Disco Elysium devs say they were forced out of ZA/UM after fraudulent takeover

gamedeveloper.com:

Disco Elysium game director Robert Kurvitz and art director Aleksander Rostov have published a statement alleging they were forced out of ZA/UM after Estonian businessmen Ilmar Kompus and Tõnis Haavel obtained control of the company using fraudulent means.

There's a bit of context required here, so allow us to digress. Back in October, three key members of the Disco Elyisum team – including Kurvitz and Rostov – departed ZA/UM and claimed they had been forced out by studio leadership.

The situation was complicated by the fact that Kurvitz and Rostov were studio co-founders and shareholders, and eventually resulted in Kurvitz filing a lawsuit against ZA/UM in Estonia on behalf of his company Telomer OÜ in a bid to "obtain information and review documents."

Although Rostov wasn't included in that lawsuit, the co-founder has now penned a Medium post alongside Kurvitz to share their account of what unfolded at ZA/UM.

Rostov and Kurvitz explain their rights to Disco Elysium exist in the form of a minority stake in an Estonian company called Zaum Studio OÜ, which "owns everything related to the game."

They add that the majority of Zaum Studio OÜ's shares were initially owned by Estonian businessman and investor Margus Linnamäe, who provided the initial capital to kickstart the company. 

In 2021, however, Linnamäe was bought out by another minority shareholder, an Estonian company called Tütreke OÜ, which is described by Rostov and Kurvitz as a "vehicle for two Estonian businessmen – Ilmar Kompus and Tõnis Haavel."

Now, the duo claim to have learned that Tütreke OÜ "must have obtained control over Zaum Studio OÜ by fraud," and that the cash used by Tütreke OÜ to purchase its majority stake in the company was "taken illegally from