10-Day Jury Trial Seen in ‘Double-Dealing’ Allegations vs. Ex-Basket Vice President

Plaintiff Basket Entertainment and defendant John Cannata estimate a jury trial in the August 2025 trial term will last approximately 10 days on the company’s “double-dealing” fraud allegations against Cannata, its former vice president (see 2311140004), said the parties’ joint case management report Monday (docket 2:23-cv-01028) in U.S. District Court for Middle Florida in Fort Myers. Basket, a developer of online games and mobile apps for the Roblox platform, hired Cannata in July to identify acquisition targets to grow its user base. It alleges Cannata almost immediately went behind its back and acquired ownership interests in at least two online games for himself without ever presenting them as opportunities to his employer. The defendant tells a different story, according to the case management report. Cannata operates one of the most successful gaming studios on the Roblox platform, and Basket is a small startup company that operates a social media website and app called Picnic, said the report. He alleges Basket "fraudulently induced" him last summer to sign an "asset contribution agreement" under which he joined Basket’s board and contributed a number of his companies’ video games to Basket, it said. “A related arbitration is currently pending, which, if successful, will rescind the agreement and separate the parties,” said the report. Cannata alleges that in their few months together, Basket failed to pay him for his services, “as it was contractually required to do,” it said. Basket initiated its lawsuit after Cannata resigned from the company, alleging that he violated his fiduciary duties to Basket, it said. Cannata denies that he violated any obligations to Basket, “including because the parties expressly agreed as part of his employment agreement that he could continue his independent business of game development,” said the report.