Michigan red-faced over $9M tax break for scam artist

OUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK HERE IN MICHIGAN

This is unbelievable. When you read the history of Richard Short is hard to believe that this man ever intended to build a business. Then to top it off, look at what type of business it was. "To build and ship renewable energy and sanitation equipment to African Villages?"

Freep.com

Convicted embezzler and scam artist Richard Short was back in a Flint jail Wednesday — a day after taking a stage with an unwitting Gov. Jennifer Granholm to celebrate a $9.1-million state tax break for his new company.

State officials who oversee the breaks — but don’t do background checks — were humiliated. Republicans called for investigations into how a felon duped a state agency.

Short, 57, couldn’t actually take the credits until he made good on his business plan: spending $18.5 million and hiring 765 people to convert a former Flint chassis plant and build and ship renewable energy and sanitation equipment to African villages.

He didn’t tell the state that he’d served nearly six years in jail and prison for embezzling money from a Muskegon-area battery-maker, or that he’d been convicted for bank loan fraud. FULL STORY