The Associated Press reports Governor Bryant said the Twin Creeks project in Senatobia failed and the state is seeking repayment of the $27.7 million loan provided to the company. AP reporter Jeff Amy writes:
"A California technology company trumped up a single solar panel sale in August in an attempt to hold on to the $27.7 million in state aid the company received to build a solar plant in Senatobia, Mississippi officials say.
The fraud allegation is contained in a lawsuit Mississippi officials filed in an unsuccessful effort to block San Jose, Calif.-based Twin Creeks Technologies from selling its patents to GT Advanced Technologies for $10 million. The state was also unsuccessful in blocking creditor Silicon Valley Bank from reaping $7 million from the sale.
Twin Creeks, which is liquidating, tried to erase its debt before Mississippi sued. The firm proposed to repay $1.25 million or less, and give the state rights worth up to 20 percent of any future royalty payments from its technologies, an amount that could be worth up to $8 million. The state described royalty income in the suit as “highly uncertain.”...
In the suit, filed in Tate County Chancery Court, the state demands not only the loan amount, but damages related to alleged fraud, plus punitive damages against Twin Creeks.
“What I am trying to do now is take a project that has failed and make the people of the state of Mississippi whole by every legal means possible,” Bryant said.
The state agreed to loan Twin Creeks up to $50 million at no interest for 20 years, channeling the money through the city of Senatobia. The city was supposed to collect lease payments and pay off its debt to the state. One provision of the contract called for Twin Creeks to start commercial production before Dec. 31.
The lawsuit says Twin Creeks gave the state an invoice showing it had made a sale of panels in August 2012. However, the state alleges the panels were delivered to the home of a current or former Twin Creeks employee in California, and that the customer got an 85 percent discount, paying less than $500...." Rest of the article
Nice to see the Governor going to court to salvage what he can out of this wreck. The question is how many more of these desls will blow up.
10 comments:
Horse is out of the barn! Dewey Phil Bryant and his merry-band at the MDA snoozed and lost. Of course, the MS taxpayer is really the one that lost...
Twin Creeks was Barbour's baby.
How is it that someone is ignorant enough to blame a succeeding governor for a project dreamed up by a former one, that went bad. Not that either is 'to blame' as all of these things are a crapshoot. If anybody is to 'blame', and nobody is, it ain't Feel.
If y'all had actually bothered to read the AP story on this from Jeff Amy, you would have concluded, I suppose if you are actually capable of logical, reasonable, rational thought, that the state was recently SNOOKERED by this company and another California company and a California Bank. This all happened since this past August, and last time i checked, Dewey Bryant and HIS VERY OWN state MDA were in charge. Please educate yourselves as to the facts before typing on your Commodore 64 keyboards from now on. Thank you.
The state won a restraining order the day that it filed suit to block the sale to GT Advanced Technologies. But by then, the sale had already gone through. The state tried again Nov. 9 to prevent Twin Creeks from transferring proceeds of the sale or royalty rights to anyone. That was also too late, as the state acknowledged in a Nov. 16 order noting Silicon Valley Bank had taken its share of the money.
-In that later order, the state agreed to let Twin Creeks spend up to another $250,000 to wind down its affairs. It has also agreed not to challenge GT Advanced Techologies' right to two Hyperion machines, highly touted devices that are supposed to make flexible, super-thin solar panels. The purchaser plans to remove the machines.-
http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2012/nov/30/mississippi-lawsuit-twin-creeks-tried-to-deceive/
4:06 is an idiot.
"-In that later order, the state agreed to let Twin Creeks spend up to another $250,000 to wind down its affairs."
And what would have been your course of action at that point, 4:06?
Are you suggesting that 'The State' failed in its obligation to its citizenz by not discovering California bank deals as they took place? Or that the MDA should have had on site accountants in place, at the business, pouring over financial transactions as they occurred? What business venture would agree to that?
Would it be possible for you (4:06) to consider that all of these Obama-type green/solar/windmill/panel/peace-out pipedreams are doomed from the get go and should never have seen the light of day?
what is amazing is how LIBERAL Haley Barbour got while he was Gov. PARDONING as many people as some Presidents do for 50 states, some were even PRE-MEDITATED MURDERERS and RISKY investments in ALTERNATIVE fuel.
let me also be a simpleton here, 6:38 is an idiot.
The taxpayers are the real people who got "snookered" in the Twin Creeks case. Barbour brought it to the Legislature; almost all of our senators and rep's voted for it.
What exactly did they vote for? Turning taxpayers into venture capitalists in a high-tech, solar experiment.
Venture capital deals are those that can't get loans from banks because they're too risky. That's why they're backed by California billionaires with money to burn.
Investing state tax dollars into a Nissan or Toyota is one thing. Giving tens of millions to companies that have never made a product or a dollar before is unconscionable.
And who was Lt. Governor then?
Phil Bryant
He can try to blame this solely on Barbour, but he shares equally in this Boondoggle!
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