Grez Aziz – Handcuffed and in leg restraints, is walked from jail to the Colbert County Court House
TUSCUMBIA – “When we generally want to see someone, we just call them up and say, ‘Why don’t ya’ll drop by’,” was the comment to this reporter as he was being ‘perp-walked’ to court this morning.
Aziz was once the darling of the State of Alabama. He was going to build a mile-long railcar plant with the Retirement Systems of Alabama. The plant got built with funds provided by the R.S.A. , but when construction was finished over 2-years-ago things had soured between Aziz and R.S.A. Chief Operating Officer, Dr. David Bronner. Aziz left the plant and the United States to return home to his home in Canada, leaving R.S.A. holding the bag to the tune of over $350-million.
Greg Aziz – On his way to his first Court appearance
Last week the Colbert County Grand Jury indicted Aziz on 10 felony counts, accusing him, among other things, knowingly supplying fraudulent information and making false statements of material fact and omissions of material fact in connection with a loan and equity transaction between Aziz and the Retirement Systems.
Aziz was arrested in Chicago last week by United States Securities and Exchange Agents while he was visiting for a trade conference. He was delivered to the Colbert County Jail this past Tuesday, November 19.
Greg Aziz enroute to Court
His first appearance in Court before Circuit Judge Jackie Hatcher is taking place as this story is being published.
Here is the video of his walk to the Court House this morning. During his walk over from jail, he spoke with this reporter.
You may read our story and see the video of Aziz’s arrival to jail by clicking this LINK.
Photos by Sheri Wiggins
[youtube http://youtu.be/gRF3HO9RlRU]
9 comments
Ohip money is still due in January 🙂
I never believed to c him in shackles…now u know how we feel with out our RSA money
All
All I know is his Rail Car Plant in Hamilton, Ontario ( National Steel Car) is Booming with work and has been hiring people since 2010 and still are today in December 2013. He left Alabama after 4 years of construction, leaving behind a 1 mile long, state of the art rail car manufacturing facility that cost $750,000,000.00 paid by the US Tax Payers of Alabama (RSA), promising the Alabama County 1800 jobs that never materialized. He just came back to Canada running the NSC Plant like nothing ever went on down in Alabama! We all thought we were going to loose our jobs up here in Hamilton because of this new railcar plant in Alabama…It never happened and nobody knew anything about why he was terminated as CEO at NAC, Alabama!!?? Just came back to Hamilton, business as usual!! This move down in Alabama was to dump NSC and the USWA union involved in the Hamilton plant for cheaper, non-unionized labor down in Alabama. This was never about a sister company despite what you may hear or have heard, there are no orders for railcars large enough annually to support 2 plants of these sizes. The Hamilton Plant (NSC), the USWA and all it’s 1500 employees were going to be terminated!!! I beat Greg Aziz is wishing he never had such a dream as NAC Alabama and stayed were he belonged, In Canada!! Being Greedy is a Sin Mr. Aziz, Karma is a bitch!!
This is what happens when you try to bring jobs to the south. Backstabers . This is not securities fraud and time will show that these are bogus charges. Bring jobs to Washington state. We won’t turn on you.
I wish Greg Aziz all the best in his legal matters and no ill will meant to him. But when your up on 10 counts of fraud, something is going stick. Just in principle: Judges, on all levels, don’t like people from other countries coming into the US doing this kind business and leaving behind a huge financial hole that was financed by the common working man of Alabama(RSA) and led to 0 jobs being created, $750,000,000.00 is a big hole!!. The thing I find really strange and puzzles me about this, Why did NSC go back up to Canada to a 100 year old facility and start producing rail cars there with 2000 employees? Why not just start production in Alabama as planned in this new facility designed by themselves (NSC) and at cheaper wages then what’s being paid at the Canadian plant ?! All will be revealed soon.
After All is said and Done now, it’s not hard to conclude if the RSA would have treated Greg Aziz as a respected partner throughout this entire process, Alabama would now have a productive, state of the art rail manufacturing facility !! Greg Aziz is one Canada’s greatest business minds that the US (Alabama) discarded without a blink of an eye, a huge loss for Alabama & the RSA !! This man purchased a broken down rail-car plant from Dofasco in 1994 and turned that facility into a world-class rail manufacturing plant !! Greg Aziz has all of Canada’s support behind him and you should hold your head up high Greg !! The RSA will realize in the near future what a talent the RSA truly missed out on here !!
Force was not strong with this one.
indeed!