Braidy Industries settled a lawsuit with founder Craig Bouchard in a Delaware Chancery Courtroom on Monday.
As part of the “amicable” settlement, Bouchard has stepped down from the board of directors of the company, whose plan is still to build an aluminum mill and provide 550 full-time high-paying jobs and 1,000 construction jobs in northeastern Kentucky.
Both the company and Bouchard recognized the contribution each party played in the creation of Braidy Industries – named after one of Bouchard’s daughters. In a release, the board of directors said it “looks forward to building on the foundation Bouchard set and bringing his vision to fruition.”
Bouchard is no longer involved with the company in any capacity. Other terms of the settlement were not disclosed. He called it an “amicable settlement” in a Facebook post.
In late January, the Braidy board ousted Bouchard as the chairman and CEO. Bouchard said in his case against the board that they had violated the company’s bylaws with the decision. The Delaware court ruled to dismiss the case against the board members, crippling his case.
Bouchard said the “vision has never wavered” to bring the most technologically advanced and lowest cost aluminum rolling mill in the world to the Appalachian region “brimming with hard-working people, eager to make a difference in their community and the region.”
Bouchard chose the Ashland area as the place to build the mill in 2017, and he had a groundbreaking in 2018, although only ceremonial dirt was ever turned on the project that still must raise $1.8 billion.
He said the viability of the company moving forward was at risk if the litigation continued. “That risk is simply not worth taking,” Bouchard said.
The state of Kentucky is one of the stockholders in the project after the General Assembly unanimously voted to give the company $15 million in the spring of 2017 under a deal brokered by former Gov. Matt Bevin.
Braidy Industries has to meet an end-of-year deadline to show a $1 billion investment in the mill or the state could move to take back the multi-million dollar investment it made in the company.
“The board members have in all cases done what is best for its shareholders. and they are committed to making this project a reality,” Bouchard wrote on social media. “I hope to continue my hope and advocacy in support of the mill and eastern Kentucky moving forward.”
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Written by Mark Maynard. Cross-posted from Kentucky Today.