Mard Inc., formerly known as KiOR Inc., and its former CEO, Fred Cannon, have settled charges brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission regarding information in the company’s initial public offering, according to a report in the Houston Business Journal.
The company, which operated a biofuel plant in Columbus from 2011 until December 2013, filed bankruptcy in November 2014. The company agreed to pay a $100,000 fine to settle the case.
The SEC said the company had used unproven assumptions about its technology that showed the company’s processing procedures would yield 67 gallons of fuel per ton of bio-mass in its IPO statement in 2011. Internal documents showed without those assumptions, the conversion rate was 18-to-30-percent less than that estimate.
At the time of KiOR’s bankruptcy, the company owned the Mississippi Development Authority $69 million of its initial $75 loan, plus interest.
The company’s Columbus facility was sold at auction to two Georgia companies for a combined $3.7 million.
The company owes Lowndes County $300,000 in ad valorem taxes for 2015, according to county tax assessor Greg Andrews.
Aside from those taxes, the company has no outstanding debts locally.
Andrews said Thursday he intends to report the past-due ad valorem taxes as an insolvent debt to the state auditor’s office Monday, which would allow the county to pursue the money through the courts.
“I’m not sure that’s something that would happen, but it’s up to the supervisors to make that decision,” Andrews said.
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