er, wow
Folks,
I am not a Palladium/Rifts fan, nor am I really a fan of KS. At the same time, I am a bit appalled at some of the comments being made here on a board that was, once upon a time, considered a friendly place.
While I don't know KS, I know a number of people that have worked with him and consider him to be a fair, stand-up guy. I have heard other opinions about him too. I also happen to know a bit about what happned to Palladium and I have helped friends through the horror of finding a trusted friend and partner had betrayed them.
With respect to the court case, KS had a choice, ask the prosecutor to press for harsher charges, go to court and possibly take years to get anything back, or accept the plea arrangement thus getting at least some money immediately with which to pay enough bills to avoid declaring bankruptcy. Love him or hate him, the theft/embezzlement is real and KS has lost a vast amount of money.
Embezzlement is a true killer of small businesses throughout the world. I have two close personal friends that have gone through this in their businesses. One had a relatively large business by some standards. His partner drained the bank accounts one Friday afternoon and left the country with approximately 1 million dollars. In a business aimed at factory type production with constant cash flow both in and out of the accounts suddenly having no money is a total killer. The theft was discovered the following Wednesday when checks began bouncing. He had 18 full-time employees, several with families, which he had to layoff. His case is very extreme, most embezzlement is carried out more slowly and cautiously to avoid detection.
I have seen first hand what embezzlement can do to a business and the people involved. When the theft involves products instead of exact dollars and cents, it is very, very difficult to recover much at all. You can guarantee a lawyer would try to argue that all that was lost was some ink and paper (in Palladium’s case). An embezzlement case can last for years in the court system leading most prosecutors to try to plea them out with some sort of restitution, however small.
Again, I am not a Rifts fan, I don’t think I even own any Palladium products anymore. I am not a friend of, or particularly a fan of, Kevin, though I certainly am not any sort of detractor or enemy. I feel for these people, I know what they are going through.
Like a number of companies, Palladium has a number of rabid fans, and rabid detractors. Whatever you may be, this thread has looked like several others lately where ENWorld seems to be losing its "friendliness." Maybe it is just a coincidence based on some of the threads I've looked at over the past few months, but it certainly doesn't seem as friendly here as it used to be.
Love him, hate him, support Palladium, or don't, but don't kick them when they are down, and they are down, believe me.
Patrick