Doug Peters tells LDFA that Visteon Corp. is a bad neighbor, corporate thief

Doug Peters, vice chairman of the Van Buren Township Local Development Finance Authority, told the LDFA at its regular meeting July 12 that Visteon is a bad neighbor and a corporate thief.
Van Buren Township is suing Visteon over the $32 million the township took out in bonds to help build Visteon Village. The township contends that Visteon had agreed to pay on the bonds if the LDFA tax on the property was not enough to cover the bond obligations after it went bankrupt.
Since then, Visteon went bankrupt and sold the property and will not pay.
Van Buren Township is lending money to the LDFA for the bond obligations each March and September and so far the LDFA owes the township more than $5 million for loans and interest.
John Delaney, who had resigned from the LDFA recently, was present at the meeting and complained about Visteon and the township lawyers and administration.
“I share John Delaney’s frustration, but having been closest, it is worse for me,” said Peters, a retired attorney who is known nationally for his skills. “I was there when Visteon came … The villain here is not the administration, not our lawyers. It is Visteon.
“Visteon is a corporate thief. Visteon is running up our legal expenses on purpose… We have $32 million worth of debt … Visteon is a bad neighbor, a corrupt organization that tried to take advantage of our taxpayers,” Peters said.
He said the township supervisor has paid close attention to the law suit.
“Our corporate lawyers are conservative gentlemen when we don’t need” politeness, he said, adding the township supervisor and his staff are very aware and every time there is an attorney bill it is scrutinized and questioned.
He called Visteon an “exploitive” corporation and said it is hiding documents.
“I believe the Ford Motor Company, Proctor and Gamble, and Dow Corning destroy documents,” he said. “It’s not the time to let up.”
Peters said there are people in this community and in Canton that can offer insider information to help the township’s case.
“Once insiders come forward to talk, others will come,” he said, pointing to the U.S. House’s Jan. 6 hearings. He said when one young lady stood up, then others came forward.
“We ask Visteon’s former employees to come forward,” he said.
“It’s $32 million that Visteon is asking township residents to pay on their behalf,” he stated.
“A lot of times we are instructed by our lawyers not to talk because they are afraid something we say will be used against us,” Peters said.
“They should pay up or leave the community,” Peters said of Visteon. “Unless they act like responsible citizens, they should leave the community or be shunned.”
“Visteon is insisting we produce documents,” Peters said, noting that takes time for staff to search and money for attorneys to review. “Visteon is just burning up our gasoline. Every little item, digital discovery. Try to keep us so busy there’s not enough time to work on our strategy.
“We have senior lawyers and more senior lawyers. A few documents dribbled out from Visteon.
“We need insiders to send us documents,” Peters said. “We don’t know who exactly at Visteon decided not to pay… We need to know who that person is.”
He said it’s important to videotape depositions because the momentary pauses before answering a question and the facial expressions are important.
“We’re going to war with a Tier 1 corporation who wants to chisel us for $32 million. If we quit, we’ll be burned for $32 million.
“A jury will be pretty angry because the community opened its arms and gave help to Visteon and then it went into bankruptcy and we get stiffed,” Peters said. “When the jury hears that, they’ll be made to pay.
“We need the documents,” Peters stressed.
“We need to make them pay,” agreed Supervisor Kevin McNamara.
Delaney said, “Visteon, Ford, and Sovereign are playing this end game to see if we have documents. If we don’t have something” they could destroy their copy. He said there have been three township supervisors since this happened and multiple trustees and their depositions should have been videotaped. He said the planning started in 2000 and it was finalized in 2003.
Peters said that Visteon needs to be able to cross/examine witnesses. He said all the key players have been statementized and lawyers assured him all the key witnesses have been interviewed.
“I was the last board member,” Peters said. “I was in the room and I asked what if they go bankrupt? Ford will stand behind them, we were told. Then they parted. They could not legally bind Ford. I can’t say that they planned this from the beginning. They may have treated us like any of their other companies.”
Earlier in the meeting, Delaney had complained that the township attorneys that had been involved in the law suits against Visteon cost the township a lot of money and got nothing.
He said it was way too long for the lawsuit to come around.
“I’m told it was two years of COVID, so we didn’t get anywhere,” Delaney said. “They could have done research then.”
Delaney said when he was on the LDFA, he tried to get boxes of documents from the attorneys and, “I was a driving force. Peters was the legal mind. [Chairman Michael] Dotson was pushing forward. But we have to push harder.”
“They are checking things that should already have been checked,” he said of the attorneys on the case.
“I’m calling foul … They owe us,” he said of the attorneys. “The public doesn’t know what’s going on – the money lost for the last three attorneys.”
During the meeting, the LDFA considered a report on the loan agreement with the township and a budget update.
Van Buren Township Deputy Treasurer Sean Bellingham was present to answer questions. In his report he noted that the loan total from the township to the LDFA now stands at $5,191,580.42 including interest and in September another $1 million will need to be loaned to the LDFA to cover the next semi-annual debt payment in the amount of $985,678.13 due Oct. 1. In the proposed 2023 budget, $600,000 is set aside for attorney fees, up from $450,000 estimated for 2022.

This story was updated on Aug. 4, 2022.