He was accused of tax evasion in 2005 over an issue dealing with employee withholding. Kennedy, the co-founder of Freedom Industries and two-time felon, is met on all sides by controversy.
Paperwork filed with the West Virginia Secretary of State says the company was actually founded in 1992. The company’s website claims the company was founded in 1986. Additionally, since the company does not come under EPA policies, the company is given a lot of freedom in what they are required to do when a spill happens. Claims that Freedom Industries merely stores, and does not manufacture, the chemicals, have allowed the company to sidestep many of the safeguards put in place to keep such a spill from happening. Koch Industries is the wholly owned company of the Koch brothers.ĭue to the brothers’ influence, Freedom Industries is exempt from many of the Environmental Protection Agency’s regulations. G-P was bought by Koch Industries in 2005. Georgia-Pacific Chemicals is a subsidiary of Georgia-Pacific. Annual revenues for Koch Industries have been estimated to be approximately $100 billion.įreedom Industries was specifically chosen in 2008 to be the distributor of Georgia-Pacific Chemical’s Talon brand mining reagents in eight states. Koch, is well known as influence buyers among Washington D.C. Other investigators found evidence of a close relationship between Freedom Industries and the Koch brothers. With at least 200 creditors, the company owes its top 20 creditors approximately $3.5 million. Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of West Virginia, listed the company’s assets and liabilities between $1 million and $10 million. Southern, who signed the paperwork filed with the U.S. Most of the lawsuits were filed by businesses that were forced to close their doors following the spill when a state of emergency was declared. On Friday, the company filed for bankruptcy, effectively shielding them from dozens of lawsuits. His comments were echoed by his girlfriend, who minimized the toxic spill saying that she took a shower and brushed her teeth and is “still alive.” The day of the leak, Gary Southern, the company’s president and co-founder, made it clear that his role was that of a job creator, and he had no interest in the effect the company had on the population. The spill and its aftermath have revealed some very interesting facts and relationships as investigators continue to pour over records. The leak, which came from a storage tank at a Freedom Industries tank farm, caused the water in nine West Virginia counties to be declared unsafe for anything but toilets. A closer look at Freedom Industries, and its relationship with Kennedy, reveal some more surprises.įollowing a the toxic spill of a chemical used in the coal industry, over 100 people have visited West Virginia hospitals. One of the founders of Freedom Industries, Carl Kennedy II, is a convicted felon twice over.
The bad publicity for Freedom Industries deepens and continues. Freedom Industries co-founder has been revealed as a two-time felon by investigators pouring over the chemical supply companies records.
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