GREEN BAY, Wisconsin (From the Green Bay Press Gazette) -- De Pere businessman Ron Van Den Heuvel expected his Green Box businesses to garner national -- if not worldwide -- notoriety for turning trash into treasure.

Instead, the business has drawn the attention of no less than five federal agencies that are investigating Van Den Heuvel and the long list of companies he created, Brown County Sheriff's Office Capt. Dave Konrath said.

He said the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, FBI, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, Department of Justice and Internal Revenue Service have been involved in the investigation.

Konrath said the sheriff's office has found itself in the middle of the government and civil investigations in July 2015 when it executed a search warrant at Green Box's offices in the 2000 block of Lawrence Drive, in De Pere, as part of a criminal investigation that is still ongoing. Konrath said the agency continues to hold 20 filing cabinets and eight pallets of documents seized as part of the investigation.

"It got to be so expansive, we sat down with other law enforcement agencies to determine their roles," Konrath said. "Because of the complexity of the case, different agencies took on different roles. It's an ongoing investigation."

Federal agencies declined to comment on the investigations or even confirm what they're investigating, but their investigations are in addition to a series of local lawsuits filed against Van Den Heuvel and Green Box by investors that range from a local doctor to the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. and a Montreal-based investment firm.

Van Den Heuvel presented his business to investors as one that would put an end to landfill waste by breaking down food-tainted paper products, tires and other waste into electricity, paper products, oil, black carbon and other reusable materials.

A presentation for investors in Green Box Detroit still exists online. It provides a look at what might have helped sell investors on taking a share of a business that said each Green Box built could process 500 tons of organic, solid waste each day.

The presentation includes a slide, "Cash Flow Coverage Per Green Box," in between pictures of the Earth, a polar bear looking across an icy expanse and a lion's face. The cash-flow slide projected $128.3 million in total sales against $79.4 million of material costs, expenses, royalties, insurance and other costs for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of $46.1 million.

At the bottom, in red letters, was a warning: "This is a forward-looking financial statement and is not based on actual income and expenses."

Green Box Green Bay LLC filed for bankruptcy protection in April, one week after Brown County Circuit Court Judge John Zakowski issued a warrant for Van Den Heuvel's arrest when a creditor claimed a piece of equipment that served as collateral had disappeared. That same week, a federal grand jury indicted Van Den Heuvel for bank fraud. Van Den Heuvel's wife, Kelly, and banker Paul Piikkila of Appleton, were also named in the indictment.