Wurld Media Execs Face Tax Fraud Charges
Two Wurld Media executives were arraigned on felony and misdemeanor charges including grand larceny, money laundering, falsifying business records, failure to pay benefits, and failure to withhold income taxes in Sarasota Springs, N.Y., on Friday, according to the local paper, The Glens Falls Post-Star. Wurld Media is a peer-to-peer company that Roo Group bought for $10 million in February.
The charges reportedly came after a seven-month investigation by police and a state tax agency, and could potentially land the duo — Wurld Media CEO Gregory Kerber and CFO Richard Saxton — in prison for more than 50 years. The alleged crimes supposedly occurred late last year, prior to the acquisition, and during this summer, when funds from the sale were transferred.
Wurld Media has a checkered past. The company was involved with adware that was commonly attached to the popular P2P client Morpheus. A couple of years ago it started a new business unit called Peer Impact that was one of the first P2P services to establish legitimate relationships with Hollywood labels and studios. The software included an early revenue-sharing incentive for video creators and users who shared content. A year ago, Peer Impact offered its entire music catalog for a penny per song and 10 cents per album during the holiday season.
But the Peer Impact program, which required a Windows software download, never gained much traction. Roo’s modest acquisition price of $10 million (of which $2 million was reserved for milestone payouts) reflects that. Wurld Media does possess some intellectual property related to P2P technologies.
Roo discontinued support for Wurld Media over the summer. At the time, we were contacted by a Wurld Media customer who was understandably upset that he could not make new purchases or play existing ones. Despite our repeated queries via phone and email, Roo did not offer an explanation.
Roo now lists among its services an enterprise P2P product for media companies with the contact address being Greg Kerber’s email.
Our Peer Delivery Network (PDN) supports all industry standard media delivery methods and enables the development of new revenue streams from Pay-Per-View, Video-On-Demand, Subscriptions and Streaming.
Roo trades on the OTC Bulletin Board. It had sales of about $3.4 million in the third quarter, and a net loss of around $8.2 million.
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Its about time these two individuals are paying the price for their actions as of the past few years. There is another individual whom should be held accountable…Kirk Feathers, the CIO of Wurld Media. He was well aware of the actions and holds an equal share of the responsiblities of the outcome of these criminal actions. I am somewhat upset since the article does not elaborate on their worst crime of all…not paying their employeee, some for as much as a year plus. Even when Wurld was purchased by Roo, the owners, and their loyal ass kissers were paid their outstanding payrolls, but those who moved on, most for financial reasons, were at one point offered, by ROO Media, 40% of what they were owed, and some who agreed to these rediculous terms never even saw the 40%. How can ROO as a public company get away with this?? Im not sure, but the wheels of justice turn very slooooow…..stay tuned, more to come….
BTW, it’s Saratoga Springs, NY, not Florida.
Thanks ex-Wurlder — fixed.
How in the world can these employees who were dumb enough to work without pay and Iam sure realized there was a problem, show there stupidity once again by complaining about their back pay.After all those who were either dumb enough to or lacked initiative to quit there job and go else where, I can’t see how they can hold anyone but themselves responsible for there negligence to themselves and their famlies.It surely wasn’t a case of loyality. If they could be honest with themselves and others and the truth be known they all thought the company was going to suceed and did not want to take a chance that with their greed they may loose the pot of gold.Then were foolish enough to join and be led by former disgruntled employee,and her questionable motives.
You work “X” amount of hours, you should be paid for those hours while you are employeed by Wurld Media.
Blaming people that were victimized by Wurld is the typical Wurld Media bully mentality. Shame on you LittleMother.
Excuse me Mr. Hatch, I may not have made myself perfectly clear..Yes when you work you should get paid “X” amount of dollars. But when you are willing and make a conscious decison on your own to go to work week after week without pay then you must accept the consequences of your actions. Not come down on management like a pack of wolves and try and sue for what you already knew wasnt there..
After reading the various comments can someone please answer me this one question—-If the CIO of Wurld Media, Kirk Feathers, had knowledge that these employees weren’t getting paid—why now is he not facing charges and why is no one demanding that something be done with him?????
Forget the blame game, I want to know more about the good stuff. Can someone fill me in on the money laundering? Little Mother, you seem to know a lot, can you fill us in?
Just what I have been following in the paper–seems like there’s more coming out now!
Wow: what kind of twisted logic would blame those who were lied to regarding their pay rather than the ones who lied? BTW, I’m a Wurld Investor. Over the years I got a lot of investor letters tracking all the wonderful plans for the company. I don’t seem to have gotten the letter informing me that the company I invested in was sold, nor have I seen any return on my investment despite the sale. Who put out those letters anyway?