- Green Bay Press Gazette: 5 Federal Agencies investigating Green Box, by Jeff Bollier
De Pere businessman Ron Van Den Heuvel expected his Green Box businesses to garner national — if not worldwide — notoriety for turning trash into treasure.
Instead, the business has drawn the attention of no less than five federal agencies that are investigating Van Den Heuvel and the long list of companies he created, Brown County Sheriff’s Office Capt. Dave Konrath said.
He said the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, FBI, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, Department of Justice and Internal Revenue Service have been involved in the investigation.
Konrath said the sheriff’s office has found itself in the middle of the government and civil investigations in July 2015 when it executed a search warrant at Green Box’s offices in the 2000 block of Lawrence Drive, in De Pere, as part of a criminal investigation that is still ongoing. Konrath said the agency continues to hold 20 filing cabinets and eight pallets of documents seized as part of the investigation.
“It got to be so expansive, we sat down with other law enforcement agencies to determine their roles,” Konrath said. “Because of the complexity of the case, different agencies took on different roles. It’s an ongoing investigation.”
Federal agencies declined to comment on the investigations or even confirm what they’re investigating, but their investigations are in addition to a series of local lawsuits filed against Van Den Heuvel and Green Box by investors that range from a local doctor to the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. and [Cliffton Equities, Inc.,] a Montreal-based investment firm.
Van Den Heuvel presented his business to investors as one that would put an end to landfill waste by breaking down food-tainted paper products, tires and other waste into electricity, paper products, oil, black carbon and other reusable materials.
A presentation for investors in Green Box Detroit still exists online. It provides a look at what might have helped sell investors on taking a share of a business that said each Green Box built could process 500 tons of organic, solid waste each day.
The presentation includes a slide, “Cash Flow Coverage Per Green Box,” in between pictures of the Earth, a polar bear looking across an icy expanse and a lion’s face. The cash-flow slide projected $128.3 million in total sales against $79.4 million of material costs, expenses, royalties, insurance and other costs for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of $46.1 million.
At the bottom, in red letters, was a warning: “This is a forward-looking financial statement and is not based on actual income and expenses.”
Green Box Green Bay LLC filed for bankruptcy protection in April, one week after Brown County Circuit Court Judge John Zakowski issued a warrant for Van Den Heuvel’s arrest when a creditor claimed a piece of equipment that served as collateral had disappeared. That same week, a federal grand jury indicted Van Den Heuvel for bank fraud. Van Den Heuvel’s wife, Kelly, and banker Paul Piikkila of Appleton, were also named in the indictment.
The arrest warrant was quashed as a result of the bankruptcy filing, however, the fraud case continues.
Records from the federal bankruptcy court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin indicate Green Box Green Bay has $26.5 million in debt, much of it to investors whose promised collateral is often worth much less than what they invested.
In the case of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp., the state agency who lent Van Den Heuvel $1.1 million in 2011, it required a $5 million De Pere factory as collateral. In 2015, WEDC claimed Green Box defaulted on the terms of the loan for failing to make payments on the loan and after discovering a private investor had filed a lawsuit against Green Box for defaulting on a different loan.
Bankruptcy court filings also indicate Van Den Heuvel owes $303,322.18 in personal property and property taxes to the Brown County Treasurer from 2014 and 2015.
Van Den Heuvel is scheduled to return to court for a jury trial on the federal bank fraud charges on [Monday] July 11.
However, court records show that Ron Van Den Heuvel, his wife Kelly Yessman Van Dan Heuvel, and former Horicon Bank employee Paul Piikkila have each filed motions for continuance in their bank fraud cases. The motion hearing is scheduled for Monday, June 27, 3:00 p.m.. in Court Room 254 at the Milwaukee Federal Building.
6/24/2016 UPDATE:
Additionally, regarding Green Box NA Green Bay LLC’s bankruptcy filing in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin (Case No. 16-24179-beh) a continuation of the initial CREDITORS MEETING held in May is scheduled for FRIDAY JUNE 24 at 10:00 AM, Rm. 428B, Federal Building in Milwaukee, WI. The Oneida Eye had been told last week by the WI Eastern District Bankruptcy court phone operator that the 341 meeting was going to be on Friday, June 24 at 10:00 AM in Green Bay, but when contacted again this morning was told that an initial hearing had been held in Green Bay in May and that a continuation meeting was being held in Milwaukee today. The Green Bay location had also been indicated via the automated phone information system for the court (phone number 866-222-8029) as recently as Thursday, June 23.
The phone operator in Milwaukee verified today that the EVIDENTIARY HEARING has been re-scheduled for MONDAY JUNE 27 at 10:00 AM in Rm. 149 of the Federal Building in Milwaukee, WI. For correct information…(hopefully) contact the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin at 414-297-3291.
It should also be noted that – in his complaint about being given too little money from WEDC – Ron Van Den Heuvel claimed that four other states (which seem to include Michigan, Iowa, Minnesota and Georgia) had loaned him a minimum of $17 MILLION each.
Plus, Ron Van Den Heuvel’s Green Box NA was on the path to receiving $125 MILLION in tax-exempt bonds from MI Gov. Rick Snyder’s Michigan Strategic Fund…
…and pursued another $125 MILLION in tax-exempt bonds from the City of De Pere, WI, Ron’s hometown.
Plus, consider all of the investors & funding Ron Van Den Heuvel was pursuing internationally with the help of Gov. Scott Walker’s WEDC even after concerns about Green Box NA had been raised.
As Oneida Eye reported, during the September 9, 2015 Joint Legislative Audit Committee meeting regarding Gov. Scott Walker’s Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation’s loans to companies like Ron Van Den Heuvel’s Green Box NA Green Bay LLC, WI State Sen. Julie Lassa said:
[WEDC] had invited Green Box as late as this year to participate in a ‘trade trip’ to Tanzania, even though Green Box is being investigated and it might be something like a Ponzi scheme or a check-kiting organization.
As we’ve observed, what authorities call Ron Van Den Heuvel’s “expansive” “fraud scheme” includes OSGC’s & its subsidiary Green Bay Renewable Energy LLC’s misrepresented municipal waste incinerator as propsed to be built on Hurlbut Street in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
When the Common Council rescinded their Conditional Use Permit, OSGC & GBRE sued the CIty of Green Bay.
The City of Green Bay’s government fought the misrepresented scheme – which was merely an extention of Ron’s frauds under a different guise – all the way to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, but somehow lost to OSGC’s & GBRE’s attorneys from Godfrey & Kahn…
…THE EXACT SAME FIRM REPRESENTING DR. MARCO ARAUJO – WITH WEDC AS ARAUJO’S CO-PLAINTIFF – AGAINST RON VAN DEN HEUVEL’S ‘GREEN’ FRAUD SCHEMES (OF WHICH OSGC’S & GBRE’S HURLBUT ST. PROJECT WITH ALLIANCE CONSTRUCTION & DESIGN WAS JUST ONE FACET OF)….
…AND THE EXACT SAME FIRM THAT TAUGHT TRIBES ABOUT BORROWING MONEY TO FINANCE SUCH RISKY AND POTENTIALLY FRAUDULENT PROJECTS.
WEDC’s Chief Legal Counsel is Atty. Hannah Renfro, formerly of Godfrey & Kahn.
You have to wonder…
- U.S. DEPT. OF ENERGY REPORT DOE/EA-1862: Final Environmental Assessment for the Oneida Seven Generations Corporation: Energy Recovery Project, Green Bay, Wisconsin
Compare:
Another Pilot system is currently operating at the ACTI Paramount[, California,] facility to test various feedstocks for their energy properties, while providing system demonstrations.
- EXHIBIT B of WEDC Contract #LEG FY10-19812 with OSGC-subsidiary Oneida Energy Inc.; OSGC serving as Guarantor
Oneida Seven Generations Corporation (OSGC) is a tribally chartered and tribally owned by the Oneida Tribe of Indians of Wisconsin. …
[OSGC] is the majority shareholder in IEP Development LLC (IEP), a consulting firm….
Oneida Energy, LLC will be formed by IEP Development, LLC…
In conjunction with joint venture partner AITI [typo – should say ‘ACTI‘ for Abdul Latiff Mahjoob’s ‘American Combustion Technologies, Inc.’], IEP can acquire rights to manufacture and assemble the products and has exclusivity to market the waste-to-energy systems to tribal, municipal and county governments throughout the United States.
The Oneida Business Committee steadfastly refuses to inform General Tribal Council members who the other ‘shareholders’ of IEP Development, LLC, are.
Based on a dire warning email by Fmr. OSGC Board member Paul Linzmeyer
…maybe we should direct questinos about IEP to Fmr. Town of Ledgeview Board Chair Marc Hess, also formerly of IEP Development and Integrys Energy Services (IES), and Owner of MH Resources Corp., currently working for Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E).
When you add it all up, the combined crimes make the $54 Million Mantria Corp. pyrolysis Ponzi scheme somewhat pale in comparison.
See also:
- Law360.com: Paper Mill Company Seeks Void Of $17 Million IRS Deficiency Notice regarding the tax problems Ron Van Den Heuvel created for his family’s company VHC, Inc. after ENRON and the UNITED ARAB EMIRATES INVESTMENT LTD. bailed on Ron. No … Really. Read it for yourself.
