In yet another example of the graft that has plagued the WEDC, semi-public job “creation” entity created by Gov. Scott Walker, the Associated Press is reporting high-ranking aides to Gov. Walker, including then-Administration Secretary Mike Huebsch, pushed to give a $4.3 million unsecured loan to a company that created no jobs and is now defunct.
Gov. Scott Walker’s top aides pressed for a taxpayer-funded $500,000 loan to a now-defunct Milwaukee construction company that was collapsing and created no jobs, according to a newspaper investigation.
Walker’s economic development agency, the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, awarded an unsecured loan to Building Committee Inc., owned by William Minahan, according to records the Wisconsin State Journal obtained through an open records request.
The 2011 loan was for a proposed project to retrofit bank and credit union buildings for energy efficiency. The WEDC sued BCI last year in an attempt to get the money back.
It is among several WEDC loans recently questioned by state auditors in a report that led Walker on Friday to ask lawmakers to scrap the loan program.
Paul Jadin, the former head of WEDC, said Minahan and then-Administration Secretary Mike Huebsch pushed for a $4.3 million loan, but the agency couldn’t justify more $500,000 — which Jadin said he considered “fairly risky.”
Minahan had given Walker’s 2010 gubernatorial campaign a last-minute $10,000 donation on Election Day — the maximum individual contribution.
As the associated press report notes, WEDC also was unable to locate the underwriting documents justifying the $500,000 loan to BCI. What’s more, William Minahan, the owner of BCI, lied on his loan application, indicating neither BCI nor any of its officers had been sued in the previous five years, despite the fact that court records showed three lawsuits.
Can anyone think of a reason why the U S Dept. of Justice shouldn’t be requested to investigate the corrupt and probably illegal loan and operational practices of Walker’s WEDC?
Thanks for posting this Zach. Jerry, we saw Holder fail on every front to prosecute anything, “wall street,” corruption or Bush era war criminals and I don’t expect Yellen to change from the Obombya status quo.
Is there some formal way for private citizens to request an investigation? Clearly, it seems like one could be in order. I wonder if DPW has bothered to check into it.
Surprisingly Mase, the Dems have sacked up and asked for the Feds to look into WEDC. Well overdue.
But we have to keep the pressure up, because Dems letting things drop and say “it’s in the past” is a big reason why Rethuglicans have been allowed to stay around as a viable party in the 2010s.
I e-mailed the U S Dept. of Justice about 10 days ago asking for an investigation of both WEDC and the Wisconsin Supreme Court Justices for not taking themselves out of the John Doe case when the plaintiffs had funded their election campaign to the tune of millions of dollars! I’ve had no response but if lots of Wisconsinites requested the investigation into WEDC it might get the ball rolling! What have we got to lose?
Barca and Lassa officially contacted US DoJ Yellen to investigate also, as I understood Barca (poor phone quality) in an interview broadcast Monday evening 5:30-6:00pm on SLY.