Left Behind Video Game Creators Allegedly Kept Company Alive with Stock Fraud
Popular Christian book series that chronicled the events of the Rapture, "Left Behind," also had a video game series that is now under fire for fraud charges.
The creator of the game, Chief Financial Officer Troy Lyndon of Games Inc faces SEC fraud charges that inflated the company's revenue by almost 1,300% reports Reuters.
Lyndon allegedly issued 2 billion shares of the company to his friend Ronald Zaucha as compensation for consultations.
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The Securities and Exchange Commission complaint alleges Zaucha really issued the stock so he could sell millions of unregistered shares to the market. From there he would be able to collect proceeds to boast up poor book sales.
According to Reuters the company's stock was suspended by the SEC, and the lawsuit was filed on Tuesday.
Lyndon filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy in march of last year, and did not even learn of the charges until the report came out.
"I'm just a video game guy. If any violation occurred, it would never have been intentional - and certainly, never fraudulent. My attorney told me that any person that earned shares could use them for any purpose," he said to Reuters.
"For more than two years, I've asked SEC to explain how and if I have violated any rule, so that I could self-report it. As I see it, the government has systematically and intentionally conspired to dismantle Left Behind Games and the facts are both true and hard to believe - worthy of a Ron Howard film or John Grisham novel."
According to the allegations, Lyndon and Zaucha made their "last ditch" effort to save the company in 2009 when Zaucha sold off 1.7 billion shares in stocks for $4.6 million. $3.3 million of that was taken back into the company.
Lyndon is most known was his work in helping the Madden football games into the 3D era. He began working on religious games in 2002, and took the company public in 2006.
"Although government regulations have resulted in the loss of nearly 50 percent of America's public companies over the past 15 years, Left Behind Games continues to operate and has products in more than 500 retail locations throughout the USA," he said on his site.
