The trial of a Canadian business executive in north Alabama has been rescheduled for April.
Gregory Aziz of Hamilton, Ontario, had been scheduled for trial this week in Tuscumbia on securities fraud charges. Colbert County Circuit Judge Jacqueline Hatcher delayed the trial at the request of the defense. She issued an order setting it for April 6.
Aziz is chairman and CEO of National Steel Car. He has pleaded not guilty to charges accusing him of misleading officials with Alabama's state pension program to get financing for a rail car manufacturing plant that was never finished in the northwest Alabama town of Cherokee. Court records say the Retirement Systems of Alabama agreed to provide $625 million. The plant was supposed to create 1,800 jobs.