Richard Garriott accuses NCsoft of fraud

Richard Garriott, the man behind Ultima and Tabula Rasa, is suing his previous employer NCsoft for $24 million.

Richard "Lord British" Garriott split from NCsoft, the developer and publisher behind Tabula Rasa, late last year, though it appears that Lord British wasn't too happy.

Kotaku reports on a suit filed in the Texas Western District Court by Garriott accusing NCsoft of fraud, further suing the company for $24 million.

Garriott made history in 2008 by becoming the first second-generation astronaut; his father Owen Garriott was a retired NASA astranaut. The space trip reportedly cost Richard "Lord British" Garriott almost $30 million, so $24 million would go some way to funding his second mission...

[UPDATE] - Details on Garriott's complaints have have arisen due to his filing being published online.

According to the complaint Garriott did not leave the company voluntarily. During quarantine after his historic space flight, NCsoft informed Garriott that his time with the company was over, much to his distress.

Reportedly Garriott's published farewell letter, which claimed that he was moving to greener pastures, was not written by him, but NCsoft themselves.

This becomes problematic when Garriott's granted stock options, which were to last until 2011, would expire within 90 days if he quit voluntarily. The above letter forced Garriott to sell off his stock options during the current financial downturn, despite making repeated attempts for NCsoft to change his departure to involuntary.

This brings us to Garriott's lawsuit, requesting $24 million in damages from NCsoft. You can read the original document here.