If you were worried that a certain Internet Warlord’s crusade against Star Citizen might make it to the feds, you can breathe a little easier today. A prominent Star Citizen backer and Massively OP commenter says he petitioned the FTC under the Freedom of Information Act for all records on investigations regarding Chris Roberts’ studios. The result? There’s seemingly nothing at all, or at least nothing the FTC feels compelled to release. An excerpt from the FTC’s alleged response reads,
“This is in response to your request dated September 11, 2015 under the Freedom of Information Act seeking access to ‘all investigative records, actions or planned actions concerning Cloud Imperium Games or Roberts Space Industries.’ In accordance with the FOIA and agency policy, we have searched our records as of September 11, 2015,the date we received your request in our FOIA office. Our search of the FTC’s records did not identify any record that would respond to your request.”
The letter appears to be signed by Assistant General Counsel Dione J. Stearns.
Derek Smart claimed repeatedly over the summer that he was laying the groundwork for a lawsuit and soliciting the involvement of multiple federal agencies that investigate fraud, including the FTC and FBI. “I am going to continue fighting this, while working with the Federal authorities, including the FBI, to get to the bottom of what is going on with this project and where backer money is going,” he wrote in August. While it’s possible that the FTC is legally obfuscating or Smart simply hasn’t acted on his threats to file anything yet, he responded to the posting of the letter on Twitlonger by calling the backer a nutcase, among dozens of other insults. He has subsequently refused to comment directly on his filing activity.
In more pleasant Star Citizen news, the studio behind the game posted a Star Marine status update over the weekend. “Last week I said I hoped we’d be doing some playtests this week, and QA has been able to do just that!” writes Jason Hutchins. “The next segment of Which Glitch promises to be a good one.”
