every penny of them. They gave Chad and I a slap on the wrist for just not having told Robertson immediately when laying the employees off, but as you pointed out, in the end, it was for the best, or Robertson would have done even more to prevent them from getting a fair severance. Robertson got a much larger damage awarded against him (hundreds of thousands in awards and legal fees) for having attacked the controller without cause.
I'm pretty much just always run my own businesses, and I'm not a big fan of VCs or taking on debt, so these charges are of little consequence to my future. Heck, look at Robertson, he was convicted of being the biggest copyright infringer in the history of our country, with damages in the BILLIONS, and he keeps right on rolling. =)
Kevin
After reading Michael Robertson's blog, I had a lengthy email exchange with him. I was surprised at the level of religious bigotry he displayed, along with a great deal of arrogance and complete disregard for the truth (I busted him in his own lie, after which I never heard back again). He clearly has disdain for religion, claiming that churches never kick out the wrong doers. By his own standard, having been found guilty in the largest copyright infringement case ever, he could never belong to any church.
I have to say, my exchange with him only validated what others have said about him at freespire.com.
Scott K
Robertson's persecution of all the innocent employees was never about money. They were all just pawns to be abused in his sick game.
If you read the final ruling (find a link in the blog), Judge Taylor explains that Robertson's REAL motive in this case was his ego, "The success enjoyed by Linspire is modest at best. It is plain to the court that Linspire [Robertson] was not 'required to act in the protection of its interests' as it did. Rather, Linspire [Robertson] approached this case as a vehicle for a test of wills as between Robertson and Carmony." (Page 15 of final ruling.)
Kevin
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