Carolyn Rafaelian, owner of Belcourt of Newport, signed a letter in August to state officials that seemingly contradicts her statement earlier this week that she didn't know a company working for her would seek an $18,000 solar-energy grant from the R.I. Economic Development Corporation.
In her letter, included in EDC documents, Rafaelian said Newport Renewables was authorized to act as the agent for her castle in Newport in the "preparation and application to the RI Renewable Energy Fund Commercial Scale Solar Program."
That grant request was withdrawn Monday by Newport Renewables. Rafaelian told The Journal she hadn't known of the request and asked the company to withdraw it immediately when she learned about it.
On Friday, Rafaelian said she had no such letter in her files, but after The Providence Journal shared the document with her, she acknowledged it was her signature. However, she maintains she did not know of the grant request to the EDC.
"In a million years, I'm not interested in any handouts, and $18,000 is not going to get me from Point A to Point B in any project that I do," said Rafaelian, the majority shareholder of the fast-growing Alex and Ani who bought the historic Belcourt independently of her jewelry and lifestyle company. " ... The pure fact is that I don't remember signing anything right now."
She said she must have signed the letter on a day when she had hundreds of documents and checks before her. Her staff knew she had authorized Newport Renewables to do the solar project and that her architect on the Belcourt project was working with that company, she said.
The Renewable Energy Fund is available to all ratepayers in the state. It's funded by a renewable energy surcharge of $0.0003 per kilowatt hours used by all electric users in Rhode Island.
Rafaelian's architect on the Belcourt and other projects, Shahin Barzin, said he knew about the energy grant request but it hadn't occurred to him to tell Rafaelian about it in the midst of multiple projects: "If I want to go into every detail about every proposal, it's going to take forever."
Newport Renewables co-owner Stuart Flanagan said Friday he has no comment.
Rafaelian said she'll continue with the Belcourt project and will continue working with Newport Renewables.
"And I will keep supporting their business," she said. "This is not a reflection on them at all."