Asphalt Company Alleges Operative Who Posed as a Project Opponent Committed Fraud

Maymead, a company that plans to build a controversial asphalt plant south of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, is suing a consulting firm and one of its former employees, alleging they committed fraud, civil conspiracy and deceptive trade practices in spearheading opposition to the project.

The former employee, Chris Hopkins of Tennessee, used an alias, Chris Sanderson, to infiltrate a neighborhood group in Clemmons near the proposed plant, Inside Climate News reported in early September. 

Although Hopkins told neighbors he opposed the plant for environmental reasons, Maymead alleged in court documents filed in Forsyth County Superior Court that he and then-employer Land Use Strategies were working on behalf of an unnamed competitor to thwart Maymead’s project. 

“There was no legitimate business purpose in defendants’ attempts to manipulate citizens and to use them as agents to manipulate the market for asphalt,” the legal complaint reads. 

The company alleged that Hopkins’ subterfuge was intended to “protect his client’s market position and competitive and pricing advantage,” and “to create opposition where opposition did not exist, to disseminate information known to be false, misleading, or inaccurate about asphalt plants.” 

Hopkins did not respond to text messages from Inside Climate News seeking comment for this article; an email bounced back. In a brief interview last month, he denied that Sanderson was an alias but refused to provide identification to prove his identity.

At the time, Hopkins was a partner with Land Use Strategies, which specializes in “grassroots coalition building,” strategic communications and public affairs on behalf of mining interests, data centers, landfills and other industries, according to the firm’s website.

After Inside Climate News emailed documents to Land Use Strategies showing Hopkins’ dual identities, the firm responded that he was no longer an employee. The firm also told Inside Climate News in an email that it didn’t know about the situation in Clemmons.

Land Use Strategies did not respond to an email and a phone call seeking comment about the lawsuit.

Tom Terrell, an attorney representing Maymead, told Inside Climate News that Hopkins and Land Use Strategies were not engaged in “protected political speech.”

“It was an illegal attempt to manipulate supply and demand to control market prices,” Terrell said.

Maymead is asking the court to force Hopkins and Land Use Strategies to pay attorney’s fees and more than $25,000 in financial damages. With court approval, Maymead plans to identify the competitor it alleges Hopkins was aiding once the name is disclosed in the discovery phase of the litigation.

Maymead is under contract to buy land along Gun Club Road for the plant, but it needs county approval of its air permit application before constructing the project. The application is still under technical review; if the county approves a draft permit, the public can comment on it before the final version.

Residents are petitioning Forsyth County officials to deny Maymead’s application over concerns about air pollution, truck traffic and noise. Each year the plant would emit 7 tons of health-harming particulate matter, 4.8 tons of cancer-causing formaldehyde, a half ton of cancer-causing benzene and many other air pollutants, according to the application.

The plant would lie within 2 miles of eight elementary schools, several parks, churches, day cares and hundreds of residences, including a mobile home community.

Several Clemmons residents previously told Inside Climate News that they felt “invaded” and “betrayed” by Hopkins.

Few neighbors knew about the proposal until Hopkins, posing as Sanderson, formed an anti-asphalt-plant Facebook group and an online neighborhood discussion list. He visited neighbors in their homes and emailed and spoke with local government officials. He ordered and paid $700 for flyers, stickers and signs. A resident looking at the flyer metadata found “Christopher Hopkins” listed as the document creator.

Therese Vick is a long-time community organizer with the nonprofit Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League who lives in Johnston County, southeast of Raleigh. She said she encountered company operatives who were trying to disrupt local opposition when fighting a hazardous waste incinerator in Northampton County in the 1990s and during the rapid expansion of the hog industry in eastern North Carolina. 

Industry moles often leave clues that they are not who they claim to be, she said. Impersonators might suggest or advocate for violence, interfere with a group’s strategy, make big promises or try to undermine an organization’s leadership.

Other tells include “someone new who shows up during a contentious issue, whom no one knows, and who has no verifiable local connections, is evasive about where they live, has a vague background, foments division and has unreasonable curiosity about leaders,” Vick said.

Hopkins gave differing accounts of where he lived, residents told Inside Climate News, and said he had experience dealing with mining and asphalt issues, but was vague about the details.

“Grassroots community organizing isn’t new to North Carolina,” Vick said, “and neither are the pressure tactics that come with high-stakes industrial development.”