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I owned what has been a successful business in Colorado- Direct Drive Service, dba Go Tankless of Colorado. We were a business pioneer for almost 18 years as an HVAC energy management contractor, working mostly with residential and light commercial customers to help defray energy costs using unconventional means such as hydronic and solar furnace integration and two-stage evaporative cooling, to mention a couple of the means we use. We pioneered tankless water heating, having installed our first tankless water heater over 17 years ago. With several thousand residential customers in Boulder County alone, we have maintained a superb reputation in customer satisfaction and innovation in the environmental and energy fields, stayed (for whatever it’s worth) in good graces with the municipal planning departments, and with all major consumer advocate organizations in this region. All of this and stayed in business despite a horrible global economic situation. We have been heavily involved in the U.S. Green Building Council over the years, along with being founding members of the Boulder Green Building Guild, Original supporters of Colorado Energy Star Foundation, Certified trainers for American Institute of Architechts, National Association of Certified Home Inspectors, and have been guest speakers at the Governor’s Energy Office and University of Colorado Building Engineers, to name a few recent training program recipients. I have had articles published and used for training in organizations such as P.M.I. (the largest U.S. manufacturer of Supercoolers in the World) S.W.E.E.P. (Southwest Energy Efficiency Project) and Pacific Gas and Electric as a partial list. We have done our homework and are poised to help propel a 5 Trillion Dollar industry (projected growth by 2012) that will also save our planet. Interesting when cause and effect are the same, isn’t it? This letter is not designed as a sales pitch, don’t get me wrong. It doesn’t look too favorable for this company right now, so who would want to buy it? Nor does it for this planet, even though we all want to sell it. The point is we have walked the walk and led the charge for energy and environmental savings longer than probably anyone in our field in this part of the country. I would love to continue this work, but my own stupidity has unfortunately precluded that, as you will see.

In October of ’07 my divorce was final from my wife of 20 years. I have two girls, who are now grown and gone, for whose happiness we stayed together and are damn glad of it. There was love in our marriage, but too much history and turmoil to be able to survive. We are now good friends, but it was a terrible time, as all divorces are. I was the “dumpee”, so my life plunged pretty deeply into despair, just like any man’s would, which I believe is a lot of why I created the problems I am going to describe in this letter. In any case, I was able to come up with the $150K buyout for my ex-wife. Due to good money management and the ability to save I still had $50K in cash in my box and perfect credit. In fact I was at roughly a 940 credit score even after the divorce happened. I worked hard to maintain my credit and build my business to a point where it sustained our family and gave us everything we needed. My wife and kids never wanted for anything, even though we weren’t what one might call “wealthy”. We made it all the way through 2008—right up to the brink of the recession, before I decided to give it all away to everyone but them. And without even consulting them.

My ex-wife is a nurse, has left the Colorado area, and is doing well, as are my girls in their adventures without the once-realized security. It is somehow a benefit to them that they can’t rely on me any more for financial help. I’ll figure that one out some day.

In August of ’08 I received a letter from Kofi Kwame, the son of Isaac Kwame in Accra, Ghana, Africa. He was trying to find a business partner in the United States to whom to sell gold from his village. He offered me an ounce for me to look at and test, saying it was 98% pure. I paid up front for the ounce and now, 15 months later, I am into Isaac Kwame (supposedly King of Obuasi, Ghana) for almost $300K. He has been promising me the gold for over a year, and stupidly I have believed him. It was one thing after another. From taxes, shipping costs, demurrage, certifications, etc. to all the times I had to bail Isaac out of jail or help him with personal matters, the money sent via Western Union and wire transfer were seemingly endless. I have the receipts to prove it. This man is apparently a brilliant con artist. He had me completely believing his sincere compassion for me and my family, and the heartfelt conversations we had were amazing. I have always considered myself a good judge of character. Oh boy did I screw up this time! I am banned from sending money Western Union because they think I am a money launderer. It floors me how badly a victim is treated sometimes. Of late, I have felt more like the criminal. People have suspected me of illicit activities, and all I wanted was to get into a new business, knowing full well that gold was going to be a good investment.

The only good news is that I am now dealing with the government in Ghana, who is helping me to try and get this man behind bars for the crimes he has committed not just to me, but also to the Ghanaian government for forgery and fraud. This man has used my trusting nature to dupe me out of a lot of money, and he is good at it. Purporting to be my “brother” and to want to help me create a better world, he convinced me that I was doing the right thing in trusting him. I was robbed. Now I have nothing to show for it, and the only satisfaction that may come from this is if the officials are able to get him and keep him from doing this to anyone else. I am likely going to be bait for the sting operation, and will probably have to fly to Ghana to help affect his capture.

Unfortunately, that is not all. A few months ago I got involved with another internet scam, whereby an orphan girl wanted me to help her get her dad’s inheritance of $3 million out of Cote d’Ivoire Africa. My reward was 10% and she was going to also invest in my company if I brought her here to start a new life. I had to pay for some international certificates, which amounted to $40K, at which point she asked for another $60K for another certificate. I told her that I wouldn’t send any more money. Just after that, a man posing as her attorney e-mailed me to tell me that he had an investor who would help me get her inheritance sent to me if I would help him get his money relocated to a foreign bank. By now I was desperate and had put out so much money for the gold and toward Gloria’s salvation already that I took the bait. They transferred $100K into my home equity line of credit account, which was already at $100K because of the gold deal, and asked me to wire the money out of that account to China. I called the bank and the representative at the Home Equity department told me the money was there, so I did the wire transfer. I did that twice, to the tune of $200K. The money, contrary to what the rep told me, had actually been sent in bank checks, which turned out to be fraudulent. I am now out another $200K in money that wasn’t even mine. Chase has now shut down all my accounts, I am $60K overdrawn in my business account, my business line of credit, home equity line of credit and credit cards are maxed out, to the tune of over $400K, and my credit is in the toilet.

It is coming up on Thanksgiving ’09. In a way I am glad my family is gone, since they don’t have to endure this hardship or watch their father and ex-husband go through the pain of shame. As well, it is helping me that they are on their own, as I now have no money with which to help them. I had promised I would help Sara get through school and Sam get her CD recorded (she is a brilliant singer/songwriter). I have no means to do that now. Chase is after me for payments on my interest for my credit cards and lines of credit. The monthly interest-only payments for all my credit lines equal over $7K. That’s just interest!

Some would say it was irresponsible of me to have done this, but I saw both of these as legitimate investments and ways to help myself and somebody else. The village in Accra would theoretically have benefited because the government does not allow them to keep the money they get from gold mining currently, and that would have created a direct buy program for them. And Gloria spoke constantly of “meeting her sisters” and her “new life in America with her new Daddy Dave”. These people are good at what they do. They use the heartstrings to victimize compassionate people in the name of God. Nothing makes me sicker than people who use religion to facilitate committing crime. I can only hope there truly is a God, as no truly benevolent and compassionate being would stand that kind of perpetuation of evil in his or her name. I suppose I am not judge and jury at this point in my life, nor will I ever be, so all I can do is to try and keep from slandering these people. I don’t want to go down with them. I may lose everything material I have, including the house I was raised in that my mom and dad left for us—the same house I was planning to leave for my children. I am prepared for that, but it doesn’t make it any easier. I have vowed to move forward and hopefully keep this from happening to anyone else. It’s the only thing I can do now.

Now, to those of you to whom I owe money—since the economy went into the toilet at roughly the same time as these thieves started on their quest for my destruction, it is a double-whammy. I am not sure how I will survive this financially, but I am hoping this letter will at least help you to understand my predicament. My conscience has a very hard time cheating people and I have always paid my bills early or on time. Ask the 30 suppliers with whom my company has had stellar credit for almost 2 decades. Actually a call to Chase Bank to inquire as to my prior payment and credit record with them would also be a good way to verify that I did indeed hand oodles and gobs of money to thieves and thanked them for taking it. “What an Idiot!” comes to mind, but fortunately doesn’t stay long or the bullet would have done flown already. To those of you who are my creditors and are asking me to cure my debts to you, I only ask you be patient. I built this company up from nothing with an initial investment of $500. Even though it is down right now in revenue, the potential in the energy business is almost unlimited. I will build it back up, but it will be slower than the first time I am sure. To those of you who have ideas that might be able to help me, please e-mail them to me at [email protected]. Please know that no idea is an unworthy one… everything is considerable from someone in my position. The most ironic thing about this is that I have so completely positioned my business for unparalleled growth over almost 18 years of toil and attention to detail, that the cash infusion would easily have translated to millions if the plan had worked and the money had come. My industry is exactly where the industrial revolution was at it’s infancy. The potential is practically limitless. My company has several innovations which, properly executed, can contribute immensely to solving the energy crisis on this planet. I have already proven that on a smaller scale with payback and savings numbers from the homes and businesses we have converted.

I was raised to look at the positive in everything. So far, I see the positives in this as 1. the lessons I have learned about being more prudent and cautious with my money as there are some very bad people in the world, 2. Money isn’t the most important thing in the world. It buys a lot of things, but not true happiness or health. I have my daughters and my health, and that is most important. I have created a major struggle for myself, but I will endure, and 3. When you have nothing, there is nothing anyone can take from you. All I have left is my spirit, and nobody can take that away from me. I am not worried about identity theft. Who would want my identity now?

As for Gloria, Kwame, Gomogo, the Interpol officer impersonators Banny Lago and William Akacuadu, Barrister Garry and all the other players in this insidious and evil game, I sincerely hope you get what’s coming to you. I don’t wish suffering on anyone, but I do hope that ultimately people learn what they need to be happy. Thank you for taking time to read this.
Sincerely,


Dave Emmitt