Tag: The Facility Group

Well now, this explains things…

I happened to notice yesterday our old beef plant coverage was getting some attention from a few readers in the Jackson area.  I normally don’t spend too much time trying to divine what drives interests in our older posts but in this instance the Clarion Ledger solved that mystery.

Unfortunately the Facility Group way of getting work by employing local pols as “consultants” and doing the pay to play thing continues on to this day. Different contractor and politicians but the game remains the same.

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Moooving right along Slabbed Profiles Beef Plant Prosecution Aftermath: Cheryl Moultrie Speaks Out

After one of our Georgia based readers stopped in and left a comment earlier this week on my last Beef Plant post from December 2008 I openly wondered if my predictions concerning bad times ahead for convicted felon Robert Moultrie’s company, The Facility Group, had come to fruition. In response Nonya provided this answer:

They are going broke, Robert’s in jail, Cheryl is trying to sell everything off, TFG is just a skeleton crew now. How the mighty have fallen. They are losing all their land leases at the end of the year, sold off a bunch of their cattle (and lost their butts on the sale, heheheh!). They are almost penniless. Cheryl is trying to sell a property right now the Robert put up with the Bank of North GA…..

My good friend Russell followed up as well and he emailed me a story from late last month that appeared in the Marietta Daily Journal where Cheryl Moultrie did some venting and attempts to put ye ol’ spin on the events that lead to her husband’s incarceration. The story represented a big wet kiss for the Moultries that few of the locals bought into as evidenced by the reader commentary.  I’ll add that despite the fact her husband was sold out to the feds by disgraced former Mississippi Governor, turned insurance defense lawyer, turned failed Senatorial Candidate Ronnie Musgrove, Cheryl Moultrie takes up for Mississippi’s most famous toe sucker in the process displaying classic denial which in turn most likely explains why our Georgia based readers still hold a great deal of enmity toward them. Jon Gillooly has the story:

Cobb socialite and philanthropist Cheryl Moultrie has had a rough two years.

Her husband, the prominent business leader Robert Moultrie, was hauled off to prison in January after pleading guilty in August 2008 to making an illegal campaign payment to a Mississippi governor.

And if that wasn’t enough, Moultrie’s construction management firm, which at one point employed about 430 people to manage projects valued at more than $700 million, is on the verge of collapse. Continue reading “Moooving right along Slabbed Profiles Beef Plant Prosecution Aftermath: Cheryl Moultrie Speaks Out”

Saturday Catch Up: Robert Moultrie Gets His Time, The Facility Group Implodes

It has been uncommonly busy here in my little corner of the construction market thus these Saturday catch up posts ahead of a day watching U12 soccer. Next up is an update on a case we covered gavel to gavel, the Beef Plant Saga which cost the Mississippi taxpayers at least 55 million dollars. I’ll start with this puff peice from June, 2007 on Robert Moultrie courtesy “Smart” Business magazine:

A few years ago, one of Robert L. Moultrie’s best construction project managers came to him with a request.

“I’d like to go into sales,” the employee said. “There’s no way,” Moultrie responded. “You’re too valuable to us in our construction division.”

“Well, if that’s the case, I’ll leave,” he said.

Moultrie and the employee went on, and after much deliberation, Moultrie decided to let him try sales.

“The mistake I made was I should have put him in sales 10 years earlier,” he says. “He was awesome, and he knew what he wanted to do … and today the volume of business he brings to the organization is unbelievable.”

While that employee has brought great business to The Facility Group, it may never have happened if Moultrie, chairman and founder, had a different attitude. If he told the guy not to let the door hit him on the way out, or if he acted like he had 1,000 other things to do, his business may not be as successful as it is today, something he attributes to his employees, who grew the company to nearly $300 million in revenue last year, up from $10 million in 1986.

“My problem was simple,” Moultrie says. “I had so many weaknesses, I had to hire so many great people to take care of all my weaknesses, that it’s caused me to end up with a great organization.”

Of course what the article leaves out is the behind the scenes assistance Mr Moultrie gave his “salesmen” in terms of political contributions and the like that always seemed to follow large contract awards to The Facility Group. Spreading the wealth worked well as Mr Moultrie grew the Facility Group to a 300 million dollar company. But his luck ran out Thursday along with the “year and a day” concept when Mr Moultrie was sentenced to 16 months in the pokey. Continue reading “Saturday Catch Up: Robert Moultrie Gets His Time, The Facility Group Implodes”