Free energy claims met
with skepticism
11/03/99
By DAVE CASEY Business Reporter
Flamboyant and controversial promoter Dennis Lee
brings his gospel of free energy to the Mobile
Convention Center tonight, while authorities in two other
states and a host of scientific skeptics dog his current
nationwide tour.
Lee claims his "new technology" - such as an electric
motor that is more than 200 percent efficient - can
provide energy free or at greatly reduced cost for his
investors.
His critics, including scientists, engineers and various
government regulatory agencies, say Lee's machines
don't do what he claims and that his sales pitch violates
some states' securities laws.
Lee is in the midst of a 45-city tour that began several
weeks ago and ends Nov. 10 in Philadelphia. At each of
his free seminars, Lee asks his listeners to pay $275
apiece to join an energy cooperative. Of that fee, Lee
says, $200 goes into an escrow account. The initial
investor is urged to sell 49 other memberships for $275
each.
One of Lee's several energy companies is supposed to
then manufacture and install an electricity machine in the
home of the first buyer in the co-op, but no deadline for
the installation is stated.
Printed material distributed at previous Lee seminars
indicates that the technology is still being developed and
that installation times are uncertain. If and when the
machine is installed and functioning, the $10,000 in
escrow money contributed by that co-op's 50 members
is to be transferred to one of Lee's companies to build
electricity units for the remaining 49 members.
Lee and his companies already have prompted legal
action by authorities in Washington and Tennessee
following recent seminars, and his program at 7 p.m.
apparently has attracted some attention from Alabama
officials.
When contacted Tuesday about Lee's booking of a
ballroom at the Mobile Convention Center, facility
spokeswoman Lucy Arnold said the center staff had
received inquiries from local prosecutors about the
event.
Mobile County District Attorney John Tyson Jr. did not
return a telephone call Tuesday seeking comment on
whether his office intends to monitor the Lee seminar.
Alabama Securities Commission Director Joseph Borg
was away from his office Tuesday and could not be
reached for comment.
After Lee held seminars in various Tennessee cities in
late September, the Tennessee attorney general's office
and the state's Department of Commerce and Insurance
obtained a temporary restraining order against him, two
associates and six related companies. The order charged
that Lee and the others violated state securities laws by
failing to register to do business there and that they made
"untrue statements of material facts."
The Tennessee court documents also outline Lee's court
record:
New Jersey, 1974 to 1979, eight arrests alleging fraud,
forgery and drug-related offenses.
New York, 1982, arrested on charges he passed bad
checks.
Washington, 1985, fined $31,000 in a civil action
accusing him of violating the state's consumer protection
act.
California, 1988, Lee pleaded guilty to seven of 47
counts and served two years in prison for
misrepresentations to investors about the energy-saving
potential of an electric heat pump.
In October, following Lee seminars in Yakima and
Tacoma, Wash., state securities regulators filed a
cease-and-desist order against him and his companies.
The Washington order charges that Lee offered
investments without being registered in the state and that
his activities violated a fraud statute.
Lee, who was supposed to be conducting a seminar in
New Orleans on Tuesday, could not be reached for
comment. The Internet Web site of one of his
companies, United Community Services of America,
contains only a telephone number for a facsimile
machine. A faxed request by the Mobile Register for
comment from him or one of his business colleagues
resulted in a telephone call from a woman identifying
herself as Lee-associate Allison David.
"What's the problem?" she said. "Ah, you're a reporter. I
thought this was something different. No, we don't want
to talk to you."
The woman hung up the phone before any questions
could be asked.
On one of his company Web sites and in material
published by supporters, Lee claims he is the victim of
powerful "self-interest groups and their political cronies"
who want his discoveries kept quiet.
Scientists and engineers who have followed Lee's
activity for several years have launched several Web
sites debunking his and others' free-energy claims. Some
of those critics say they have attended Lee's seminars
and that he uses a mixture of self-professed Christianity,
conspiracy theories and stagemanship to captivate his
audiences.
Eric Krieg, an electrical engineer and founder of the
Philadelphia Association for Critical Thinking, said he
and three other engineers attended a five-hour session
by Lee in that city. On his Web site, Krieg describes
Lee's seminars as a cross between "Shoppers Home
Network, professional wrestling and Jim Baker."
Lee attracts audiences through Internet listings of his
seminar schedule and by advertising. He ran a full-page
ad on Sept. 17 in USA Today and an ad in the Nashville
Tennessean on Sept. 26.
Lee is scheduled to present a seminar in Atlanta
Thursday night, then speak in three more Southeastern
cities before winding up the tour in Philadelphia. On
Nov. 18, a week after his speaking tour ends, Lee is
expected to return to Tennessee for a hearing in the
Nashville Metro Courthouse about his activities in that
state.
back to Eric's main Dennis Lee page and information on Joe Newman's Free Energy Promises
Creator of this page-
get
on an email list which includes discussion of topics like this
How you too can get rich as
the next free energy messiah ;)
pages exposing Joe
Newman and Dennis
Lee who some people suspect of leading a nationwide scam.
Also, Mills
(who may be legit?)
and Tewari
Comments can be sent to eric@voicenet.com
I'm
happy to publish critical responses to my claims.
This page can be found at: http://www.phact.org/e/z/amin.htm