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Ex-Infinium exec sues company...

...then withdraws suit

A former Infinium Labs executive who this week announced he had instigated legal proceedings against the company and CEO Tim Roberts, alleging fraud and breach of contract, yesterday agreed to dismiss his lawsuit without prejudice.

The case comes (and goes) less than a month after Infinium filed a complaint against website HardOCP over a September 2003 article that called the company's motives into question.

In a complaint filed earlier this week with the US District Court in Dallas County, Texas, Terry Nagy alleged that he was offered 110,000 shares of pre-split Infinium stock and the title of Executive Vice-President in return for sourcing games that could be offered for the company's still unreleased broadband-oriented games console, Phantom.

Infinium also used his "reputation and experience" in the industry to promote the console "and to raise approximately $15m in venture capital", Nagy alleged.

Nagy joined Infinium in 2002, but last Autumn his company email and mobile phone accounts were unceremoniously cancelled, he said. Roberts and a second defendant, Robert Shambro, refused to provide an explanation.

Soon after, Infinium was merged into a publicly traded shell company. Roberts and Shambro netted millions of shares of stock, then trading between $17 and $36 per share, but Nagy - he said - received nothing.

"It's very clear what happened here," Michael Hurst of Godwin Gruber in Dallas, Nagy's lawyer said when the suit was filed. "Infinium used Terry, plain and simple. They used his knowledge and contacts, and even made him a corporate officer. Then, just as the payoff was about to happen, they dumped him over the side."

Hurst now describes his client's differences with Roberts and Infinium as a "disagreement". He said both sides are "addressing any misunderstandings and differences and are working toward resolving any claims".

Infinium first began touting Phantom in January 2003, but a summer launch came and went with no sign of the promised console or the broadband-based online service it would connect to.

In September of that year, HardOCP reported on Roberts' business background, which included a stint at failed telco WorldCom, although Roberts left the company long before its bankruptcy.

Infinium President Kevin Bacchus, who joined the company last January, said the article "painted a portrait of a company intent on swindling the public". The company's lawyers branded it "false and defamatory", and began legal proceedings against HardOCP on 26 March, three weeks after HardOCP sued Infinium in a bid to force a resolution of the matter.

HardOCP stands by the claims made in the article, and was no doubt looking to the Nagy action for corroboration. The dismissal suggests it's not going to get it. ®

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