Once a scammer, always a scammer - Simon Romana aka Hai Romana aka 1ST NRG

I was reminded of a post I made from November 2005 about a supposed gasifier being shown to ex-Washington D.C. mayor Marion Berry. The machine was large and complex and was supposed to turn  garbage and sewage into usable oil.

Just for fun, I googled the name and it seems Mr. Romana is still running the same scam and goes from area to area bilking investors out of their money. When it is time to start construction of the processing plant, Mr. Romana pulls up his tent stakes and moves somewhere else.

Original post from The Washington Post

September 2014 - New Zealand, Winnepeg and some Mohawk tribesmen from Quebec from CBC News.

March 2014 - New Zealand from the NZ Manawatu Standard posted on stuff.co.nz

'Ripoff' trail leads to Canada
A self-professed energy entrepreneur who is unable to be found by a liquidator looking into his New Zealand-based company - which pulled in multiple investors from Manawatu and Horowhenua - is hiding out in Canada.

He is going by a different name and making art at a studio for people with mental health issues.

He is also not communicating with a Canadian woman who alleges he owes her $50,000 from a business deal gone sour.

Simon Romana founded Ira NRG in March 2010, before taking his investment plan on a roadshow around New Zealand.

The company claimed to be in possession of gasification technology that would convert waste biomass into energy.

Shareholders signed on by buying share parcels, but the business was banned in December 2010 by the Securities Commission after it was discovered it had asked for investment money without a prospectus. By that stage, the company had 246 shareholdings.

And from the web archive comes this May 2006 article from The New Zealand Listener:

Sludge Watch ==> Energy to Burn - The Kiwi - the Native - the gasifier - the sludge - the story
A fast-talking Kiwi claims that his invention, which he says converts rubbish and sewage to electricity and clean water, will revolutionise the world. And although some people, including chemical engineering xperts, are deeply skeptical, others are fronting up with support and cash. It’s a cold November day in a Washington DC parking lot, and Simon Romana from Te Hapua is standing beside the machine that he says will change the world. Mounted on a trailer unit stabilized by blocks, it’s a maze of pipes and chimneys, fans and engines, knobs and dials. One of the handful of  reporters present, the Washington Post’s Eric Weiss, says it looks like a locomotive with its cover ripped off.

Fifty-year-old Romana, in dark glasses and with his black hair falling onto the shoulders of his tan jacket, tells the crowd of about 50 that the machine is a “gasifier” that can convert trash and sewage into pollution-free electricity and clean water.

Understandably, it has some powerful support.

 But it's OK - he has a PhD in Physics (talking about his resume)

On it the New Zealander claims to have a doctorate in physics, acquired some time between 1974 and 1985 from Texas State University and Ben Gurion University in Israel. There are several problems with that. The first is that Texas State University didn’t exist until 2003. Before that, it went by the name of Southwest Texas State University. The second is that Texas State only offers up to a master’s degree in physics. As well, Ben Gurion University in Israel has no record of his enrollment under any of three names he has been known to go by – Simon Romana, Simon Norman or Simon Phillips – and its physics department couldn’t remember anyone of those names.

People really want to believe - unfortunately, the basic laws of physics trump any narrative or fundraising.
Please note that there are a couple of businesses with 1st NRG or just NRG in their names - these guys are completely above-board and legitimate.

October 2022

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
            1
2 3 4 5 6 7 8
9 10 11 12 13 14 15
16 17 18 19 20 21 22
23 24 25 26 27 28 29
30 31          

Environment and Climate
AccuWeather
Cliff Mass Weather Blog
Climate Depot
Ice Age Now
ICECAP
Jennifer Marohasy
Solar Cycle 24
Space Weather
Watts Up With That?


Science and Medicine
Junk Science
Life in the Fast Lane
Luboš Motl
Medgadget
Next Big Future
PhysOrg.com


Geek Stuff
Ars Technica
Boing Boing
Don Lancaster's Guru's Lair
Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories
FAIL Blog
Hack a Day
Kevin Kelly - Cool Tools
Neatorama
Slashdot: News for nerds
The Register
The Daily WTF


Comics
Achewood
The Argyle Sweater
Chip Bok
Broadside Cartoons
Day by Day
Dilbert
Medium Large
Michael Ramirez
Prickly City
Tundra
User Friendly
Vexarr
What The Duck
Wondermark
xkcd


NO WAI! WTF?¿?¿
Awkward Family Photos
Cake Wrecks
Not Always Right
Sober in a Nightclub
You Drive What?


Business and Economics
The Austrian Economists
Carpe Diem
Coyote Blog


Photography and Art
Digital Photography Review
DIYPhotography
James Gurney
Joe McNally's Blog
PetaPixel
photo.net
Shorpy
Strobist
The Online Photographer


Blogrolling
A Western Heart
AMCGLTD.COM
American Digest
The AnarchAngel
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler
Babalu Blog
Belmont Club
Bayou Renaissance Man
Classical Values
Cobb
Cold Fury
David Limbaugh
Defense Technology
Doug Ross @ Journal
Grouchy Old Cripple
Instapundit
iowahawk
Irons in the Fire
James Lileks
Lowering the Bar
Maggie's Farm
Marginal Revolution
Michael J. Totten
Mostly Cajun
Neanderpundit
neo-neocon
Power Line
ProfessorBainbridge.com
Questions and Observations
Rachel Lucas
Roger L. Simon
Samizdata.net
Sense of Events
Sound Politics
The Strata-Sphere
The Smallest Minority
The Volokh Conspiracy
Tim Blair
Velociworld
Weasel Zippers
WILLisms.com
Wizbang


Gone but not Forgotten...
A Coyote at the Dog Show
Bad Eagle
Steven DenBeste
democrats give conservatives indigestion
Allah
BigPictureSmallOffice
Cox and Forkum
The Diplomad
Priorities & Frivolities
Gut Rumbles
Mean Mr. Mustard 2.0
MegaPundit
Masamune
Neptunus Lex
Other Side of Kim
Publicola
Ramblings' Journal
Sgt. Stryker
shining full plate and a good broadsword
A Physicist's Perspective
The Daily Demarche
Wayne's Online Newsletter

About this Entry

This page contains a single entry by DaveH published on February 4, 2015 8:22 PM.

The workers paradise of Venezuela was the previous entry in this blog.

Someone needs to get their budget cut good and hard - the EPA is the next entry in this blog.

Find recent content on the main index or look in the archives to find all content.

Monthly Archives

Pages

OpenID accepted here Learn more about OpenID
Powered by Movable Type 5.2.9