Well it’s going to cost us all just like it did for the Dell deal but maybe this time they have at least decided to pick an industry with some legs under it. For those that don’t remember Dell was in the middle of off-shoring it’s operations when it opened the Winston-Salem plant in which millions of both reported and unreported incentives were provided. This time I think we are looking at a company with a long history and solid finances so maybe this one sticks around.

With upwards of $23.5 million in direct local incentives and $50 million in state incentives Caterpillar may employ upwards of 500 people. but are those jobs worth nearly $100 million? Time will tell considering we still don’t know what all our “leaders” have promised other than tax breaks.

In a case of Wrongful Discharge and Defamation that dates back to 2007 Judge Jeffrey Tureck has ordered BB&T to rehire Amy Stroupe. BB&T has said they disagree with the Judge’s findings and have said they will appeal.

In 2005 Amy Stroupe was hired by BB&T after recruiter her from the Cleveland Couty Sheriffs Department to work as an corporate Fraud Investigator. Shortly after her employment at BB&T she investigated strange loan approvals for a land development company in Mitchell County, Peerless Development Group. It appears certain people involved with the land company as well as the single loan officer who was approving the loans were not following proper procedures so Stroupe’s investigation grew to the point she involved multiple managers at BB&T, county attorneys, tax offices and even the FBI. In 2007 after the loan officer who approved the various Peerless loans was first removed from his position of approving loans and later released Stroupe was first transferred then fired. The legal filings say the actions taken against Stroupe were vindictive for her pursuing one of BB&T’s best loan generators as well as informing outside parties of BB&T’s possible improper actions during the whole process. One should note that five people involved in the Village of Penland development have pleaded guilty to Federal charges.

This week Judge Tureck agreed and order Stroupe rehired and given her back pay with interest. BB&T Spokesman Cynthia Williams said, “"BB&T adamantly denies doing anything wrong and will be filing an appeal in this matter”.

Original Case Filing

If the charges are valid as the Judge has agreed they are it would appear BB&T had no interest disclosing to anyone outside of BB&T of it’s links to North Carolina’s largest fraud scheme ever.

U.S. Prosecutors claim Mexican drug cartels laundered hundreds or even billions of dollars through one of the largest banks in the United States. For four years, between May 2003 and May 2007, Wachovia Bank traded with Mexican exchange houses which served the laundering of drug trafficking groups.

The Justice Department claims that Wachovia traded well over $350 Billion with Mexican "casas de cambio” (currency- exchange houses) between 2004 and 2007. These exchange houses are used by “immigrants” to send money back to Latin American but prosecutors claim drug cartels also use these same facilities to laundry and transfer their own money. Prosecutors further claim Wachovia transferred over $4 Billion in bulk cash from foreign Latin exchanges to Wachovia accounts in the U.S.

Prosecutors claimed the Bank does not have proper controls in place to prevent the use of these money exchanges for illegal activity. The Lead Prosecutor in Miami U.S. Attorney Jeffrey H. Sloman actually stated Wachovia blatantly disregarded the banking laws:

"Wachovia’s blatant disregard for our banking laws gave international cocaine cartels a virtual carte blanche to finance their operations by laundering at least $110 million in drug proceeds. Corporate citizens, no matter how big or powerful, must be held accountable for their actions."

The $160 million fine represents the biggest penalty ever imposed under the Bank Secrecy Act, which requires financial institutions to carefully track transactions to detect suspicious activity. Wachovia has agreed to pay $110 million which constitutes the profits from these transactions and $50 million in fines while the actual prosecution has been delayed for 12 months while Wachovia meets it’s obligations under the settlement.

Well today is the day Hanes Mall will start kicking the kids out after 6PM unless they are accompanied by an adult, or so they say. The interesting thing to watch for is how will this policy be applied because who is to say a 16 year old is 16 or an 18 year old is 18? Will mall security go around asking for I.D.’s and kick anyone out that doesn’t have one? Will teenagers with their disposable cash walk away in protest to the policy?

Multiple websites have shown up calling for a boycott or repeal of the policy and even if this doesn’t have traction is the negative publicity something any retail center want when times are as tough as these?

FaceBook – Boycotting Hanes Mall

Hanes Mall Petition Site

Of course neither site appears to have much traction so maybe it will be much to do about nothing as the saying goes. There is even less traffic on this within the Twitter crowd we one would expect to be abuzz if the younger crowd was upset about this so one might assume the number of “kids” Hanes Mall is ejecting is limited to a small group of teens.

Word is Dell will keep the Winston-Salem plant open for a few more months allowing around 400 workers a little more breathing room. No further information is out there as of yet but I’m sure we will see local leaders take all the credit somehow.

Dell has informed the state that it believes it met the requirements during it’s years of operating in North Carolina and will not repay those monies. Governor Bev Purdue and other state representatives have said Dell would be forced to repay all the incentive money they were given however Dell has claimed some $6 million is covered in the agreements and will not be repaid. The Governor’s Office has released a “corrected” statement saying Dell may be able to keep some North Carolina taxpayer money.

The North Carolina Department of Transportation, Office of The Inspector General has informed Smith Reynolds Airport that it is in breach of it’s grant agreement for runway improvements. Smith Reynolds received a grant back in 1997 for those improvements and contracted Mainline Contractors out of Raleigh which reportedly was not keeping up with payments to sub-contractors and subsequently filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy.

The airport and it’s Director, Larry Scantlin, were informed of the pending investigation on August 17th with a formal letter from the Department of Transportation in which Richard Walls, Director of Aviation, states:

That notice goes on to state that if the airport cannot address the above issues the “Department will take legal action.” On Tuesday it appears the Office of the Inspector has judged that the airport is at fault and it appears this means the airport will be forced to repay grant money, pay subcontractors for unpaid work or a combination of the two. Tom McKim, the chairman of the Airport Commission of Forsyth County disagrees with the state report and said:

"Obviously we disagree with (the report), and we believe that our contract with Mainline satisfied our obligation under the grant," McKim said. "The efforts we made to monitor what Mainline did with respect to payments were also adequate."  JournalNow

It appears former CEO William Rodgers has signed away any interest he has in PACE Airlines. In unconfirmed reports Lee Booth has taken what assets were left, primarily FAA Certifications down to a building in Burlington. Former V.P. Stuart Carnie was quoted as saying Rodgers has signed over his interest in the company last week to undisclosed “investors” but all fingers point to Lee Booth. It has been posted on other sites that Booth was the primary investor in PACE near the end and has a history in the aviation field from his ownership of Taylorcraft, a small personal aircraft company he moved to Greensboro back in 1988. Of course rumors abound however the general belief is that Rodgers sold part of PACE to Booth back in September and it was the ownership by Booth that kept an interested party in Dallas from assuming PACE as a whole. The party or group in Dallas wanted 100% ownership and Booth either didn’t want out or wanted more for the assets causing the deal to fall through.

Stuart Carnie further went on to say he had revoked his interest in Rodger’s bond resulting in William Rodgers being rebooked into Forsyth County jail where he remains. This Post has been edited at the request of a person claiming to be Harlan Cobert and due to the content of that email request it is within reason to believe such request was made by him. Until such time as the objection that was raised is shown to be factual by verifiable reference any reference to that issue will be removed from this thread and site.