Schilling strikes a $2.5M settlement deal with R.I.
PROVIDENCE — Former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling and others have agreed to a $2.5 million settlement to end their part of a lawsuit brought over Rhode Island's disastrous $75 million deal with 38 Studios, his failed video game company.
If approved by the judge overseeing the lawsuit, the agreement filed yesterday with four 38 Studios officials brings an end to Schilling's involvement in the case. Schilling has strenuously denied wrongdoing and said the company failed in 2012 in part because the state didn't do enough to help.
Neither he nor the other company officials admit liability in the settlement with the Rhode Island Commerce Corp., the state's economic development agency.
Retired Superior Court Judge Francis Darigan, who was acting as mediator in the case, said during a news conference that none of the defendants would pay out of pocket. Instead, 38 Studios' insurance company would pay.
“No one is going to be perfectly satisfied with this,” Darigan said. “It's a practical move on the part of the state.”
The Commerce Corp. signed off on the deal after it determined through “an exhaustive study” that the combined assets of Schilling and the other three would not exceed $2.5 million, Darigan said. He added that the attorney who did the review was satisfied “that there were no hidden assets that could be reached.”
Schilling has said in the past that he lost as much as $50 million of his own money that he invested in 38 Studios. Darigan said the examination of his finances was confidential, and he himself did not know the details.
Schilling was fired by ESPN this year for “unacceptable conduct” following an insulting post he made on Facebook about transgender people.
He recently signed a contract to host an online radio show.
Schilling tweeted yesterday afternoon that he wanted to tell his side of the story publicly “once all is approved,” but did not say when that would be.