I was an employee there for several years
I'm sorry your career has been affected, I have seen this so many times in the last 7 years it saddens me.
(Just a public service announcement, not an opinion on this company):
Whether it's good intentions gone wrong, mismanagement, or outright fraud, these things are happening more and more often. Regardless of whatever it is that happened here, consumers and landowners need to be more diligent than ever.
The outright fraud cases I've seen tend to revolve around industries that have been given access to Federal funding knowing that there's very little oversight, periodic or final reports are all that's required, and they can be totally fabricated. Some common threads in my experience are a very slick website, on every social media platform, feel-good promises, and investment and marketing campaigns that all indicate that they're the best at what they do and everyone wants to partner with them. Sometimes you have to dig deep to find negative reviews or information, because they pay to suppress it. I know of a company that's been selling promises for more than a decade, and even with government enforcement, hundreds of lawsuits, and national news stories, they're still able to get millions in funding and they've never made a single product at their manufacturing facility, it's empty. It's a lucrative idea and pushes everyone's feel-good buttons, other's have picked up on it and are following suit, and there will be casualties when they all file bankruptcy and walk away.
If someone finds them out or the heat is turned on, they just abandon one LLC and get a new one to continue operating. Unless you work for the government, you may not know that many regulatory agencies and prosecutors have an extremely hard time pursuing companies that do this. The rules were written long ago when it was harder to create and maintain a corporate business entity, rarely have they been brought up to date to take into account the history of those involved. You or I would still go to jail for repeatedly committing crimes under different names. And when government funding is involved, the government doesn't like to admit mistakes.
I'm sure more than a few folks here have participated in the various government assistance programs for agriculture, so you probably know how and why fraud can occur. With current technologies allowing companies to write their own narratives, reach more eyes with their marketing, and lure in less sophisticated investors, question everything that you spend your money on and let into your communities with flowery promises of creating jobs and solving the world's problems.
The world has become a used car lot during an everything must go sale, and mistress #3 wants a first-class trip to Hawaii while the wife and kids are at her mother's. Say, you look like an intelligent and sophisticated car buyer, let me show you this beauty, a Ford Pinto for only $25,000. I'll even throw in a free tank of gas for your trip home in high-speed bumper-to-bumper traffic! You know, your name sounds familiar. I sell life insurance too, I sold a policy just the other day to a lady with the same last name, made one heck of a commission on it! Anyway about the Pinto, it has brand new brakes so it'll stop before you can even think about wanting too! Isn't that great? If you don't like that, I have this powder-puff Chevy Corvair, it handles like a dream!
Please protect yourselves and your neighbors by being more skeptical and asking more questions, don't wait until they're already in your wallet.
Again, I don't have an opinion on this particular company, best wishes to all for a positive outcome.
