Documents show big losses for investors in downstate ethanol plant

CANTON, Ill. -- According to recent court documents, some individual investors in an ethanol plant just outside of Canton lost hundreds of thousands of dollars when construction work at the site shut down and the plant filed for bankruptcy in December.

The documents indicate that a total of 74 shareholders signed letters of credit for Central Illinois Energy LLC totaling $5.06 million. Those investors were shareholders in the ethanol plant that was proposed at a cost of $40 million in 2001. When board members voted in early December to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, more than $130 million had been spent on the plant, which was still incomplete.