Kentucky lawmakers want to hear from Braidy Industries

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) - Kentucky lawmakers want to hear from an aluminum company embroiled in a management shakeup as it tries to complete financing for a long-promised $1.7 billion plant in Appalachia.

Sen. Chris McDaniel, chairman of the Senate Appropriations and Revenue Committee, said Tuesday that he wants officials from Braidy Industries to appear before the panel next week.

The company responded in a statement that it “looks forward” to updating the committee. Braidy said it’s working with lawmakers to settle on a time that “works for both parties in the near future.”

Kentucky taxpayers have a direct stake in Braidy’s plans to build an aluminum rolling mill near Ashland in northeastern Kentucky. During his term, former Gov. Matt Bevin persuaded lawmakers to approve a $15 million state investment in the project.

The company is still trying to raise private money for the project, which it says will create 1,500 construction jobs and more than 650 full-time jobs once the plant starts production.

Last week, Braidy said its chairman and CEO, Craig Bouchard, would step down from that role but remain a member of its board of directors. The company offered no reason for the change. Bouchard disputed that he had stepped down and has said the “attempt” to remove him was “without basis.”

For years, Bouchard had been the public point man for the project - long touted to bring a badly needed infusion of jobs to a struggling region.

McDaniel said Tuesday that the boardroom acrimony has deepened concerns about the project.

“They owe people answers, especially now with the mess that is this CEO transition,” the Republican senator said in an interview.

McDaniel said he wants the committee to hear from a Braidy executive who “can speak with authority and who can take actions on behalf of the company.”

Committee members are looking for an update on the project, he said.

“I want to know how much money do they have on hand?” McDaniel said. “What sources did it come from? What’s the progress of the project?”

The company announced last week that its current president, Tom Modrowski, had been named interim CEO and current board member Charles Price would serve as board chairman. Braidy said it was in the “final fundraising stage.”

“Tom and the board will continue to focus our efforts on completing fundraising and planning for construction of the Ashland mill,” Price said last week in a release.

Braidy’s Kentucky project drew widespread attention when the company forged a partnership with Russian aluminum giant Rusal, which previously faced U.S. sanctions for connections to a Russian oligarch.

The state investment sparked a legal fight, led by the Courier-Journal, for records detailing the company’s finances. Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s administration recently released those records that Bevin’s administration had fought in court to withhold. Beshear defeated Bevin in last year’s election.