"Ex-employees can claim for arrears (up to a maximum of 8 weeks), holiday and occupational pension arrears."

It's my understanding that the maximum claim is £350 per week (equivalent to £18k salary).

This comes out of the taxpayer's pocket.

Trebles all round.

This is simply disgraceful. Whoever runs or allegedly ran Empire after Simon and Ian who actually honoured their committments, should be ashamed of themselves. This is nothing short of theft. Look it up in the dictionary sunshine, DISGRACE. THEFT. LIES. OVER. Can you really live with this dereliction of duty?

It's hard to really call it theft without knowing all the facts, but you'd think the company would've been taking 'any' incoming money and sticking it aside for staff.

If you know you're probably going down, you either let your staff walk and get other jobs, or you hold money back for their loyalty.

I've been made redundant twice by companies entering administration, and both times staff got paid right until the end, even though it would've been easy for both companies to use the money elsewhere and make the staff get in line with all the other creditors.

I really do feel for anyone who has just gone two months without pay, only to find themselves out of work with bills mounting up. I wish all of you the best.

I share that sentiment entirely. I know a few people from the Empire camp, good guys! And I wish them all the best going forward!!

Questions should be asked about the sale of Empire's IP. It's strange that the IP was sold days before the company went into administration.

Who owns New World IP? How much did they pay for the Empire IP? Could the Administrator have sold it for more and hence paid off a few debts?

We're still investigating this, Andy. Whoever they are, they're US-based... and have instructed KPMG not to give out any details of their whereabouts/contacts. But before you mention it, we've had a stark refusal from Silverstar Holdings boss Clive Kabatznik that it's him. He told us: "[NWIP] is absolutely, unequivocally not owned by or related to me in any way. Under US security laws I would be obliged under civil criminal penalty to reveal if I was associated with New World." If anyone from Empire has an inkling who it is, we'd love to hear from you...

The Bank (Barclays) got paid from IP sale. The Bank froze the account before any wages for March or April could be paid, They wanted to get as much of their money as possible. The Chairman of Silverstar has retained the IP in conjunction with another company. This should be investigated. No Empire Staff got paid. Silverstar has acted in a most disgraceful way, as have Barclays and KPMG who have all benefited except the Staff!

Please someone investigate these thieves...

I think what everyone deserves is the truth. People who sweated blood for Empire down the years and they get treated like slaves. I know some of those people. They have put their work in and have not been paid. That is theft. Simple as that.

(im)plausible deniability

Whilst you're at it, why not ask Clive what happened to the $9million Silverstar Holdings raised in August 2007?

With regards to the last comment;

There are 6 members of staff who are currently being retained by KPMG to assist in the process. This is standard practice in these circumstances and those staff have had little choice in the matter.

If you seriously think those staff "are making sure the transition of IP goes smoothly", this could not be further from the truth!

KPMG have done a "pre-pack" deal here. They would have agreed a sale price for the assets before putting the company into administration.

Google "pre-pack administration process" for The Insolvency Service website - which should turn up their "how to complain" page (I can't post the URL here).

"Administrators will not only have to reveal the name of the purchaser of the business and the price paid, they will also have to provide details of any connection that the purchaser had with the former directors or shareholders and the price paid."

So it should be easy to find out if Clive had any connection as he was the only director of Empire Interactive.

When i got my call from KPMG they said all i was entitled for was a total of £350 like the rest of the staff. Are you sure its £350 for every week? Im only going by my phonecall and am still awaiting my letters from them. Can anyone confirm either way?

Terrible news. IMHO, Empire had no funds because it was essentially still paying heavily for it's own acquisition by Silverstar. The original loan notes, earn-out payments, convertible debt interest, more recent loans and so on sadly did not seem to add up.
This is a nightmare situation for the ex-employees, who I hope are working towards a legal fight. My full sympathies are with them.

The writing on the wall was surely the March 20th 2008 press release from Silverstar's website.

Also search for SSTR on Seeking Alpha and read some of Kabatznik's nonsense in the most recent Earnings Call Transcript.

Quick tip when googling for SSTR and Empire press releases / financial docs: many of the pdf links are now dead but thanks to Google cache the html links are still available.

Best of luck all those affected by this.

shurely shome mishtake.

MCV doesn't allow links in comments. Google "your rights if your employer is insolvent", pick the first result (not the sponsored link) and look at the What You Can Claim section.

MCV also doesnt allow naming and shaming it would appear.

However a complaint has now been made regarding the exploitation of a prepack (if indeed it was a prepack).

@ anon 10:44am

MCV must delete actionable comment (e.g. potential libel) or it puts itself at risk of legal action. Try to think of a way to word your comment so that it isn't actionable.

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