Shock: Planet-healing wind energy company that used federal stimulus money "spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on luxury supercars"; "bilked 15 farm couples out of hundreds of thousands of dollars apiece"

Wind turbine developer sued for alleged fraud - TwinCities.com

Marv and Marlys Jensen just wanted to supplement their income with a little energy-and-money-producing wind turbine on their farm in rural Kensington, Minn.

But they ended up taking out loans to pay more than $245,000 to an Excelsior-based company called Renewable Energy SD for a 160-foot wind tower that currently produces nothing.

Their first wind turbine, delivered in August 2010, didn't work, and they were told they had to trade it in and buy a second, more expensive one, they said.
...The company, which was formed in 2009 by Shawn Dooling, used federal stimulus money that was supposed to help the country out of the recession to entice farmers to buy the turbines, the suit alleges.

And instead of paying back the Jensens and similarly unhappy customers, the company appears to have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on luxury supercars, the complaint said.

Those cars include a 2009 Lamborghini worth $297,700, two 2011 Bentleys worth about $180,000 each, a 2010 Ferrari worth $219,000 and two 2011 Audis, worth $183,700 and $72,900, according to the complaint.

Dooling lives in a house in Shorewood on Lake Minnetonka with an assessed value of $1.6 million, according to Hennepin County records.