VOLUME 24 NUMBER 19 ■ GSABUSINESS.COM
Part of the
Entrepreneur helps police bring down $4.5M patent scam
Workhorse clears way for Oshkosh
Competing company drops opposition to automaker’s contract. Page 8
By Molly Hulsey
A
Millions for movies Film industry gets unexpected boost. Page 6
Milestone for SBA portal
1 million owners seek loan forgiveness. Page 3 Solvay officials Prasad Donti and Carmelo Lo Faro discuss the new TPC product lines at the Piedmont facility with Gov. Henry McMaster. (Photo/Molly Hulsey)
Modern and modular
Impresa plans factory in Greenwood. Page 16
INSIDE
Leading Off .......................... 2 SC Biz News Briefs ................ 3 C-Suite ................................ 4 In Focus: Residential Real Estate ................................ 15 LIST: Residential Real Estate Firms ................................. 18 At Work ..............................22 Viewpoint ...........................23
OCTOBER 4 - OCTOBER 17, 2021 ■ $2.25
network
Solvay answers lithium shortage fears with PVDF tape line By Molly Hulsey
A
mhulsey@scbiznews.com
lternative energy demand began to climb for an auto and aerospace giant, and something had to give. Solvay sent out a companywide survey several years ago querying employees for thoughts on the next best home for a thermoplastics composites, or TPC, facility. Officials debated locations in Europe, South America and the United States, and in 2019, a former Cytec carbon fiber production facility in Pied-
mont’s S.C. Technology and Aviation Center won out. “Globally, everybody is going to clean energy, and the applications we are going after: it saves them about 30% in total costs of ownership, so this is an enabler for that industry,” Prasad Donti, project leader for the company’s thermoplastic capital projects, told GSA Business Report. The Belgian company produces tapes made from thermoplastic composites used in the See SOLVAY, Page 11
In Focus
Boom time for appraisers Red-hot market causes scramble, appraisal delays. Page 15
mhulsey@scbiznews.com
scam run out of a Latvian apartment bilked American companies for millions of dollars, but less than $2,000 taken from a Greenville entrepreneur ended the scheme and landed the suspect in an American prison. Julie Maddox, the Greenville founder of the diabetic-friendly Benji Bars, was one of 2,900 businesses that investigators say were swindled in a $4.5 million scheme by Latvian Viktors Suhorukovs. He was sentenced to more than four years in federal prison on Sept. 14 for tricking trademark holders into sending him trademark renewal fee payments that victims thought were going to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. For Maddox the scam threw her exclusive ownership of her product name and tagline, “Make it Better,” into jeopardy, she told GSA Business Report. Since she could not afford to renew the trademark after mailing Suhorukovs, 37, a check that she thought was bound for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, her brand is up for grabs. If she sells any of her trademarked products, she is committing an act of fraud, according to intellectual property attorney Santucci Priore. “Every hard thing that I have come across in the business, I have overcome,” Maddox said. “COVID didn’t shut me down, but this person who perpetuated this scam did shut me down.” For Maddox, it started on a July day in 2019, when she pulled an invoice from the mailbox. Maddox has invested seven years into her startup, which she launched after developing a recipe for low-sugar protein bars for her son Benjamin after he was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. Even before the snacks hit See SCAM, Page 12