PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) – A judge approved a $16 million settlement with the final defendant in the 38 Studios case Friday, ending the lawsuit over Rhode Island’s failed $75 million deal with former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling’s video game company.
Superior Court Judge Michael Silverstein approved the settlement after hearing from lawyers for both sides: the state’s economic development agency and Dallas-based Hilltop Securities Inc. Hilltop was formerly the First Southwest Co., the state’s financial adviser on the deal, and agreed to pay $16 million to get out of the case.
The total settlements in the case end up at about $61 million. A number of other parties previously settled, including Schilling and other 38 Studios executives, lawyers and companies that worked on the deal, and officials at the economic development agency.
“It was easy to get started, not so easy to get finished,” Max Wistow, who represented the Commerce Corporation, the state’s economic development agency, said of the 2012 lawsuit. “We feel like it was worthwhile.”
38 Studios moved from Massachusetts to Rhode Island in 2010 in exchange for a $75 million loan guarantee, and then went bankrupt.