Firepower is a company that manufactures pills alleged to make petrol more efficient. I personally know people that have invested in this company and millions of dollars have been raised on the basis that the company was about to list at a value of $3.5 billion dollars. The CEO just purchased a $8 million house, a number of sports clubs and a $3million in Russell Crowes football club. It turns out to be a total con, and the CEO just happens to be a Jehovah's Witness.
An article appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald on the weekend describing the situation in detail at http://www.smh.com.au/news/business/where-theres-smoke-its-a-job-for-firepower/2007/02/23/1171734017315.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap3
It is a long article, so some of the intersting quotes:
"Magic pills, religious links, Russian death threats, big sports sponsorships … Gerard Ryle investigates.
PEOPLE who know him agree on one thing: Tim Johnston tells a good story."
"Using calculations drawn from public statements, he is estimated to have raised somewhere between $10 million and $100 million from investors - from wealthy sports stars to a couple who handed over a $60,000 termination payout in the expectation that they would get a $1 million return."
Furthermore Johnston, the man behind the hype, had a longer history than he cared to tell.
The investor meetings, for instance, were not told about his involvement in a list of deregistered companies in Australia and New Zealand that offered similar products, or how an entity that was valued at $25 million just three years ago could possibly now be worth $3.5 billion.
"One of Johnston's business partners in the venture was Ross Johnston (no relation), the former owner of a local brush factory and afellow member of the Jehovah's Witness church. Ross Johnston would later be presented to the media, by Firepower, as one of the inventors of Firepower's products."
"Back then Johnston had his own version of the machine manufactured in a factory owned by the Exclusive Brethren religious group in New Zealand."
