[DMCForum] Carl Tilley... the final chapter

[Travis Goodwin <tgoodwin@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I snipped this from the Forum... I thought Tilley said nothing was seized.
The Tennessean reports a different story:

Entrepreneur sues state after property seized
Raid part of investigation into alleged fraudulent stock offering

A Smith County man says his livelihood has been hijacked by state
investigators.

That livelihood includes Carl Tilley's business records, a 1981
stainless-steel-skinned DeLorean automobile and a mysterious ''opaque metal
box'' that holds a secret, hyperefficient device that reportedly runs on its
own electrical fumes, drastically extending battery life on electric cars,
electric all-terrain vehicles and electric fences.

And Tilley wants it all back.

He has gone to U.S. District Court with a lawsuit that demands the return of
property seized during a state raid on his Smith County compound.

He argues that he has been a victim of unreasonable search and seizure by
TBI agents and by investigators from the securities division of the state's
Department of Commerce and Insurance.

The state, according to public records, surmises that reported stock
offerings in the Tilley Foundations - offerings that bank on the success of
a secret, unpatented gizmo - are frauds. In May 2003, agents breached the
walls of Tilley's well-guarded acreage and executed a search warrant.

They carted off 62 items, according to search warrant returns. That includes
bank statements, stock certificates, photographs, letters, files, electric
bills, an electric all-terrain vehicle, an electric Toyota and an electric
DeLorean.

Affidavits also shed light on what the agents were seeking more than a year
ago: evidence in the alleged sale of unregistered securities in violation of
state law.

Tilley's suit acknowledges the state's suspicions, but it pointedly denies
the implications: that the agents were acting on ''erroneous, incomplete and
unreliable information'' when they began investigating reports that Tilley
and his foundation had ''wrongfully sold securities and/or that the
Plaintiffs had unlawfully profited from any allegedly illegal sales,'' the
federal complaint states.

Agents had interviewed some of Tilley's former business partners and
reviewed his marketing materials. They visited his Web site,
www.tilleyfoundation.com.

They also have tracked down people who have invested in Tilley's ideas,
court records show.

Those interviews caused agents to believe that ''Tilley has been selling
stock issued by the Tilley Foundation to raise capital to develop and market
an alternative energy device that can power automobiles, homes, shops and
various devices without any further need for fuel or some other energy
source.

''The stock has been sold in $5,000 units,'' the agents swore in affidavits.
They suspect that Tilley has obtained more than $400,000 from approximately
30-40 investors. The agents contend that Tilley had not registered such
stock issues with the Department of Commerce and Insurance.

Still, despite the state's year-old allegations, no one has been charged in
the case, Tilley's suit points out.

His Cookeville-based attorney has previously written the state contending
that those who informed on Tilley were unreliable and mistaken.

Yet Henry Fincher promised that his client would cooperate fully with the
state as it probed the allegations, court records show.

The state Department of Commerce and Insurance could not comment on the suit
or the investigation, according to its spokeswoman Paula Wade.

Beth Denton, a TBI spokeswoman, said the TBI's participation in the search
of Tilley's property was only in support of another agency's inquiry.

And Tennessee's attorney general's office, which will represent the state in
the suit, has yet to file a response to the formal complaint in court.

Fincher also declined to comment on the suit, citing local federal court
rules that restrict what parties may say to the press about ongoing cases.

So the Tilley material sits somewhere in state custody.

Fincher has pleaded with the state not to let the miraculous cat out of the
bag by disclosing whatever trade secrets may be contained inside the metal
box.

And he is asking federal court for a jury trial and undisclosed damages
based on his charges that Tilley's constitutional rights have been violated
in the course of Tennessee's fraud investigation.

The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge William J. Haynes.

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