![[H]ardOCP](/images/blank.gif){kind=small}
- Date:
- Tuesday , April 15, 2003
- Author:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
VisionTek's Legacy
Some very tough allegations are being made about NVIDIA based VisionTek Xtasy video cards in Illinois. We have excerpts from court documents that draw a grim picture of those cards we loved so much.
VisionTek is a much different company than it used to be. The "new" VisionTek is now a division of Hartford Computer Group. Few employees are shared between the old and new VisionTeks. VisionTek has moved on from even selling NVIDIA based graphics cards any more and have a new line of R350 and RV350 based ATI solutions that you will soon see for sale in the USA.
Hartford Computer Group, no doubt wanted to capitalize on the very successful VisionTek company name and Xtasy brand name as they could carry a very positive spin with buyers. Sadly, a lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois Eastern Division last week that mentions the VisionTek company name and Xtasy brand name multiple times.
One of the key defendants in the suit is Mark Polinsky, former VisionTek CEO. The current VisionTek cannot be included in the lawsuit due to its filing of Bankruptcy. VisionTek verified to me today on the phone that Mark Polinsky is not a current full-time employee of VisionTek. It was stated that Mr. Polinsky is contracted to VisionTek currently in a “consultant” capacity. John Gunn, former VisionTek General Manager, is also working at VisionTek currently in a contracted part-time consultancy capacity. He is not named in the lawsuit discussed here.
The plaintiffs in the case are various individuals and associations, which are claiming that due to the defendants’ fraudulent actions, lost millions of dollars invested in VisionTek. The suit, filed last week, is 32 pages long and filled with allegations of Enron-esque behavior. That however is not is what of interest here.
What is of interest are allegations of VisionTek activity that might directly affect VisionTek NVIDIA based video card owners. The following is an excerpt from paragraphs 70 and 71 of the lawsuit.
At the time it made the agreement with Nvidia, VisionTek was starved for cash and under intense pressure to get its products quickly into the marketplace. VisionTek therefore decided to renege on its agreement with Nvidia. Rather than destroying the parts as promised, VisionTek, upon information and belief, built its graphic cards using the defective Component Parts and then fraudulently sold those cards to its customers.
The lawsuit goes into no further detail about the allegations made. It does not specify chip type, or what the defect supposedly was composed of.
I do think it is safe to say that this could possibly be concerning over 100,000 video cards.
I personally know of no wide spread problems with past VisionTek video cards. Of course we have trumpeted their video cards’ qualifications from the pages of our website as many of you already know. Remember that these are allegations and not facts. Remember that some folks that got burned for millions of dollars are the ones making those allegations as well.
I don’t know fact from fiction here, but it will surely be interesting to see what becomes of this story. If it comes out that this reference to selling defecting parts to consumers is true, it would be my opinion that NVIDIA would certainly have had to know what was going on. I spoke with NVIDIA this afternoon and they were not aware of the lawsuit but were certainly going to have their legal department check into it.
We will keep you informed of any statements made or surrounding situations developing.