Forums of the Megaverse®

An explanation of the charges and settlement with Steve Sheiring

I'm having Alex post this letter to RPGnet. Someone on RPGnet got the public information from the State of Michigan showing that Palladium Books took a Plea Bargain and accepted a reduced misdemeanor charge in exchange for a cash restitution settlement of $47,000 (that was gone instantly to pay critical bills).

Being the nature of RPGnet, some people have seen nefarious and deceptive motives behind why I did not reveal this information. The following is my response.

I had hoped to avoid going into the legalities and intricacies of the theft, embezzlement and wrongdoings, as they are extremely painful and complicated. I also hoped that the perpetrator, Steven R. Sheiring, would not be identified for his own safety. I was, and continue to be, concerned that one or more people might take action against Mr. Sheiring. There have been a number of nasty jokes from fans about how they’d like to know who was responsible and what they’d like to do to him. That’s why I didn’t post about the court proceedings or that things had come to an unsatisfying resolve with the plea bargain in State Court.

Please be smart . . .

With Steve’s identity revealed, I make an open plea to our fans NOT to take action against Mr. Sheiring. Not for his welfare (I hope he rots in Hell), but for YOURS.

Please, do NOT do anything you’ll live to regret. He’s not worth it, and YOU will be the one who ends up in jail. As I stated in my address to the court, “While I am not happy with the results of the plea bargain, I feel I have no other recourse but to accept it. I do, however, take satisfaction that Mr. Sheiring has ruined his life and lost all his friends over his wrongdoings at Palladium Books.”

If any type of violence, vandalism, threats or wrongdoing happens to Mr. Sheiring it will not be because Palladium Books revealed his identity. I hope RPGnet’s doing so doesn’t result in anything unfortunate. I urge the organizers and administrators of RPGnet to make a public statement asking people NOT to retaliate in any way against Mr. Sheiring.

There are no misrepresentations

The damages are true as I have represented them in my posts on the Palladium Website. If anything, the numbers are conservative. The reason the original charges were “Theft and Embezzlement of $20,000 or greater” is because that’s the name of the statute or whatever it is.

Sadly, some people hear only a fragment of a story, make assumptions, jump to the wrong conclusion and then speculate and make claims that aren’t true. I have not lied, exaggerated, or misrepresented Palladium’s troubles, damages, losses or the reasons why. Everything I have stated is true.

Why accept the Plea Bargain?

The legal system as portrayed on television and other works of fiction are just that, “fiction.”

The police are overworked and underpaid. The courts are filled with brutal and bloody crimes that take precedence over nonviolent crimes. Our jails are filled with violent criminals, murderers, drug dealers and others. That makes non-violent crimes, like theft and embezzlement, low priority and get the slightest of punishments. Truth be told, after sitting in court and hearing some of the other crimes, I can understand that outlook.

I was told right off the bat, that Mr. Sheiring would probably get probation no matter what. That although he could be looking at as much as 10 years, the reality was probably one year suspended sentence and a felony on his record. If he did time at all, it would probably be 6 months to one year. With good behavior, he’d be out in 3-6 months.

My attorneys, accountant, and other advisors (including the prosecutor and detective, in an unofficial capacity), all agreed that with Palladium in dire straits, I should take whatever restitution I could get, provided it was more than a token amount of a few thousand. So that’s what I did. I accepted the much lesser charge of a “misdemeanor count of $200 or less embezzlement.” That meant no felony charge or time served. He is not a threat to society, no violence was involved, and it was his first offense.

This plea made me angry and sick, but he’d probably walk on probation anyway. As Mr. Sheiring’s defense attorney put it, I could take the plea and get some money that might help Palladium, or I could refuse, and take Steve to trial to “get my pound of flesh.”

Really, I had little choice. I had to think about my guys and Palladium’s survival. We needed the money desperately.

Supposedly, Steve Sheiring is broke. Whatever he may have stolen and embezzled is supposedly gone. We were told his 79 year old father put up the settlement money.

As part of the settlement, Steve also wrote off his investment money and any interest and royalties owed to him by Palladium Books. That’ll help in the long run, but not in our present situation.

That’s right, Steve Sheiring was an investor. He was also a trusted and a beloved friend for 24 years. An employee for 14. My right hand man. An uncle to my kids, and one of the gamers who helped convince me to start Palladium in the first place. Maybe he thought Palladium owed him for those reasons. I don’t know, it doesn’t matter. He’s also the person who lied to every person at Palladium for two years running, stole more than eleven thousand books by the case, and engaged in a variety of wrongdoings that crippled this company. The betrayal and having to deal with the ramifications of his actions rocked every person at Palladium. We have gone through more pain than you can imagine.

As terrible and agonizing as all of this was, the grim reality was, Palladium did not have the money to pursue this with the F.B.I. or in civil court. A civil case would cost tens of thousands of dollars that Palladium nor I possessed. Plus, if the money is all gone . . . it’s a hollow victory. To go to the FBI we were told we would need a forensic accountant to pore through the bookkeeping and make note of the thousands of small things done to make the charges stick. Records so convoluted – thanks to Mr. Sheiring – that my accountant said it would cost at least $100,000 and hundreds of man hours to provide the FBI with all the data they would need. Both actions were out of reach and would only hasten Palladium’s demise if we persued them, stealing away more time, energy, and money (if we had it). We had no idea how people would respond to our call for help, so I took the plea.

It was one of those excruciating moments: Do you want “revenge” or do you want to “survive” and continue to do business. In a perfect world, Steve would be in a Federal Prison doing 6-10 years and we’d have restitution of all (or at least half) the damages. But this is not a perfect world. I had to make the decision I thought was best for Palladium and everybody involved. Besides, we had all spent enough time hating this S.O.B., if Palladium was to survive his treachery, we needed to focus on its survival. If there is divine justice, Steve will pay for his crimes, big time.

That’s the Truth

Those of you who want to believe the worst, I guess you will, and nothing I say will change your mind. You want me to be some kind of lying scum bag and you’ll find some way to make me out that way. Unfortunate, because it’s not true.

Only my staff and those closest to me know how agonizing this entire ordeal has been. The trauma inflicted upon the entire staff or how many tears and cries of anguish we’ve all shed. This is not a joke or a con game. This has been living hell.

We anguished about going public with our appeal. Palladium’s fans don’t owe me anything. Everything I have ever done, from keeping prices low to the X-Mas Grab Bags, I did because I thought it best for everyone. I love my work and my life. I have no regrets.

The phenomenal outpouring of love and support Palladium fans have exhibited in just this past week alone is overwhelming and magnificent. The greatest moment of my life. Even if Palladium Books should go under, I am one of the luckiest and richest people on the face of the Earth. Not rich in money (if Palladium goes under, I’ll literally lose everything, and a lot of other people will suffer too), but rich in friendship, respect, and love. I feel truly blessed. I’m living the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life.” I mean truly living that movie with thousands of friends rushing forward to help save Palladium Books. People literally from around the world. That’s incredible beyond belief.

I thank every single one of Palladium’s fans and supporters.

For those of you who dislike me and/or Palladium Books, believe what you will. Hate me for whatever reason, but it doesn’t change the fact that I am blessed beyond my wildest dreams. I have a wonderful life, and the greatest, kindest fans in the world. With their trust and help, and with hard work and a little luck at Palladium’s end, we will survive this very real, very true crisis of treachery.

I write this post only for Palladium’s fans, so you aren’t concerned or confused about what’s going on.

As those who know me, really know me, can testify, I would never lie about something like this. Never.

Sincerely,
Kevin Siembieda
President and Owner of Palladium Books Inc.

Lets just hope that this can all be put behind Palladium now.

Lynx

Lets hope so, but I have a feeling that the shockwaves of all of this are going to be felt for awhile.

Mr. Siembieda, I work in a court house and I know all about the deals with the devil and hard choices that get made there everyday. A Criminal trial would likely have been a long, drawn out affair that would have left Palladium to die in the meantime, and I believe you made the right choice in a difficult decision. Thanks for thinking of all of us, the people who love your work, and do your best to put this all behind you.

We believe you and will do our best to help get Palladium back on it's feet.

I am only sorry that you had to go through such a horrible situation.

Were still doing our best and, I too understand about the realities and slow movement of court cases and the legal system.

Here's a question: does Steve Sheiring own intellectual property within Palladium that might now have to be pulled from the books, or did he give up those rights when he forfeited his royalties?

(yes, I have something specific in mind)

We're there for you and Palladium, Kev. We are so very sorry you all had to suffer through this, but at the same time, you've got a lot of folks who aren't resting one minute until you're all back up and in top shape.

You can count on us.

Amen. I'm just waiting on Madhaven to make my next order.

Hey, everyone, what's with the glum faces?! As I recall, there's still work to be done! It'll take more than one miserable, disgusting, petty little man to stomp our spirits, right? Justice, however meager, has been served. We can hope someday, this awful person will get shot by police for resisting arrest after he was caught stealing Pepsis from the gas station he will most assuredly be working at.

In the meantime, I'm here to save Palladium and drink PBR, and I just ran out of Pabst.

As someone who covered the courts in both Wayne County, Detroit, Washtenaw County, Livingston County and St. Clair County at various times in his journalistic career, I have to say that what Kevin described happens several times a day, just as he described it.

It sucks, but from my 14 years experience as a reporter that's a typical case.

Agreed. I am a Probation Officer and I also know about allthe deals at original sentencing and the "slap on their wrist" deals for PVs.

Kevin, I just want you to know that we support you. Whatever you need to do the keep the books coming we appreciate. Whatever you do to keep food on your table, we understand.

That's what I'm talking about!

C'mon guys, we're not through yet! Let's pick it up, hit those FLGSs, run those demos, look up those old gaming buddies, think outside the box, and absolutely not slow down for one minute until Palladium is in the clear!

We're part of something special here--

CHAAAAAAAAARGE!!!!!!

Allright I'll charge, but if my horse comes out from under me I'm sending the DR's bill to you!

I'm glad the name is out there. I remember first talking to Kevin about the theft months and months ago and being taken back by how he sounded. This deep and personal betrayal has, it seems clear to me, really hurt the Palladium family in a very personal way.

I hope that Steve can get his act together and one day face his demons. In the meantime, I am confident that Palladium will emerge from this trial all the stronger.

Hey, horse optional. Feel free to Charge Forward For Palladium on your own feet as well.

What he said.
Much as the basteech should have to pay..IN FULL.. in both time and monetary terms, with the american judicial system as it is... KS did the right thing out of a whole steaming pile of bad outcomes.
NONE ofthe outcomes aside from full restitution AND hard jail time are optimal. But what can ya do?

To paraphrase what Kevin said "It ain't worth it to do this guy harm. YOU'LL be the one behind bars!" Let's just hope that all this crap can go where it belongs (into the blackest depths of memory) and have PBooks come out alive, and perhaps better, once all the damage has been scabbed over.

Ja-luv!

They may take our horses, but they can never take our Palladium Books RPGs!

The thing that blows my mind it was such a close "friend" to Kevin.

Yes, my comrades, side-by-side we march. Our enemies are legion, but we are hard and strong. Try as they may to cut us down like a good farmer threshes his corn, the Legions of the Megaverse still march on! And soon, with the rising of a glorious, crimson dawn, the sound of our enemies battered bones crushed beneath our iron-shod boots, we will see the rising of their tattered white flag.

And every single one of us, will show our scars, and tell the tale, of how we fought on Saint Kevin's Day. Anyone who fights today shall be my brother.

~plunger in one hand, trash can lid in the other. Faithfull killer Tabby at my side!~

ALRIGHT LETS DO THIS THING!!!!!!!

The dedication on the back of the first page of SOT4 says it all.

This was treachery most foul.

Our job is to undo the damage caused by that treachery.

Hmm... charge, I thought you meant charge with your credit cards....

But anyhow, let us do as much as we can to ensure a future for Palladium Books.

power drill and a harmonica here

<ANIMAL HOUSE>

Over? Did you say "over"? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!

And it ain't over now. 'Cause when the goin' gets tough.........the tough get goin'! Who's with me? Let's go!

</ANIMAL HOUSE>

From what I have been reading on this board it seems that there might be a change for Palladium not only to survive this ordeal but to come out stronger then before.

do do do doo
do do do do doo
do do do doo
do do do do do do doo do do doo do do do do do do do doooo doooo

It's the Final Countdown!

not that it is, but that's good training music. time to hit the weights!

Germans?
Save it.

I was going with Karate Kid's "You're The Best! Arounnd! Nothing's ever gonna keep you down!!!", but I like yours better.

Kev,

Thank you very much for posting this. Although you tried to keep this from us, I understand fully well why you did. You did that to protect us from doing something foolish. Very understandable...

As for the naysayers and apathetics, it's easy to doubt and to disbelieve, so that they don't have to care. Their ability to suspend belief and trust is their security blanket. I've known and been among people like that for many years. For people like that, heroes are the stuff of legends, fairy tales, and story books, or someone who did something 'stupid' and got themselves killed only to be called a hero in the aftermath.

From the orders, the outpouring of support, and the donations - I am sure you can readily see; these people do not represent the bulk of your' fan base. Palladium WILL survive. It will survive, because YOU Kev, are our hero, and in your' hour of need - we will do everything we can to be YOUR' heroes.

Stay strong, old man, we'll pull through this one way or another.

Best Regards,

Edward A. May

aka

This sort of crime is always perpetrated by close friends/family. Sad, but true. Few others have the access to the goods.

Onward, Legions of the Megaverse!

So...I'm confused...what would people say kevin lied about and why?

I just got home and read this...I'm stunned.

Sheiring was the player who created Coake, head of the Cyber-Knights...I can't reconcile this in my mind.

I met the man...

Hell, I jokingly bowed and pledged undying allegiance to him at Origins a few years ago...

....I don't even have the words to describe how I feel right now...

This is SO funny...Like...really...in a macabre way...

It'll be SO interesting to see how Coake is gonna be delt with in future RIFTS books.

Yeah. I doubt Kevin would ruin the character because of this. Coake is a central figure in the game. But in so many ways, Coake is tainted for me now....

I'm running a PbP game right now and Coake has been a central figure so far. I can't even think about what I'm going to do with the character.

Sheiring created Coake and some of my favorite HU villians in Villains Unlimited.

It's just too much of a shock....

Hey, that's for sure! You and many, many, many others have been awesome! Thank you so much for your continuing support and faith in me and the crew at Palladium. We'll try not to let you down.

Sincerely,
Kevin Siembieda

That's what's so "ironically" funny.

One of the greatest heros in RIFTS turns out to be made buy the guy who almost destoryed the MEGAVERSE.

OMG, the Irony is killing me.

No, man, it's all about Rocky IV and "No Easy Way Out!"

Nice to know what's going on behind the scenes, that was really eating me, though as unfortiante as the results are.

Now what's this about Keven ranting about us fans no oweing Palladium Books anything? I don't know about the rest of you out there, but I owe them quite a bit, gaming has been the largest impact on my social and intellecual development in my life (and I do say this with a stright face). For nearly 7 years now (which may not sound like much, but that's almost 40% of my life, at the young age of 19), gaming, and Palladium Books has given me the ability to think free form and think on my feet (from years of G.Ming), and is what I draw on for inspiratration for art and 3D modlings and writing. Aside from the cover price of their books, I owe them much of who I am, and I'm glad to help repay the debt.

Cinos

Kevin I'm very sorry to hear that it turned out to be such a close friend. For some time I had figured it was him behind the theft but hoped it wasn't at the same time. I hope you just remember you still got a bunch of friends out here who will help in what way they can.

In the end, this one just came down to a no-brainer.

I think it's pretty much a matter of record that I massively admire the independance, invention and imagination of Palladium books whilst periodically wishing to hell they would hire a game designer, and maybe a couple of editors to do something with the steady wellspring of ideas they pour out.

Given that, I have to credit folks like KS with at least above-average intelligence, for roleplayers (that's an important catagory - as a group, we tend to be upper-percentile types, though it's a bit chicken and the egg as to why).

That in turn means that I never had any real doubt that the statement was true - the consequences of a lie would be catastrophic and almost immediately discovered /anyway/, particularly in this information age of ours, where if you really want to know the underwear size of your favourite starlet, it's a matter of public record.

So there were no doubts to address - I've played a lot of games, from D&D to Traveller, through Chaosium and White Wolf onwards - over a hundred different systems at last count. Palladium may not therefore, be the life-changer for me it has been for some folks, but I still have a soft spot for it - maybe it's the unashamed cheese, maybe it's the buckets-of-dice damage resolution, maybe it's just because no game is complete unless you have Robots, Ninjas and Dinosaurs (or, in one memorable Phase World game where someone played the first sneaky investigator-Seljuk to be honoured as a Quatoria, a Robot Ninja Dinosaur!), but the only thing to say is never give in, it would be a sad way to go after such a long, hard and often shakey road.

But even so... what the hell were you thinking with the NGage? - Grab anyone you can find from the team who made Fallout and start looking at the PC!
(This of course, because I might have some small chance of /getting/ a PC title... ^_^ )

It's startlingly sad that an icon like Palladium could be so wounded by a single person. I'm astonished that it could have come down to this, but like the sig says COWBOYS NEVER QUIT!

An open letter to Kevin:

Dear Mr. Siembiedia,

When I first read the posts revealing who the perpetrator was, and the circumstances of this, I was as stunned as everyone else. Then I hit the next phase, which was "of course... it all makes perfect sense." Who else but a trusted insider could pull this off? Anyone who could do this much damage over this much time and not get caught would have to be so deeply trusted that their work was given little oversight. And if you can't trust someone you've known for more than 20 years, who can you trust?

I admit, I am one of the people on this board who you might put in the category of "naysayer." I've addressed many of the problems I see with Palladium's business practices, as have some others. But I am sticking with Palladium as my ONLY RPG game source, and really, almost the only sci-fi fantasy stuff of any kind I buy anymore. I've griped on these boards (and to you via an e-mail) that there are things you should not be doing, and that you are trying to do too much. Could you have prevented this? No, because I don't think you could EVER have dreamed of something like this. It takes deep paranoia to suspect a friend of 20+ years without in-your-face evidence.

In my business, this is what we call a "life-changing circumstance." This is a tragedy that has become an opportunity. This is a chance to re-think and re-imagine Palladium books from the business side. A chance to free yourself up for more artistic greatness and keep Palladium a powerhouse.
I hope someday you will post a notice on these boards that will reflect the following changes which I think will help Palladium.
1) You hire a hard-nosed business manager who has little to do with the creative side, but runs sales, accounting, and that stuff. Someone really UN-creative who will be there to ensure efficiency. Someone who isn't part of the family (so to speak), so they CAN get suspicious and ( catch future larceny.
2) You appoint a Managing Editor who shares your vision who can more closely shepherd books through the process, who can give freelancers close guidance, and can keep your freelancers on a track to work within your vision. By doing this, you give freelancers a chance to "revise as they go" and hopefully eliminate the need for extensive re-writes and allowing you to kill unsatisfactory work sooner rather than later.
3) You will try to do more market research. I'm sure many, many people on these boards were happy to hear that RIFTS was going electronic, myself included. And there is no way that you could know that the N-GAGE thing wouldn't work, but I know a lot of the more level-headed folks on these boards asked themselves (a) what the HELL is an N-GAGE? and (b) do I really want to buy a platform for the sake of just one game? On a side note, when the PC version comes along, I will be the first to pre-order.

Finally, I would like to say to you: Congratulations on handling an impossible situation with as much class and dignity as anyone could. Your honesty, humility, and open vulnerability in the face of this adversity make you an example to all. I cannot imagine the pain you have gone through with this, but look at what has happened: You have united a community, you have taken great strides to keep Palladium functioning, and you have created an opportunity for growth.

In another post, I encouraged you to "Train your people, listen to your people, trust your people, and watch your people." I still hold to that. You could NEVER have anticipated an event like this. You've handled it wonderfully. Now take the steps to keep Palladium safe and make it great.

Kevin, just keep producing the books that the fans request and you guys will be fine.

No wonder the local store hasn't had as many books as they used to for the past few years.

Unfortunately it's also killing Palladium.

So Steve's Defiler's Character was the inspiration for Coake?? I'm Lost?

From the bits and pieces I've...erm...pieced together, Steve created Coake (who was one of the Defilers) and that character eventually "turned into" and created the Cyber-Knights.

And yeah, the irony of that is unbearable.

How far the noble can fall from grace.

I almost want to get rid of every book that I got in a X-Mas grab bag that this dirt bag put his signature on and replacing them with "untainted" books.

I won't go into a (edit: super-long) diatribe here as I've already posted my feelings about the outcome in the numerous other places that the notice has been share. Suffice it to say that it makes me sick to my stomach, so I can only imagine what the people at PB feel like. But that just makes this drive even more important. We are not only rallying to help the company recover financially, I firmly believe that we can bolster the role-playing community and the morale of the Palladium staff as well. We've come together as a family, brothers and sisters in arms. But while we've made significant progress this battle is long from over. Let's show the naysayers what a role-playing family can really do, and let them choke on their crow as we drive this company to new heights! So now, let's turn our focus away from the betrayal that brought us all here and focus on the task at hand. Onward, don't let up until this battle is won!

Mr. Siembieda, like I said to you in the PM... I'll buy some of that swamp land. I'm sure many others would to, if you come up short it's a viable option and a better one than going under.