[whiskers08xmt]

IANAL but my father is. This is exactly the advice he gave me in a similar situation. OP is the legal owner of the IP, if he was never given compensation, or signed away the rights. If I was in the OP's place, I would tell his family about this, but also that he doesn't intend to lawyer up. It sounds like the business is reliant on OP, OPs code, and OP's talents, so it would be in the best interest for every party involved to give OP a fair share of the company.

[karmajunkie]

The problem he's going to run into now is that giving him his fair share is going to have dramatically greater tax implications if given in the form of equity. Options are a possibility, and if the company is an LLC there are interesting ways to play with a share of the profit account instead of the capital account. Any way you cut it though, it sounds like OP is owed some substantial proceeds. I hope we hear how this one gets resolved!