Federal agents are investigating TAM Ceramics, a 117-year-old Niagara County, N.Y., company that has received government grants and tax breaks to make chemical powders used in a wide range of industries. The company has had past contracts with the U.S. military, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and several European governments, according to its website. (Tam Ceramics LLC/Facebook)
(Tribune News Service) — Federal agents are investigating TAM Ceramics, a 117-year-old Niagara County, N.Y., company that has received government grants and tax breaks to make chemical powders used in a wide range of industries.
Agents from Homeland Security Investigations searched the company's property on Hyde Park Boulevard in the Town of Niagara on June 13, two law enforcement sources and a government source confirmed Friday.
So far, authorities are keeping silent about what they were looking for or whether they found it.
A Homeland Security Investigations spokesman told The Buffalo News he could not confirm or deny anything about the raid because the agency does not discuss "ongoing or pending investigations."
Niagara Falls Mayor Robert Restaino said law enforcement has told city officials that the investigation involves "concerns about materials that were moved to the TAM site from another country."
"Our people are not involved with the investigation but we're keeping a close eye on the situation because this is a company that uses chemicals, right on the city border," Restaino said Monday afternoon.
"My first concern when I heard about this was, 'What is going on there?' We don't know what the material is, or what country it came from. The city has not been notified of any ongoing safety concern at that site."
On Thursday, police and firefighters responded to a small fire at the TAM plant. Niagara Town Police Chief Craig Guiliani and Niagara County fire investigator John Guiher said there was nothing suspicious about the fire.
"I see no reason to suspect the fire had anything to do with the federal raid there," Guiliani said.
No one was hurt by the fire, which started when flames escaped from an industrial furnace and caused minor damage to the ceiling and roof of a large building on the site, said Guiher, who is also assistant chief of the Niagara Active Hose Fire Company.
Despite attempts by The Buffalo News to reach them on Thursday, Friday and Monday, TAM Ceramics and its attorneys have so far declined to discuss the federal probe or the search of company property.
Founded in 1906, TAM is currently owned by Jerome Williams and George Bilkey. Williams did not return phone or email messages left for him by a Buffalo News reporter.
Bilkey emailed the reporter on Friday, saying he is out of town and not ready to discuss the situation, adding that he may have some comments later.
TAM has 62 employees and makes chemical powders used by the aerospace, automotive, steel, glass, electronics and chemical industries, according to a company profile on the Datanyze business website.
The company has had past contracts with the U.S. military, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and several European governments, according to its website.
Several agents, wearing Homeland Security Investigations jackets, carried white plastic buckets on June 13 as they left a building on the 35-acre TAM property. The agents were photographed by the Niagara Gazette, which first reported on the raid June 14.
TAM has received government funding several times and has been in the news several times since Williams and Bilkey took over in 2011.
In 2014, TAM received a $500,000 award from the state Energy Research and Development Authority to develop an innovative device to create electricity from waste heat.
At that time, the company said it made zirconia, titanate and zircon powders that are used in high-temperature furnace linings, brake pads, protective coatings for molten metal casting and welding consumables.
In 2013, the Niagara County Industrial Development Agency said it was revoking a property tax break for TAM because the company had failed to make timely payments on back taxes and sewer and water bills. The company owed the county $627,000 at that time, The Buffalo News reported.
TAM had filed four lawsuits against the Town of Niagara to try to get its plant's tax assessment reduced, town officials said in 2013.
In 2012, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority announced that TAM and a Buffalo company would receive $700,000 in state grants to develop clean energy power systems.
Company officials could not be reached Friday for comment on the status of its government-funded projects or its legal disputes with the town or county.
Niagara's then-town supervisor, Steven Richards, complained publicly in 2011, when the Niagara USA Chamber named TAM as Niagara County's "Company of the Year." Richards questioned whether a company that owed hundreds of thousands of dollars in back taxes and fees should receive such an honor.
At that time, Williams said he and Bilkey were working hard to resolve financial problems left to them by previous owners of TAM.
According to TAM's website, Bilkey in 2011 said the company had contracts with several universities, the U.S. military, NATO and several European governments to research and develop ceramic materials for use in bridge building, space heating, solar and wind power delivery and fuel cells.
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