Posted Mar 18, 2010, 3:18 AM
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Join Date: Nov 2007
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Holy shit is right.
http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/inde...rassed_af.html
Quote:
State officials 'embarrassed' after learning $9M in tax credits went to Richard A. Short, convicted embezzler
FLINT, Michigan — In a borrowed bedroom in a friend’s mobile home, Richard A. Short often worked hard, building from the ground up the company that eventually would land $9 million in tax credits from the state of Michigan, a friend said.
But Short failed to do one thing — tell his parole officer.
Now, the convicted embezzler is under state investigation after his parole officer saw media footage Wednesday of Short talking about bringing an $18.5 million investment and 765 jobs to Flint with his new cutting-edge company, Renewable and Sustainable Cos., or RASCO.
The revelation of Short’s criminal history shook the state from the governor’s office on down. The Michigan Economic Development Corp. said it was “embarrassed” by the matter and will be tightening its screening guidelines for the tax credit program.
State and local officials said Wednesday, the day after Short’s company was granted $9 million in tax credits, that they had no idea Short was on parole in Genesee County after being sentenced in 2002 for embezzlement. He also had fraud convictions in Oakland and Genesee counties.
A Michigan Economic Development spokesman said that it’s “unclear” whether the Michigan Economic Growth Authority tax credits worth $9.1 million approved Tuesday will move forward, or if there are any legal ramifications that would void it.
Short’s parole officer also didn’t know that Short had formed RASCO or that he was working as its chief executive officer, said Russ Marlan, spokesman of the Department of Corrections.
And, only 24 hours after he shared a stage with Gov. Jennifer Granholm to speak about the $9 million in tax credits, Short was arrested for a possible parole violation at the Flint Township mobile home where his friend Linda Lock said he had lived with her for free because he couldn’t afford rent.
Attempts to reach Short, 57, on Wednesday were unsuccessful.
Lock, 62, said Short was trying to move past his embezzlement convictions — in part by bringing RASCO and grandiose plans for hundreds of jobs to Flint.
“He paid his dues in jail. He’s moving forward and he’s doing nothing but good,” Lock said Wednesday. “People do change, and I really do believe he changed.”
Former Genesee County Prosecutor Arthur Busch remembers convicting Short of a fraud-related charge several years ago and said state employees should have known about his background before his company was granted $9 million in tax credits.
He called him “very skilled and very manipulative.”
“He’s got just an extensive criminal history. He has a history of scams,” Busch said. “To give money to a project like that ... shows gross negligence (by) the people who did the homework on this.”
Court documents from his 1999 conviction of attempted uttering and publishing in Genesee County also show Short once had a woman pose as his estranged wife so he could obtain a mortgage on his home. Short worked as a sales administrator at Delphi at the time, records show.
After obtaining a check for more than $73,000, Short admitted fraudulently signing his estranged wife’s name on the check and cashing it in a personal bank account, according to the court documents.
He was sentenced to a year in the Genesee County Jail, and after his release he was sentenced to three years in prison for violating his probation, according to the documents.
Short also was convicted in 2002 of embezzling money from Harding Energy Corp. of Norton Shores when he was the company’s president. He also has prior fraud convictions in Oakland and Genesee counties.
Marlan said Short “owes $96,000 in restitution from prior fraud activities.”
The corrections department’s Web site shows Short will be under parole supervision until Jan. 3, 2011
On RASCO’s Web site, Short calls himself a “charismatic leader” who graduated from the University of Missouri. But Genesee County court records say Short was never a student there.
Lock said she met Short a few years ago, after he had been released from prison.
“He sat at the computer next to me at the career center,” she said. “We got to talking and he told me his story and I felt kind of sad. When you get out of prison you have nothing.”
Lock and Short soon became friends, Lock said. She let him live in her home and he often helped care for her elderly mother.
She said Short had been working on the RASCO deal for about a year. The company, Short said Tuesday, would manufacture and ship renewable energy resources to bring essential services like water, power and wireless Internet, to developing nations overseas.
State records show he formed the company in June.
“He wants to help people in the third world live a better life,” Lock said. “That has become his passion.”
But Flushing resident Dave Delaney wonders how the state could grant $9 million in tax credits to a company formed less than a year ago.
“What does he know about renewable energy?” he said. “Why didn’t the state do its due diligence.”
In a statement issued Wednesday, Granholm’s spokeswoman said the MEDC has been directed to ensure this doesn’t happen again.
“She is disappointed,” Spokeswoman Liz Boyd said of the governor. “It bears noting and repeating that the state has lost nothing from yesterday’s approval of the MEGA for RASCO, which is now on hold. There is no up-front cash involved in this award.”
The MEDC issued a statement Wednesday that it was embarrassed by the news of Short’s background.
“The MEGA board will look at all its options,” said Nate Pilon, an MEDC spokesman. “The MEGA award goes to the company, not an individual.”
The MEDC said in its statement that in the future it will require that companies applying for MEGA credits disclose any prior felony convictions by senior executives and that the state will perform a background check of all company officers before a final MEGA award is given.
“My hope is that it (the RASCO project) moves forward because it means a lot of jobs for Flint and for Michigan,” Pilon said.
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