Rep. Lauren H. Carson is calling upon Rhode Island Attorney General Peter F. Kilmartin and the State Police to release documents related to the state’s four-year investigation into the 38 Studios deal, adding her voice to a growing list of state leaders seeking transparency for the probe that ended this summer without criminal charges.
“A weekend media report indicated that Rhode Island taxpayers have been left on the hook for more than $50 million as a result of the 38 Studios deal. Especially with a cost that high, there’s no question in my mind that the public deserves to know the details of the investigation and be able to see why no charges have been filed,” said Representative Carson (D-Dist. 75, Newport). “The public demands and deserves transparency from its state government, and anything less is damaging to its credibility and the public’s trust in it. I, too, want to know what was discovered through this four-year-long investigation, and I ask the attorney general and the State Police to release its findings and records.”
Attorney General Kilmartin and State Police Supt. Col. Steven G. O’Donnell announced this summer that, although the investigation will remain open, it is now inactive and no criminal charges are being filed in relation to the state’s 2010 investment of $75 million for loan guarantees to Curt Schilling’s video game development company, which moved to Rhode Island in 2011 and swiftly went bankrupt. The attorney general has declined to release records related to the lengthy investigation.
Representative Carson joins House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello; Gov. Gina Raimondo; the leaders of Common Cause RI, the Rhode Island affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union, the League of Women Voters and many other state, local and organizational leaders in Rhode Island in asking that the records be released.
