Daniel Dingel, a man who supposedly invented a “water-powered car,” but has been outed as a hoax by the Department of Science and Technology has been convicted of estafa (swindling) and was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment by the Parañaque City Regional Trial Court.
82 year old Mr. Dingel was found guilty of misappropriating the funds ($380,000) he received from Formosa Plastics Group of Taiwan. His defense of not reading the joint venture agreement between him and Formasa before signing it was sited as being “too flimsy to be given an ounce of consideration.” by the court. The fund was supposed to have gone to purchasing 3 cars and for his research in hydrogen reactor’s.
Former Solicitor General, Frank Chavez, will appeal the verdict on Mr. Dingel’s behalf. Atty. Chavez said that he was taking up the case because. “Mankind will benefit from his invention … How will we know his secret if we put him behind bars?”
Whether there is really truth to his invention only Mr. Dingel knows for sure. What I do know is that every time Man comes up with a new invention, there will always be someone who will invent a corresponding scam for it.
One such man was Louis Enricht. He boasted that he was able to invent a green colored liquid that when placed in water would make it combustible. In 1916 he demonstrated this to a group of reporters. Pouring the contents into a pitcher of water and placing it into the empty gas tank of a car, then starting the car.
The secret of the green liquid he took to his grave, but critics think that the green liquid was a mixture of acetone and liquid acetylene which could run an engine if mixed with water. The problem however was that the water would corrode the engine in the long run. Enrich also said that he mixed prussic acid in the mixture to hide the smell of the “secret ingredient” from oil company employee’s who came disguised as reporters.
The first automobile scam in history enabled Enricht to obtain funds from would-be investors in the form of “good will” money that they thought could have eventually led them to the purchase of his formula. Henry Ford was said to have been one of the investors interested in his invention.
[source, some notes taken from “Man with Green Magic” article from Reader’s Digest]
Category: Automotive, Law
