€4.8M that Was Allegedly Used in an Illegal Deal Are Reportedly Returned to ZA/UM

In early October, it became known that Disco Elysium creators Robert Kurvitz, Aleksander Rostov, and Helen Hindpere had left ZA/UM, the studio behind the game, at the end of 2021.

The news was followed by the fired developers stating that the reason for their dismissal was that ZA/UM's new majority shareholder Tütreke OÜ, an Estonian company led by Ilmar Kompus and Tõnis Haavel, obtained control over the studio by fraud.

In November, Disco Elysium's game director Robert Kurvitz and art director Aleksander Rostov shared an open letter in which they alleged that the money Tütreke OÜ used to buy Linnamäe's shares was taken illegally from ZA/UM itself. The devs accused Kompus and Haavel of stealing the money that was intended for a Disco Elysium sequel.

ZA/UM, however, denied Kurvitz and Rostov's claims and added that the reason behind the developers' dismissals was that the former employees created a toxic environment at the studio and tried to illegally sell ZA/UM's IPs to other gaming companies.

In late November, the Estonian Ekspress newspaper reported that ZA/UM partner and Disco Elysium producer Kaur Kender filed a lawsuit against the company in which he described possible details of the fraudulent scheme.

According to the documents, Kompus and Haavel's company purchased four concept sketches for the Disco Elysium sequel from ZA/UM. The concept art was allegedly bought for €1 and then re-sold to ZA/UM for €4.8 million – the sum that was seemingly reserved for the studio and its new project.

Kender also claimed that Kompus "cheated" him out of just under €1 million. At Kender's request, the court seized Kompus' stake in ZA/UM to prevent the studio's sale during the proceedings.

Most recently, Estonian Ekspress reported that Kompus' Tütreke OÜ returned €4.8 million to ZA/UM. It is claimed that the money was returned because Tütreke received it as part of an "invalid transaction".

In addition, it also became known that Kender has withdrawn a lawsuit against Tütreke – ZA/UM revealed the news to GamesIndustry.biz. The studio, however, didn't elaborate on why Kender chose to drop his accusations and only provided a statement from its CEO in which he shared that he was not surprised by the withdrawal of the lawsuit.

"The facts and the law led to this outcome," Kompus said. "We are pleased that Kender and his attorneys have chosen to withdraw their lawsuit – one that should never have been filed in the first place. Their decision affirms there was no basis for their accusations and that I have acted appropriately and responsibly, as underscored by the corporate records I provided."