PIAK – State Executor Tibus Heth announced today that he would invalidate the results of the blind auction of Federation contested space that took place in YC111, citing systemic failures of the megacorporations to retain control of their territories and suggesting that at least some of the megacorps may have retained foreign funding.
“When the State conquered Placid and adjacent territories three years ago, my auction was undertaken on the assumption that each and every megacorporation would demonstrate the superiority of the Caldari model,” said Executor Heth in his statement. “They have, however, failed from the bottom to the top to supplant the inferior Gallente governments or to properly support the State Protectorate in maintaining sovereignty. As such, they have effective abandoned their assets.”
Taking advantage of an obscure corporate law that allows property to be legally claimed by another corporation if it is legally declared abandoned, Heth utilized his powers as Executor to rescind rights to all Placid territory and return it to State control. Heth went on to reiterate that the megacorporations would not be reimbursed for the lost territorial rights.
“Those who fail to make good on their investments should not be rewarded for it,” Heth went on to say, “and there is some evidence not every bid was made with the strength of the Caldari economy behind it.”
It has largely been assumed that most of the megacorps privately considered the territorial rights to be sunk costs, as the rapid changes in sovereignty in contested space has meant none have been able to make sustained development, though Ishukone Corporation had a contract with the Intaki Assembly which gave it greater leeway in its actions in the system.
However, reports are that megacorporation leadership is harshly critical of Tibus Heth, believing he has overstepped his bounds significantly by revoking the territorial rights. In a brief press conference, Lai Dai CEO Alakoni Ishanoya said, “This is the sort of thing which caused us to form the State in the first place,” referencing the attempt by the nascent Gallente Federation to force Caldari colonies to submit to Federal jurisdiction. “Though on the surface it appears the law was applied as written, it was intended to be used for salvage and reclamation purposes only. Not to essentially swindle the megacorps out of their ISK.”
The other megacorps, bar Kaalakiota, have released statements declaring their intent to investigate their legal rights to compensation under the State legal code.