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Wind Power News: Arkansas
These news and opinion items are gathered by National Wind Watch in its noncommercial educational effort to help keep readers informed about developments related to industrial wind energy. They do not necessarily reflect the opinions of National Wind Watch. They are the products of and owned by the organizations or individuals noted and are shared here according to “fair use” and “fair dealing” provisions of copyright law.
IRS agent shows jurors money trail in failed Elm Springs wind farm
FAYETTEVILLE – Prosecutors finished up their case Tuesday against two men accused of bilking investors out of hundreds of thousands of dollars in a failed wind farm deal by showing jurors, in detail, how money moved through bank accounts and was ultimately spent. Jody Davis and Phillip Vincent Ridings are accused of scamming investors in a proposed wind farm project at Elm Springs, Arkansas One. They are charged with multiple counts of wire fraud, aiding and abetting wire fraud, money laundering . . . Complete story »
Prosecution wraps up wind farm fraud case Tuesday in Fayetteville
FAYETTEVILLE – Prosecutors finished up their case Tuesday against two men accused of bilking investors out of hundreds of thousands of dollars in a failed wind farm deal by showing jurors, in detail, how money moved through bank accounts and was ultimately spent. Jody Davis and Phillip Vincent Ridings are accused of scamming investors in a proposed wind farm project at Elm Springs, Arkansas One. They are charged with multiple counts of wire fraud, aiding and abetting wire fraud, money laundering, . . . Complete story »
Witness in wind farm fraud trial says he split investor’s money with defendant
FAYETTEVILLE – An associate of two men charged with fraud involving a failed wind farm at Elm Springs said he lied to a friend to get an investment in Dragonfly International then split the proceeds with the company’s CEO. Cody Fell testified he got an investor to cut a cashier’s check to Dragonfly for $13,930 in January 2016 by telling him the money was needed to pay engineers, then split the take with Jody Davis. Davis, CEO of Dragonfly, endorsed and . . . Complete story »
Fell claims he split ill-gotten gain with Dragonfly CEO in wind farm trial
FAYETTEVILLE – An associate of two men charged with fraud involving a failed wind farm at Elm Springs said he lied to a friend to get an investment in Dragonfly International then split the proceeds with the CEO. Cody Fell testified he got an investor to cut a cashier’s check to Dragonfly for $13,930 in January 2016 by telling him the money was needed to pay engineers, then split the take with Jody Davis. Davis, CEO of Dragonfly, endorsed and cashed . . . Complete story »
Investors said they were misled about failed wind farm, defrauded
FAYETTEVILLE – Fraud is not a high-risk/high-reward investment, a Fayetteville man told jurors hearing the federal trial of two men accused of fraud in connection with a proposed wind farm in Elm Springs that never came to fruition. Jody Davis and Phillip Vincent Ridings, of Dragonfly Incorporated, are accused of scamming investors in a proposed wind farm project at Elm Springs, Arkansas One. They are charged with multiple counts of wire fraud, aiding and abetting wire fraud, money laundering and aiding . . . Complete story »
Wind turbine farm project marked by federal defendants’ broken promises, unpaid bills
FAYETTEVILLE – Two men on trial in federal court on fraud charges involving an Elm Springs wind farm that was never built left a string of unpaid bills and broken promises in their wake, according to testimony Wednesday. Nathan Rudolf said he did some work for the company free because he believed in the wind farm’s concept. Later on, Rudolf was hired at Dragonfly, the company promoting the project, in 2015 as director of project management with a promised salary of . . . Complete story »
Bill on owning farmland hits wall
Entities from the Netherlands own the most agricultural land in Arkansas, at some 416,000 acres, apparently because of prospective interests in wind farms, according to USDA figures. Canada is next at 237,584 acres, with its ownership of sawmills and timber interests. The other top three are businesses from Italy (27,458 acres), Germany (97,062 acres) and the United Kingdom (2,749 acres). Complete story »
Lessons to be learned in Texas’ power woes
The news is filled with assertions that the Texas power outage was caused by either failure of wind power or by failure of fossil fuel power. In truth, both were to blame. There is a lesson here for Arkansas and other states. From Feb. 4-8, Texas’ power usage was steady at about 40 gigawatt-hours, with wind supplying between one-third and one-half of that, gas supplying a similar amount, and coal plus nuclear supplying about 15 gigawatt-hours. (Power sources often vary . . . Complete story »
Judge rejects request to toss fraud charges
FAYETTEVILLE – A federal judge refused Thursday to dismiss criminal charges against two men accused of scamming investors in a proposed wind-farm project in Elm Springs. Jody Douglas Davis and Phillip Vincent Ridings are charged with several counts of wire fraud, aiding and abetting wire fraud, money laundering and aiding and abetting money laundering. Both men have pleaded innocent. They will be tried together, and the trial is set for Sept. 20 in Fayetteville. Dragonfly Industries International of Frisco, Texas, purported . . . Complete story »
Judge rules on issue in Pretty Prairie Wind lawsuit
A Reno County judge recently ruled on a key element in a lawsuit filed by NextEra Energy over the denial of a permit for its proposed wind farm in the southeast quadrant of Reno County, finding in favor of the county and wind farm opponents. It was not the only issue in the suit, however, so the lawsuit continues, though the court has not set any new hearings or filing deadlines. One of the main contentions in the suit filed . . . Complete story »
