Feds Investigating Hagan-Related Stimulus Grants | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's note: This post was created by the staff for the Carolina Journal, John Hood Publisher.

DOE inspector general cites Carolina Journal reporting

    RALEIGH - In a major investigative story on WRAL News, reporter Mark Binker outlines an investigation by the U.S. Department of Energy of potential illegal self-dealing - reported in Carolina Journal more than a year ago - by businesses owned by family members of former U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan related to stimulus grants the Hagan companies received.

    Hagan, a Democrat, lost her 2014 re-election bid to Republican Thom Tillis.

• It is unclear what, if any, rules investigators with the DOE's Office of Inspector General believe may have been violated by JDC, a company owned by Hagan's husband, Chip, and two of his brothers.
• However, a federal investigator and the top lawyer for the State Auditor's Office discussed questions about "self-dealing" - whether the Hagans, through JDC, improperly awarded work related to a renewable energy project to companies owned by or employing family members - according to emails obtained through a state public records request. That is a charge that the Hagans, through their lawyer, Greensboro's Bill Cary, have strongly denied over the past two years.

    Carolina Journal began looking into the Hagan family companies in late summer 2014, including a separate project in Burnsville, the Mountain Heritage Expo Center, which drew the attention of state regulators. Kay and Chip Hagan's son Tilden installed solar panels at the center and later, the project coordinator of the expo center, Melissa Graham, removed the panels and tried to sell them on Craigslist.

• On April 17, Kevin Gordon, a special agent with the Energy Department's Office of Inspector General called state environmental regulators for information related to the Mountain Heritage Expo Center. The expo center was a separate project entirely from JDC, but records show that it used Solardyne [another Hagan family company] as a subcontractor. Records show that the expo center encountered a raft of legal and administrative problems unrelated to SolarDyne's involvement and entirely divorced from anything to do with JDC.
• It wasn't until a May 8, 2015, letter to Gordon that documents show JDC was pulled into the conversation. That letter says Gordon had requested information related to the expo center and details the material provided. It then goes on to say, "In addition, DENR is providing DOE with the following materials concerning the JDC Project." The letter cites the fact that JDC had been mentioned in stories by the Carolina Journal, a conservative media outlet, as a reason for including the material.