GreenTech Auto

got solindra'd?

koch also went after solar

GreenTech Automotive investigation

The Franklin Center published a series of articles that raised questions about GreenTech Automotive and its presumed chairman, Governor of Virginia Terry McAuliffe. The investigation exposed the company’s reliance on a controversial fundraising program, EB-5, that has been criticized for its lax oversight and subject to abuse.^[36] The investigation also revealed that McAuliffe’s public projections, starting back in 2010, of how many cars would be built and jobs created had not come to fruition.^[37] In April 2013, it was revealed that McAuliffe had left the green energy car-maker in December of the previous year.^[38]

GreenTech Automotive filed an $85 million libel lawsuit against Franklin Center on April 8, 2013 in a Mississippi court.^[39] Franklin Center described the suit as “intimidation” and pledged to continue investigating GTA and McAuliffe.^[40][41] In July 2014, a federal judge in Mississippi dismissed GreenTech's case. GreenTech filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2018, stating that articles from Watchdog.org “negatively affected governmental, investor and public perception of GreenTech” and led to investigations by the SEC and the Department of Homeland Security. GreenTech also blamed U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, who had raised concerns about the company's use of a visa program, among others.^[42]

GreenTech Automotive (GTA) is a U.S.- based automotive manufacturer dedicated to developing and producing 100% electric vehicles. It is a subsidiary of WM Industries Corp.

History

GTA was founded in 2009 by Charles Wang.^[citation ^needed] In May 2010, GTA acquired Hong Kong based EuAuto Technology and its Mycar vehicle, and relocated the company's operations and manufacturing to the United States. GTA's first manufacturing facility was temporarily in Horn Lake, Mississippi.

The company merged with VL Automotive in 2014,^[1] developing a traditionally powered version of the Fisker Karma^[2] called the WM Destino.

In September 2014, GTA completed construction on a new production facility in Tunica County, Mississippi. This was shut down in January 2017.^[3]

The company declared bankruptcy in February 2018.^[4]

Products

GTA Mycar, a 2-door, 2-seater Neighborhood Electric Vehicle designed in 2003 by Giorgetto Giugiaro, and developed by EuAuto Technology

References

^ "Destino's VL Automotive merges with GreenTech Automotive". Autoblog. 6 May 2014. Retrieved 6 June 2015.
^ "GreenTech Scatters New Seeds". New York Times. 16 May 2014. Retrieved 28 May 2015.
^ Edelstein, Stephen (January 19, 2017). "GreenTech shutters its doors..." Green Car Reports.
^ Oliver, Ned (February 27, 2018). "GreenTech files for bankruptcy". Richmond Times-Dispatch.

External links

GreenTech Automotive Homepage

hit

nb granklin funds/ pass thru to C of A?

https://causeofaction.org/our-work/greentech-automotive/

https://causeofaction.org/greentech-automotive-a-venture-capitalized-by-cronyism-2/

investigation

Executive Summary

“It seemed like a win for everyone involved when a startup car company, backed by political heavyweights, wooed investors with plans to build a massive auto plant in the Mississippi Delta, hire thousands of people and pump out a brand new line of fuel-efficient vehicles…But today, the company is under a federal investigation and about the only thing on its land in Tunica County is a temporary construction office.”

– Associated Press, August 12, 2013

Less than half of all businesses started between 1977 and 2000 survived to five years. Market competition is cruel but it’s not unfair. Unfair is when political heavyweights use their influence to skew the market and force taxpayers to underwrite the risk of speculative new business ventures; taxpayers suffer while crony companies reap the profits. Such is the case with GreenTech Automotive, Inc. (GreenTech), a startup automobile manufacturer that promised jobs and economic growth in Virginia and Mississippi but has failed to deliver. The following report is the latest from Cause of Action’s (CoA) investigations into companies that rely upon the politically powerful, not the competitive marketplace, to determine economic winners and losers.

The story of GreenTech and its principals, Terry McAuliffe and Charles Wang, weaves a tale of promises to invest billions of dollars and create thousands of jobs as a result of alleged technological breakthroughs. What is becoming increasingly likely, however, is that taxpayers will instead bear the costs of broken promises by subsidizing a failed business that used political connections and pressure to profit from taxpayer dollars.

Terry McAuliffe has made a career of using politics to profit.

As far back as 1997, Business Week declared that “[m]any of Terry McAuliffe’s business deals are intertwined with his political interests.” According to Leaders Magazinein 2007, McAuliffe “started over two dozen companies in the fields of banking, insurance, marketing, and real estate. McAuliffe served as Chairman of Federal City National Bank and, most recently, was an owner and Chairman of American Heritage Homes.” These companies and his political fundraising career earned him millions in personal profit, but also brought Department of Justice investigations, accusations of conspiracy and illegal donation schemes, and Department of Labor penalties. What is clear is that political fundraiser and businessman McAuliffe has made a habit of using his connections and favors to rake in profits, and he has continued that pattern with GreenTech.

After receiving campaign contributions from Charles Wang in 2008 for his first gubernatorial bid, Terry McAuliffe made his deep political Rolodex available for GreenTech’s benefit. As Amy Gardner from The Washington Post has observed, many of McAuliffe’s biggest business deals “came in partnership with prominent donors and politicians, creating a portrait over the years of a Washington insider who got rich as he rose to power in the Democratic Party.” He continued that pattern with GreenTech, benefitting the company through his own political connections.

In 2008, Charles Wang made a $50,000 donation to Terry McAuliffe’s gubernatorial campaign. Shortly thereafter, Wang’s company merged with what is now GreenTech and McAuliffe was named Chairman.
As GreenTech Chairman, in an email to then-Governor Haley Barbour, McAuliffe cited efforts by U.S. Senators Thad Cochran (R-MS) and Roger Wicker (R-MS) to pressure the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director Alejandro Mayorkas into fast-tracking EB-5 visa applications that would provide Chinese investments for GreenTech.
McAuliffe sent numerous emails to Director Mayorkas and Douglas Smith, Department of Homeland Security’s assistant secretary for the Office of the Private Sector, expressing frustration with USCIS’ slow visa approval process. Smith attended GreenTech’s groundbreaking at its temporary Horn Lake facility, where McAuliffe also privately met with President Bill Clinton and Chinese investors.
Anthony Rodham, brother of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, is President and CEO of Gulf Coast Funds Management (Gulf Coast) the country’s largest Regional Center for processing EB-5 investments, and the manager of EB-5 investments for GreenTech.

GreenTech utilized the EB-5 visa program as a catalyst for favors and a prop for business deals.

In 2008, Gulf Coast, a sister company of GreenTech, used political pressure to position itself as a powerful Regional Center for managing two states’ EB-5 investments, yielding large profits. GreenTech was financed by Chinese investors with a strong interest in securing visas in exchange for millions of dollars in capital through EB-5.

Then-Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, one of Terry McAuliffe’s current business partners, contacted Barbara Velarde, the head of the USCIS office that oversees the Regional Center program, urging the agency to designate Gulf Coast as the Regional Center for the entire state of Mississippi.
Kathleen Blanco, who was Governor of Louisiana at the time that USCIS approved Gulf Coast’s application, is currently a member of Gulf Coast’s board.
Between 2009 and 2012, GreenTech raised $67 million from more than one hundred EB-5 investors. Gulf Coast has collected a total of approximately $7.4 million in profits from GreenTech investors.

GreenTech is abusing taxpayer funds.

Under the leadership of Charles Wang and Terry McAuliffe, GreenTech submitted exaggerated projections about its manufacturing output and job creation prospects, convincing Mississippi state officials to award millions of taxpayer dollars in loans and tax incentives to develop a GreenTech plant within the state.

In exchange for a promise to build a manufacturing facility in Tunica County, theMississippi Development Authority (MDA) agreed to provide a $3 million loanto GreenTech from the Mississippi Industry Incentive Financing Revolving Fund to construct an access road to the facility.
A $2 million loan was given to the Tunica County Economic Development Foundation to purchase the site on which the facility would be built. GreenTech received a host of tax breaks and incentives including reduced state income, franchise, property, sales and use taxes and income tax rebates for company employees.
GreenTech has claimed that it will create 25,000 direct jobs that will each create 11.86 indirect and induced jobs, or 296,500 jobs in total. This is problematic both in expectation and legality given that current law provides for no more than 10,000 EB-5 visas per year.

While it is unknown whether GreenTech will meet its own estimate of 25,000 full-time jobs in Mississippi by 2014, according to NBC12 News in Richmond, Va., a former GreenTech employee claims that GreenTech’s “lofty goals were nowhere near reality.”

What follows in this report are these and additional findings from a six-month investigation of the relationships and political deals that allowed GreenTech to entice Mississippi into a misbegotten experiment in green automotive technology. As this report reveals, the real engine driving GreenTech’s business plan appears to be its management’s extraordinary talent for exploiting taxpayers to advance their own interests.

PDF: GreenTech Automotive: A Venture Capitalized by Cronyism

Exhibits:Exhibits 1-32

Wang Emails: 1 & 2

GTA Exhibit 6 (here) was the Document used in a Washington Post story

Tags: Cronyism, EB5

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According to the Los Angeles Times, “[s]ixty Chinese investors,” who participated in the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program, have sued the developers and managers behind the SLS Las Vegas Hotel & Casino for failure to deliver on “promised green cards.” According to the investors’ lawsuit, the hotel redevelopment project has “not […]

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GreenTech Automotive, Terry McAuliffe, and crony capitalism

SMOKE AND MIRROS GreenTech Automotive, Terry McAuliffe, and crony capitalism By John J. Vecchione and Ryan Mulvey | Jul 22, 2017 A politically connected “green energy” vehicle company that never delivered on its promises is finally being taken to task. A state auditor in Mississippi is demanding GreenTech Automotive repay […]

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It’s Time to End the Federal Government’s Cash-for-Visas Program

The Washington Post rightly called on the Trump Administration yesterday to end the government’s controversial EB-5 visa regime and, in particular, its Regional Center Program, which was recently extended until the end of September 2017. In most cases, the “Immigrant Investor Program,” or Employment-Based Preference Five (“EB-5”) cash-for-visa program, permits […]

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Dan Epstein on The Schilling Show 11/12/2013

Executive Director Dan Epstein discussing GreenTech Automotive

News Audio11/25/2013LEARN MORE

Dan Epstein on WINA The Schilling Show 9/30/13

Executive Director Dan Epstein discussing our report on GreenTech Automotive.

News Audio11/5/2013

b's rebel looks ok

Seems like yesterday. In late 2012 Terry McAuliffe was the only Democrat running for Virginia governor in the upcoming 2013 election. One of his central campaign themes was that he was an entrepreneur who would bring jobs to Virginia. He was also an investor and recently resigned Chairman of a venture called GreenTech, a would be manufacturing company that hoped to make energy efficient electric cars in the United States. Prior to announcing his second campaign for governor Terry had been out trolling for government subsidies in return for bringing GreenTech’s manufacturing plant to some lucky American community. During McAuliffe’s tenure as chairman, GreenTech had announced that it would locate in Tunica, Mississippi rather than Virginia. Candidate McAuliffe was asked why he didn’t bring GreenTech to Virginia at a Dec 5, 2012 press conference. He claimed that Virginia “decided not to bid” on the automobile plant. The truth was more complicated resulting in a Politifact article citing McAuliffe’s claim as “false”. It seemed that Virginia lost out on at least 1,500 GreenTech manufacturing jobs. The relatively small flurry of controversy over GreenTech subsided, McAuliffe became governor and Mississippi gained thousands of jobs. Or did they …

Virginia smells a rat. The Virginia Economic Development Partnership (VEDP) did hold conversations with GreenTech about locating in Virginia during 2009. GreenTech was scheduled to tour potential plant sites in Danville, Martinsville and Waverly on Oct 7th and 8th. But then came GreenTech’s surprise announcement to locate in Mississippi on Oct 6. Was the VEDP just a day late and a dollar short? Not quite. Virginia officials were not at all convinced of the overall GreenTech business model. In a letter from the executive director of VEDP to Virginia’s Secretary of Commerce and Labor those concerns were spelled out.

Mississippi buys a rat. Apparently, Mississippi saw no problems with a start-up car company building $15,500 to $18,000 electric mini-cars with a top speed of 45 mph for export to China. Mississippi inked the deal and GreenTech opened a temporary location in Horn Lake, MS in July, 2012. Bill Clinton and the governor of Mississippi joined Terry McAuliffe for an opening celebration at the site. The good people of Tunica County (where 33% live below the poverty line) were well on their way to an economic miracle. Or were they …

Failure to launch. Virtually nothing came from the promised GreenTech deal. GreenTech never ended any year with more than 100 employees. In early 2017 GreenTech shut down its Mississippi operations. Later that year Mississippi sued to get its money back. Last February GreenTech filed for bankruptcy.

Peter the Great Pretty Good. As GreenTech started to unravel ahead of the 2013 election erstwhile Bacon’s Rebellion columnist Peter Galuszka wrote an opinion piece declaring that Green Tech was a mess but not a scandal. At the time Galuszka wrote that opinion piece GreenTech was still in business and employed about 80 people. That would roughly mark the zenith of GreenTech’s operations. Now that the company is dust in the wind lawsuits have been filed. As Mr. McAuliffe is rumored to be considering a run for president GreenTech may yet graduate from mess to scandal. It would be interesting to know how Terry McAuliffe fared from a personal financial perspective with GreenTech. If he lost his own money maybe GreenTech is still just a mess. However, if he made money on the failed deal it would be a scandal.

Caveat Virginia. While VEDP’s BS detector seemed to work brilliantly in the GreenTech matter … that’s not always the case. Bacon’s Rebellion readers should keep an eye out for an upcoming update to the Tranlin deal in Virginia. It seems likely that the Tranlin deal is not going to end well for the Commonwealth.

— Don Rippert