Ken Curry, the owner/operator of LIonEV, has been convicted of fraud in the past for selling things he didn't actually have; in 2006 he was tried and convicted for selling gold coins - that didn't exist - over eBay in 2004.
I paid Ken $36,000 for two Ford Ranger conversion kits without knowing about his past. Ken promised the kits would ship out the next day and we'd receive them in about a week.
After two weeks nothing had arrived. I was unable to reach Ken but my partner Les managed to get through to Ken's phone to ask for a tracking number. Ken said there was a problem with some diodes and the kits would ship in a day or two.
After four more weeks went by, during which time neither my partner and I were able to get a hold of Ken be either email or phone, I started looking into Ken Curry's background. I discovered Ken's 2006 conviction. From United States v. Curry, 461 F.3d 452 (August, 2006):
"In the summer and fall of 2004, Curry was on the verge of financial ruin. His security system installation company was over ninety days past due on a $138,000 debt, and he owed the IRS $98,000. The government contends that Curry turned to his "hobby" of dealing in coins to get out of his financial straits. At the end of summer 2004, Curry placed up for auction on eBay large volumes of one-ounce gold coins, known as "Gold Eagles."1 Between August and October 2004, Curry sold 381 Gold Eagles to twenty-one different buyers. According to the government, Curry made a series of false representations in his advertisements of the coins. For example, he represented that (1) the coins were located in Virginia Beach, J.A. 786; (2) the coins were "part of a larger estate auction that [would] take about three months to complete," id. at 777; (3) the coins were of exceptional quality and likely only to have been seen by the mint or the original buyer, id.; and (4) he would provide a full refund to all unhappy buyers, id. at 787. The twenty-one buyers paid Curry approximately $148,000 for the 381 coins. Of the 381 coins purchased, Curry delivered only 44 of the coins, which represented only partial deliveries to two purchasers."
He was tried and convicted for mail fraud under 18 U.S.C. § 1341 and wire fraud under 18 U.S.C. § 1343 on May 31, 2005.
The Appeal decision:
http://pacer.ca4.uscourts.gov/opinion.pdf/055090.P.pdf
I also discovered that through LIonEV.com Ken had also victimized Ram Mohan of Austin, TX in December 2007, charging him more than $40,000 for a plug-in hybrid vehicle he never delivered. Instead he delivered a Ford Ranger converted to electric propulsion, but with far cheaper and less efficient lead acid batteries in place of the lithium ion batteries Ram had paid for.
In January 2008, Christopher D'Andrea of Berkley, CA paid Ken a similar amount for a Ford Ranger converted to electric propulsion and featuring lithium ion batteries but has not received the truck at all. To date he's received partial repayment totaling just over $5,000.
A Massechusetts customer bought one of the "Ford Ranger Hybrid Plug In Conversions" - only to discover that Ken's 'conversion' was an electric cord stuffed in the grille and fed back into the frame... leading nowhere. Seriously. The other end of the cord wasn't hooked to anything, and the charger was nonexistent.
I sent Ken an email informing him if I did not receive valid tracking numbers for the two complete kits this week I'd take action to reclaim the funds I'd paid him. Ken telephoned me the next morning, blaming the delay on metal parts not yet polished by the shop Ken subcontracted to perform the conversions; a Predator Performance in PA
Two trucks have been delivered, one to a dealership in California and one to a woman in Texas - shipped to the respective customers by Predator Performance. The shop manager of Predator Performance, Jeff, contacted me today in response to a message I left on their answering machine. Jeff informed me that the two vehicles shipped were the ONLY two vehicles their shop have ever converted for Ken and NO metal components for kits have been picked up - nor even paid for - by Ken or LIonEV. Furthermore, Jeff informed me, Predator Performance doesn't offer any polishing services and that is not the cause of any delay.
Robert Krask, the Federal Prosecutor who handled Kenneth Curry's prosecution for fraud, has indicated via email to my fellow victim Chris D'Andrea (an email forwarded to me by Chris) that despite the vacated sentence Ken previously served 12 months, before being released pending his 2d appeal. That appeal is now complete and the appellate court returned jurisdiction of the case back to the district court. Bob Krask filed a motion requesting that the district court enter an order directing Mr. Curry to report to the U.S. Marshal to serve the remaining jail sentence.
As of this writing I've been informed that Ken has been re-arrested and is to serve 24 months for his previous conviction. Curiously, Ken's site continues to be updated. He claims an electric Fiero as "Another LIonEV project" when he obtained photos of said Fiero from someone else's flikr account. He claimed to be working on a DeLorean conversion with the Bonham District Independent School Board - the board emailed him demanding he remove their name from his site, and it's been removed.
But even though Ken is behind bars, I am still out a lot of money.
