Infinium Labs in trouble

Infinium Labs, the company behind the long-delayed Phantom games-on-demand service, is being investigated by the US Securities and Exchange Commission over alleged legal violations and unpaid taxes.

The SEC has announced plans to bring charges against former CEO Tim Roberts for violating federal securities law. Although specific details of the charges were not revealed, Infinium has said it believes they are connected with a recent SEC enquiry into "phony fax scams," where penny stocks were illegally advertised to investors.

The SEC also claims that Infinium did not keep accurate payroll and tax records during Roberts' reign, and owes fines and interest payments to the tune of USD 1.2 million.

Kevin Bachus, who took over from Roberts in August, said the company is not at risk of collapse as a result, and that Infinium is planning to work out a payment schedule with the IRS. Speaking to US website Gamespot, he said that this is "part of a process that's designed to address any deficiencies that exist."

"Evidently, as part of their investigation, the SEC has concluded that Tim [Roberts] has done something wrong. We don't know what it was. I don't know if Tim even knows what it was."

Bachus said Infinium had now "looked at everything can we can think to look at" and didn't expect to find anything more - "But I didn't expect to find this, either," he added.

The future of the Phantom is now in doubt once again. Back in May Bachus said that the system would launch in the US "later this year", but that's looking increasingly unlikely. He's also previously confirmed that the system would be coming to Europe - but a release date is yet to be announced. Infinium was unavailable for comment at the time of writing.