U.S. Grant to Korean Battery Firm Paid Workers to Play

Part of $142 million in U.S. Energy Department grant money given to a South Korean battery maker paid Michigan factory workers as they spent hours playing board games and watching movies, according to an agency report.

The work at LG Chem Michigan, a U.S. unit of Seoul-based LG Chem Ltd., has “not been managed effectively,” Energy Department Inspector General Gregory Friedman said in a report released yesterday.