This is a really sad story about an entrepreneur who may or may not have found a cleaner better burning fuel additive, but the EPA sent him to jail before his claims could be proven to be true or false. It sounds like he made a lot of mistakes, the worst of which was probably accepting funds from the government, but it really doesn’t sound like he actually committed a crime that should land him in jail. He was never given a chance to prove his technology to be right or wrong, here are a few teasers from the article to get you interested, but be warned, the article is long:
Yet even some jurors don't believe that Orr set out to swindle anyone; they say they were simply following the letter of the law and their specific jury instructions when they found him guilty of making false statements. "He was making bold statements on some pretty slim tests," says one, who asked not to be identified by name, "but I don't think he intended to commit a crime."
Many white-collar fraud prosecutions begin with complaints from the victims of the scam. In the case of William Orr, government investigators had to practically recruit investors to testify against him. Several investors, including some of the prosecution's own witnesses, still defend Orr, saying that his product could be worth millions or even billions of dollars if the government would quit putting roadblocks in its path.
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"The pressure to pursue this was always from the government, not the investors," says Scott Shires, a Republican political consultant who worked closely with Orr at NAFF.
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Had Orr been proven right, the EPA would have been terribly humiliated. Government agencies don't want naysayers proving them wrong. They had a lot to lose, and I think they would have lost had the tests been run."
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