Schilling's wife attacks Chafee, media

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) - Curt Schilling's wife took to Facebook on Friday to slam Gov. Lincoln Chafee for his handling of the crisis that led to 38 Studios' bankruptcy and to critique the media's coverage of the company.

"So know Rhode Island tax payers everyone is quick to write that you will be fitting the bill for this one," Shonda Schilling wrote in a wall post on the social-networking site. "You know what I think you got. A 110 million dollar 'I told you so' from your beloved Governor Chaffee [sic]."

Schilling said her family put $50 million into 38 Studios, and described the weeks in May after the company defaulted on a $1.1 million payment to the R.I. Economic Development Corporation, triggering a series of events that ended with the company's bankruptcy.

• Related: Access to records slow at 38 Studios

"I was there for those three weeks of hope and hell," she wrote. "My husband so distraught he couldn't function. NOT because he had lost it all but because that team worked SO hard and believed in what they were doing."

"Which is backed up by the fact the media could not find anyone to say that Curt was a bad boss," she continued. "They loved their job and they loved Rhode Island. BUT everyday Gov Chaffee at exactly 4 oclock would have a press conference."

She added: "Eventually running out of things to say [Chafee] resorted to saying 'What did we expect an Athlete to be a businessman'. That was my favorite by the way. Because if you know Curt you know how stupid that sound because he is so intelligent."

Curt Schilling soon followed suit with his own Facebook post responding to a new Associated Press story about emails that suggest 38 Studios failed to provide the EDC with timely access to its financial statements in May despite repeated requests by a state lawyer on behalf of auditors from Deloitte.

"We backed up every ounce of data and email exchanged between the EDC and 38 to INSURE when this BS started to come out, people seriously interested in the truth, will know it," Schilling wrote. "We didn't stonewall anyone, the EDC was trying to bully us and intimidate us on multiple fronts."

He said 38 Studios spent six weeks trying "to resolve issues that never should have arisen," and said both EDC and state officials received copies of the company's financial statements every month as well as an independent audit that found no evidence of wrongdoing by anyone involved with 38 Studios.

The messages - which quickly elicited a stream of supportive responses from other people on Facebook - continued the war of words between the Schillings and Chafee. Christine Hunsinger, the governor's spokeswoman, noted 38 Studios' board voted to approve a bankruptcy filing before Chafee spoke publicly.

"As these documents come out and the situation unfolds, you're clearly seeing that the state was busy working to understand the situation and provide whatever help it could, and I think you're clearly seeing that 38 Studios was not a good partner and was not forthcoming with the information that was necessary," Hunsinger told WPRi.com.

Curt Schilling has said he bears some blame for 38 Studios' demise but has also argued the governor deliberately sabotaged the deal. Chafee has responded that the company's prospects were too bleak to risk more taxpayer dollars without significant investment by a private investor.

A meeting of 38 Studios' creditors is scheduled for next week at U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., where the company was incorporated.

Ted Nesi ( tnesi@wpri.com ) covers politics and the economy for WPRI.com and writes the Nesi's Notes blog. Follow him on Twitter: @tednesi