Advanced BioFuels USA

by Steve Horn (The Real News)  … The little-known company has pitched its proposal to convert the site into a biofuels refinery. It is run by a man one mayor has dubbed the “Flim Flam Man,” and the company has never actually opened such a facility.

SG Preston has a history of seeking public money to finance projects, and in at least one case never paid back the cash and never opened the plant. Randy LeTang, the founder and CEO of SG Preston, had no energy industry background before incorporating the company in 2013.

The company, which has a mere six team members, says it could create jobs and revitalize the site by refining “renewable diesel, marine diesel and jet fuel,” Reuters reported. The newswire added that “raw material for the fuels would be fats, oils and grease acquired mainly from surrounding communities.”

SG Preston already has deals with two major airliners to provide jet fuel by 2019 and 2020, respectively.

“We can use the existing equipment, labor and regional waste streams to show the rest of the country how to bring back our jobs and industries,” Randy LeTang said in a statement provided to Reuters.

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Ryan O’Callaghan, the president of the United Steelworkers union that represents workers at the shuttered refinery, confirmed to The Real News that he met with LeTang. He conveyed that LeTang said his facility will create 750 jobs, with many of them in the “supply chain to the plant.”

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But others who had interacted with LeTang over past proposals walked away with a bad taste in their mouths. In at least one high profile example, a city council voted to oust SG Preston after initially welcoming the company in with open arms.

And prior to his time in the energy industry, LeTang was named as a defendant in a federal civil lawsuit in which a judge ruled that he and others had siphoned money without permission from a professional baseball player whose money they were managing.

LeTang did not respond to repeated requests for comment sent via email, text message, and voicemail. SG Preston’s Special Project Director Sherrie Lodge, whose cell phone number is listed as the company headquarters number on SG Preston’s website, also did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

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SG Preston convinced former Logansport Republican Mayor Ted Franklin that it would need a $550,000 loan. And it never paid $400,000 of it back. Further, SG Preston never even documented that it had the ability to pay a mandated $1.75 million escrow payment to Logansport.

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SG Preston also secured a jobs creation tax credit of 55% for eight years from the Ohio Tax Credit Authority in 2014 to open a similar facility in Lawrence County, Ohio.

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Katy Farber, the Vice President for Appalachian Partnership for Economic Growth—an Ohio public-private partnership organization which was initially listed as a partner of SG Preston for the prospective facility—told The Real News that the organization has not had contact with the company since 2015.

Bill Dingus, the Executive Director of the Lawrence Economic Development Corporation—also listed as a collaborator with SG Preston when it announced its project proposal in Ohio—said he “didn’t realize that they were still in business.”

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(Logansport Mayor Dave) Kitchell told The Real News that the previous administration destroyed almost all of the documentation pertaining to the $550,000 payment to the company. He added that this may be a felony under state law. The MOU for the loan called for it to be paid back within four years.

Kitchell also called SG Preston “big hat and no cattle,” saying it “makes greats promises” but then “takes the money and goes.” While in Logansport, the company refused to identify its investors due to “negativity” arising within the City Council and opposition to the project by the state chapter of the Sierra Club.    READ MORE