Kentucky Invests $15 Million in Braidy Industries on Final Day of Legislative Session Without Disclosure

Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin announces that Braidy Industries, a new venture led by metals industry veteran Craig Bouchard, will build what is described as “the most sophisticated aluminum mill in the world” in Greenup County near Ashland, promising 600 well-paying jobs. One week later, Bevin’s administration uses $15 million in borrowed money to purchase stock in the company, making Kentucky taxpayers the owner of at least 20 percent of Braidy Industries. The investment was awarded at Bevin’s behest on the final day of the 2017 legislative session without prior disclosure of the project to lawmakers or the public.

The deal represents an extraordinary departure from traditional economic development incentives, with the fiscally conservative Republican governor defending direct equity investment by claiming Kentucky’s stake could be worth $250 million in 5-6 years if profit targets were met. Braidy Industries, incorporated just one month earlier in March 2017, also secures $4 million from the Abandoned Mine Lands fund through an announcement by Senator Mitch McConnell and Representative Hal Rogers in 2018, plus over $10 million in additional tax incentives. The rushed investment on the final legislative day, combined with complete lack of transparency about the recipient company, demonstrates textbook crony capitalism: public money flowing to private ventures through political connections rather than competitive processes or genuine economic analysis.

The project ultimately becomes what Governor Andy Beshear calls “the worst and shadiest economic development deal in Kentucky’s history.” After CEO Craig Bouchard is ousted in 2020 and receives a $6 million settlement, Beshear states that “Craig Bouchard sold a fraudulent vision and peddled in hope and when the going got hard, he took off with millions of dollars and left Kentuckians holding the bag.” The promised aluminum mill is never built, with Braidy’s assets sold to Steel Dynamics in 2022, which announces the mill will be constructed in Mississippi instead. Kentucky eventually recoups its $15 million investment in September 2022, but the scandal exposes how state institutional capture enables public funds to be directed toward politically connected ventures that collapse while enriching corporate insiders.