GOP Senate candidate John James doesn't refute our story about his company failing to create promised jobs after getting tax break

click to enlarge GOP Senate candidate John James doesn't refute our story about his company failing to create promised jobs after getting tax break
Reuters/Rebecca Cook

A recent Metro Times cover story looked into a claim often made by Republican Senate candidate John James on the campaign trail: that he grew Renaissance Global Logistics — his family's Detroit-based company that he ran since 2012 — from $35 million to $137 million in revenue, adding "100 jobs in Michigan and east of the Mississippi" in the process.

Documents obtained by Metro Times, however, showed that the company lost its tax-exempt status after failing to produce the jobs it promised, and indeed appeared to have actually lost jobs during that time — all while James earned at least $1.6 million in salary and up to $2 million in stock dividend income from his family's company. Neither James nor his campaign would comment on the record to Metro Times for the story, likely because we're not Fox News.

But in a wide-ranging story looking at the race between James and incumbent Democrat Gary Peters in the Detroit Free Press, James did not refute the findings of the story.

According to the paper, "James ... said he created jobs elsewhere in the country and invested in the company's Detroit location all the same. He also said the company's employment numbers in Michigan fluctuated based on demand from the auto industry — its chief customer — in such a way that the reports to the state didn't always reflect."

You can read the full Free Press article here.

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