September 2, 2009

Revealing numerous new cases of tax credit abuse. Considering the number of new cases and people involved this will be treated as a breaking news work in progress, and released in stages.

First released will be newly discovered information on two Scissortail investments. We had previously reported Scissortail's filing $90 million in false claims in 2006. At the time details were lacking on the particulars. We can now report two of those were Oklahoma Global Motors, LLC, and Westheimer Aviation, LLC.

Scissortail received $9.5 million in tax credits by filing a tax credit claim it had invested $31.5 million in Oklahoma Global Motors, LLC, in 2006. On top of another $15 million in direct funding from the state and $2.5 million from the Federal Aviation Administration to improve the airport and to extend a runway from about 5,000 to 9,000 feet, to handle large cargo jets, e.g., 747's.

For those who may not remember, Oklahoma Global Motors was the company set-up to assemble MG cars in Ardmore for the Chinese Nanjing Auto Corporation.

As usual that was another of those now renowned announcements state officials so often deliver with great fanfare, as an excuse for attracting TV cameras to capture the praise those receiving the money heap upon state officials. Schemes that invariably result in failure and no one can figure where all the money went. This one never got out of the starting gate.

So what happened to the $31 million that was claimed to have been invested?

The next installments in this series will discuss Westheimer Aviation, Affinity Ventures, Ultimate Equipment Co. and Chaparral Energy. Hang on for Chaparral Energy, which will open up a new window into the whole tax credit thing.

Keep in mind that we have only scratched the surface. More than $400 million in tax credits has been taken by 55 investment funds claiming to have invested $1.4 Billion in 127 ventures for 2006, 2007, 2008 and one of the 2005 investments. Working my way down from the largest investments every case researched to this point has involved false claims. No successes have been found, rather failures and nothing to show others ever were a real business.

The scheme behind this fraud is only clever enough to provide answers for the most obvious questions and satisfy those seeking answers to justify deniability.