https://www.pcgamer.com/former-tiny-metal-dev-admits-kickstarter-embezzlement-accusations-were-untrue/

Controversy engulfed the turn-based tactics game Tiny Metal ahead of his release last year when Tariq Lacy, a former marketer and PR manager on the project, claimed that funding for the project was actually drawn from money raised for another game called Project Phoenix. Tiny Metal failed to achieve its 2016 Kickstarter goal, but Project Phoenix pulled in more than ten times its $100,000 target—and so, according to Lacy, Creative Intelligence Arts, the company behind Project Phoenix, effectively closed its doors and restarted as Area 35 to work on Tiny Metal, which was the game that director and producer Hiroaki Yura actually wanted to make. 

Yura denied any shenanigans, saying that Area 35 and CIA were created as separate entities to provide "corporate clarity and identity." He further claimed that Lacy's accusations were "factually incorrect" and "libel," and also accused him of personal misconduct, saying that his contract with the company was bought out "due to him being a toxic employee who has sexually harassed our female staff amongst many other problems."