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Toledo
Blade…
Firm gets more time to repay $4M
Perrysburg
solar panel maker in default on state loans
By
Kris Turner
The
Ohio Department of Development has given Willard & Kelsey
Solar Group until Oct. 26 to repay more than $4 million it owes from a
$5
million loan. The decision was revealed Wednesday, the same day on
which the
department previously demanded full repayment be made.
The
Perrysburg solar-panel manufacturer has missed or made partial
loan payments since September, 2011, and is in default on its loan. In
an Aug.
6 letter, department officials demanded repayment of the loan by
Wednesday.
The
balance of the March, 2009, loan is $4,135,855, and the
decision to extend the payoff date was made by the top department
officials.
"The
Ohio Department of Development continues to work
diligently to ensure the state receives payment on the outstanding loan
while
remaining business-friendly to the needs of the company," department
spokesman Katie Sabatino said in a statement released to The Blade.
"Willard & Kelsey officials have laid out a course of action to
repay
all state loans by Oct. 26, 2012. The state does not risk additional
exposure
by allowing the company the opportunity to succeed in raising funds.
"If
the company is unable to do so, the loan will be referred
to the attorney general's office for collection."
Willard
& Kelsey has received numerous deferments and
reductions of the loan payments. The company received $10.5 million in
state
funding, of which $5 million was a loan from the Ohio Air Quality
Development
Authority. Another $500,000 was a grant from the development department.
Willard
& Kelsey has facedstaffing, production, and financial
issues since 2009, a year after the company was formed.
A
Blade investigation revealed the firm's executives were
compensated with more than $1.4 million in company funds in Willard
&
Kelsey's early days, and company credit cards were used to buy airline
tickets
for family members, luxury furniture, and trips to Detroit Tigers and
Pittsburgh Steelers sporting events.
The
Blade learned of the executive compensation and credit-card
charges when it obtained financial documents and records maintained by
the late
Bill Mitchell, Willard & Kelsey's former chief executive
officer. Mr.
Mitchell also alleged the company's executives were paid with loan
funds from
the Department of Development. If true, the payments would violate the
loan
agreement.
In
previous interviews with The Blade, Willard & Kelsey
executives have denied misusing state loan funds. Mr. Mitchell, who was
fired
from Willard & Kelsey in 2009, died in July, 2011.
Michael
Cicak, Willard & Kelsey's chief executive officer and
chairman of the company's board, did not return a call or email seeking
comment
Wednesday. Mossie Muprhy, the firm's vice president of development,
said the
company had no comment.
Read
the rest of this article at the Toledo
Blade
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