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Krinos projects
The Krinos Venture Capital website lists eight companies it says are “currently in the process of being funded. Besides Nature's Fuel in Fort Wayne, the companies are: •All Marine Network of Knoxville, Tenn, aims to create an “all-marine” cable television network and an online auction site for marine equipment. It also has developed a specialty vest that inflates when exposed to water. •Shelter Technologies of Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio makes disaster shelters built from recycled plastic materials. •Burton International of Cleveland mines copper and other metals in Zambia. •Sherman Metals Technologies of Pittsburgh intends to build a cold-rolled mill six high for the manufacture of specialty steel in Youngstown. •Skystar International Airways of Jacksonville, Fla. is a specialty charter airline for “socially useful” purposes, from a trip to the Vatican to missionary work to help places such as Haiti and Japan during crises. •Triad Eco. of Warren, Ohio, eliminates the need for the traditional sewer-line hook-up by a process which cleans and reuses water used for washing and other non drinking needs. •Port Scanning Services of Las Vegas makes radioactivity detection and specialty X-ray equipment for early detection of incoming threats at ports. Source: krinosventurecapital.com |
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The Ohio financier who says he will arrange $350 million in financing for a trash-to-fuel processing business in Huntington County is the defendant in two criminal cases in Ohio.
Reports in Vindy.com, the website of the Youngstown, Ohio, Vindicator, say that George Krinos faces charges of operating a vehicle while intoxicated and making false reports. He has been convicted of driving while intoxicated in the past.
Last week, a Fort Wayne company, Nature's Fuel, announced that Krinos, the owner of The Krinos Group, would provide more than $350 million needed to build a trash-to-fuel processing plant at a landfill south of Huntington. Executives of Nature's Fuel said the plant, which they expect to be operating in about a year, would employ about 180 people. All employees would be salaried, and the lowest salaries they plan to pay at the plant are the equivalent of about $16 an hour, they said.
Krinos also appeared at the press conference announcing the financing, and he said that he anticipates providing $2.5 billion for various startups – including more than $1 billion for Nature's Fuel plants – in the near future. He would not explain how his financing works, saying that it's a “proprietary” plan he's developed in the last 1 1/2 to 2 years.
Krinos was the mayor of Campbell, Ohio – a city of about 8,000 immediately east of Youngstown – for 13 months, from December 2009 to January 2011.
“He resigned as mayor two days after a report of an attempted suicide at his Matawan Drive home. A caller told police 'a man had eaten an entire bottle of Xanax.' Krinos said he went to the hospital because of an allergic reaction,” a story posted at vindy.com Saturday said.
The same story noted that Krinos “also was charged with (operating a vehicle under the influence of alcohol or drugs) in Columbiana County while in office, and was convicted of that charge in 2011. He is facing another OVI charge in Beaver Township. He was arrested there in June.”
In February, the newspaper has reported, “Campbell police went to Krinos' Chapel Lane residence after he reported a stabbing. Police said they found the supposed victim was not seriously hurt, and no one was charged.”
Mahoning County, Ohio, court records show that he also faces a charge of “making false alarms” filed against him in May. “Boardman police say Krinos called from a township restaurant complaining he had done too much cocaine. Krinos later told officers he called for help because he was afraid of being beaten by five men in the parking lot,” Youngtown television station WFMJ, Channel 21, reported at the time.
After the press conference last week, Krinos said he was unable to discuss the financing mechanism he would use to bring a $350 million investment to Huntington County. The reason? He said Securities and Exchange Commission rules prevent him from doing so, because he's planning to list The Krinos Group on the NASDAQ stock exchange by the end of the year.
The only SEC filing from Krinos available in the SEC database is one dated Aug. 31. It detailed a $1 million debt and equity offering from “Krinos Holdings Inc.,” a corporation incorporated in Nevada. At the time of that filing, Krinos reported that the minimum investment is $2,500. Twenty-two investors had stakes in the issue. The filing said $183,839 of the issue had been solid. The amount Krinos says he plans to invest in start-ups soon, $2.5 billion, is about 13,600 times the amount of shares he reported in that SEC filing.
Also last week, Krinos and the Nature's Fuels executives announced a similar project in Constantine, Mich. Bill Sinish, CEO and chairman of Nature's Fuels, said two other plants will be announced soon, one in Kentucky and one in Ohio.
The Nature's Fuel process envisioned for Huntington would heat landfill trash as part of a process of converting the waste to synthetic oil, diesel fuel and recycled construction materials, executives said. Glenn Johnson, the company's chief operating officer and president, said that Nature's Fuel has necessary permits from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management.
Nature's Fuel had operated a smaller plant utilizing a similar process in Atwood but closed that operation in 2011 after it was on the receiving end of complaints from neighbors and enforcement actions by IDEM.
Johnson did not respond to an email Monday seeking comment. Krinos was not available for comment Monday afternoon.
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