Who’s #1? – Biggest Job Announcement Busts – Part #2

Continuing the saga from Part #1… We don’t stop until we hit the top! Let’s take a look at #5, #4 and #3 on the list!

#5: Batolii – Sometimes you’ve got Job Busts because the economy tanks on a company right when they’re getting ready to make a move. Not in Batolii’s case. It was a fraud to begin with! Richard Robinson is currently doing 3 years in prison for using $70,000 of Danville’s Industrial Development Authority money for himself. In 2009, Robinson started the process on moving his company that “made soccer jerseys and shipped them all over the world” from High Point, NC to Danville. He was glad to show off his warehouse filled with soccer jerseys in High Point that really wasn’t his warehouse nor filled with soccer jerseys. But hey, who cares about that? Danville’s IDA wrote him a check for $70,000 to get a warehouse and manufacturing so that his business could hire local people. Robinson rented office space (not a production building) and even stopped paying that rent a few months later. In the meantime, he’s using ATM’s like slot machines and having a good time. The company had been dissolved in 2010 and he didn’t even have a business license! Finally, somebody smelled a rat and he was told to pay the money back or face prosecution. Unsurprisingly, he didn’t have the money anymore and got 3 years for fraud. Richard Robinson was quite bold, and Batolii is quite a Job Bust.

#4: AVRC – Danville’s “Advanced Vehicle Research Center” opened up in August 2009 in the CyberPark to develop and test new alternative-fuel vehicles. Dick Dell (the president & founder) planned to test manned and unmanned military vehicles and off-road vehicles on a 266 acre closed-loop track which would be around the southern perimeter of the airport and would feature such obstacles as gravel pits, mud bogs and sand pits. They were also going to convert Priuses to plug-in electric or natural gas powered vehicles. They had partnerships with Virginia Tech and NC State, and had a East Coast client base of 12 utility companies. It’s going great, eh?

Dick Dell died. (cue the record-scratching sound effect)

The money was gone. Everybody got “temporarily” laid off. The building was sold at absolute auction. None of that crap up above ever came close to being true. According to their website, they’re still hiring for an intern and an engineer (wait, what?)… but we’re declaring them a Job Bust anyway since they’re gone for good.

#3: US Green Energy – Well, lookie here. Everybody knows the future of Southside Virginia relies on Green Energy. I mean, that business segment has worked so well for the rest of the USA, hasn’t it? Wait, what? Let’s go to the headlines for October 22, 2010…

United States Green Energy Corporation, a solar building products company announced Friday it would move its headquarters and operations to Cane Creek Centre in Ringgold. The company plans to invest $30 million and create 372 jobs within three years.

Tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick. There’s only 4 months left on that clock and you’ve got a big building out by a railroad track that is at least 360 jobs short of that goal. Say it with me, folks. Job Bust.

Six down, two to go. We’ll wrap this storyline up later today!