Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Michael Robertson Suffers Final Blow in Attacks on Former Linspire Employees

As documented previously in this blog, Michael Robertson spent several years, and hundreds of thousands of dollars, in attacking former Linspire employees.  Robertson lost at every turn, with only one minor exception, a small judgement against myself and the former CFO for not having informed Robertson in a timely manner when the CFO was laid off.  Now, rightfully so, even that one small judgement has been vacated and set aside by the Judge.  (Read the Judge's ruling is here.)  

With this ruling, and the judgement settled, none of the former employees will ever have to pay Michael Robertson ONE PENNY.  Robertson, however, continues to dodge paying the judgement against him (via his company), still owing hundreds of thousands of dollars to one of the former employees.  

Given this new vacated ruling by Judge Taylor, here is the updated and final scoreboard of how things ended up:

Updated Final Scoreboard after Judge Sets Aside Judgement

As Judge Taylor pointed out in his previous ruling, Robertson's attacks were driven by his ego.  In the end, this was a simple case of Robertson's greed and ego vs me wanting to treat good employees with some respect.  

Kevin
  

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Michael Robertson Fails...Again. MP3tunes Files for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy


Another Michael Robertson company goes belly up.
Looks like we can add MP3tunes to the long list of Michael Robertson failed companies.  MP3tunes has filed for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy.  You can download the entire bankruptcy filing here.  

Looks like Robertson is sticking it to everyone from his lawyers ($1.4 million), to several employees ($10,775), to even the coffee vendor ($96).  The only secured creditor he lists is HIMSELF, through his SKL Trust.  No surprise there, classic Robertson move--as usual, he'll end up first in line while others get completely stiffed.  

Even worse, innocent customers are STILL getting ripped off, as it appears he's more than happy to keep selling subscriptions to his now defunct company.  Hopefully the media will alert would-be customers about this bankruptcy, since apparently Robertson isn't.  I can find no mention of the bankruptcy anywhere on the MP3tunes site, but I can find where they are still accepting $139.95 for annual subscriptions.

I admit I'm not too sad to see Robertson's partner in crime, the law firm of Duane Morris (Ed Cramp), being stuck with $1.4 million in bad debt.  You'd think the law firms in San Diego would start to learn to stay far away from Robertson, who has proven time and time again to be a very bad bet.  Prospective employees should also be paying close attention to how Robertson treats employees.

Robertson may be hoping to get out of his EMI litigation with this move, but EMI is suing him personally and will continue to keep after him.  Get ready, of course, for Robertson to blame the EMI lawsuit for MP3tunes demise.  Don't buy that for a minute.  As you'll see from the filing, the REVENUES from MP3tunes hardly moved the needle, ever.  MP3tunes was just another poorly executed business idea from Robertson.

To keep up on all the latest Robertson fiascos, visit Freespire.com.

Kevin