Background:
New Utopia is the name of a proposed city state to be built on the Misteriosa Banks, approximately 120 miles west of Grand Cayman in the Carribean. In this area, there are submerged mountain tops between 4 and 20 meters below the ocean's surface. Building in this area would not be especially difficult. If the area were free of State claims, a new city/country could be built there.
This plan was put together by an American man by the name of Lazarus Long. (A name he took from Robert Heinlein's fictional hero.) Mr. Long's original name was Howard Turney. Mr. Long, originally from Oklahoma, says he found out about the Misteriosa Banks accidentally while pursuing a business deal in Grand Cayman. He shortly thereafter came up with the idea of building a new country there. (The idea of starting a new country has drawn a great number of freedom-seeking people into its grasp.)
Mr. Long has set up his prospective new country as a Constitutional Principality, modeled after Monaco. He calls himself Prince, and his wife Princess. He has set up his son to succeed him as Prince.
Information sources:
ScamDog.com knows has had extensive correspondence and many conversations with Mr. Long, his wife, and others deeply involved with New Utopia (members of the New Utopia Board of Governors and others).
New Utopia web pages: http:www.new-utopia.com
The Facts:
According to a trusted associate, an extensive legal search done in 1999 found that the Misteriosa Banks belonged to the Cayman Islands. (ScamDog.com is working to secure a copy of this report.) Mr. Long was well-informed of this, and chooses to ignore it.
Mr. Long has exhibited a pattern of informing his associates (and the public) of all positive results, while minimizing, ignoring or explaining away every negative result or evidence. He has left his associates hanging in the open more than once.
Opinion:
The idea of building a new city in a place like the Misteriosa Banks is a good one. This type of project that could be done, and perhaps should be done. Lazarus deserves credit for coming up with this idea. He is not, alas, the right person to get it built.
Some reasons:
Under his original name Howard Turney, Lazarus was involved in a number of questionable investment offerings. There have been very many of them, and many of them turned out badly. As of late 1999, Lazarus/Howard was being sued by at least three people in Houston. (ScamDog.com possesses copies of the court filings.) He was further being investigated by the FBI in the US. A number of people are very angry with him. They insist that he swindled them. According to the court papers, Mr. Long's health is not good.
Howard Turney (Lazarus) was the subject of an unflattering article in the Wall Street Journal several years ago. (ScamDog.com possesses copies.)
New Utopia was investigated and shut down by the US Security Exchange Commission in 1998, for selling bonds not in accordance with SEC rules. Lazarus ultimately settled with them (we are unaware of the terms), but in the process, he turned over the names of all his investors to the US Government. This was done without their consent, and with no warning.
Lazarus cannot do what he is telling people he can. He does or should know this. Lazarus wanted the right things, but in his haste, he played 'fast and loose', and has left a trail of disasters behind him. He withholds information when it is unflattering to him. People involved with him are quite likely to be publicly embarrassed, without warning.
This project, which seemed viable in 1998, has steadily degenerated. There can be no more claim of ignorance ("we thought we could build there"), and the rhetoric coming from New Utopia emails is sounding more and more like an open-faced scam. Even the architect who drew up the plans says he hasn't been paid; yet Lazarus continues talking about construction beginning very soon. In early 2001, an urgent plea for more money was made.
Finally: The "Prince" thing is just too weird.
ScamDog.com says "Stay Away"!
What would happen if you took a bunch of abandoned Gulf of Mexico oil platforms, hauled them out into the middle of the Caribbean, and lashed them together over a reef?
Why, you would have the Principality of New Utopia, of course!
That was the original idea, and the oil platforms have been dumped in favor of just building huge pillars into the Caribbean sand. And now theyÕve also added modern jet service, to be provided by Utopian Air Lines, and will also feature Airship Service (giant blimps, as yet built by a company in Dallas). When you get their, you can further your education at the Utopian University, which has a Medical School which emphasizes research on longevity.
It is in the area of longevity that the Principality will have a leg up on everyone else, because of the experience of its founder, one Howard Turney (a/k/a Prince Lazarus) of that Caribbean hotspot known as Tulsa, Oklahoma, who in the past had some connection to longevity drug scams.
Indeed, the Securities & Exchange Commission has recently become interested in Turney because of his efforts to sell Utopia bonds with which the project will be financed. According to an SEC press release:
Today Judge Michael Burrage, United States District Judge for the Northern District of Oklahoma, Tulsa Division, granted the Commission's request for an emergency restraining order to halt a fraudulent nationwide Internet scheme involving the offer and sale of a bogus $350 million bond offering. According to the Commission's Complaint, Lazarus R. Long, a/k/a/ Howard Turney, and doing business as New Utopia, used an Internet website called "New Utopia" to entice and solicit investor funds for the development of a supposed new "tax haven" country called "New Utopia." This new country would be located approximately 115 miles west of the Cayman Islands. According to its website, New Utopia is a country that will rise from the Caribbean on giant concrete platforms built on an underwater land mass. In addition to offering the unregistered bonds, Long represented that currency investments in New Utopia would yield up to a 200% market rate of return. "Prince" Long used E-mail to tell investors that they could buy a New Utopia government 5 year note at 9.5%, and invited them to become charter citizens of the new country. Long has also touted his Internet offering through the use of print and radio media, including the London Times, Dallas Morning News and a nationally syndicated radio show.Ó
Selling worthless bonds isn't the Principality's only scam. For $35,000 you can get a license to form a 'Class A' bank, for $5,000 you can get an 'internet bank license', or for $10,000 you can get a 'trust license', presumably allowing you to form trusts if the Principality is ever formed. Still, somebody has wasted their time in drafting full corporation and trust laws, apparently in the expectation that someone would actually be dumb enough to pay them for their services.
But if you are going to use these services, you had better be a good swimmer. The Principality of New Utopia is one of two fake nation scams which starts out 'under water' - and in more ways than one. The only place you can visit the Principality (and have a look at a photograph of 'Prince Lazarus') is at its website at http://www.new-utopia.com
A Word to the Wise: Some would-be free communities are hoaxes
New Utopia Sinks
We have frequently poked fun at the Principality of New Utopia, which is a new offshore haven which was to have been created in the Caribbean, by lashing hundreds of old offshore oil rigs together over a reef just south of the Caymans. The Principality was to have been financed by the sale of US$350 million worth of New Utopia government bonds, never mind the fact that there is no New Utopia government, just as there is no New Utopia itself.
Fortunately, to protect those who might be taken by this scam, the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission this month obtained an emergency restraining order against his Highness Prince Lazarus a/k/a Lazarus R. Long of Tulsa, freezing the nearly $100,000 which had been raised from suckers to-date, and preventing his Highness from raising any additional moneys.
Fake countries are definitely in vogue. The fraudulent Principality of New Utopia is just one of many such hoaxes. Another such is the Dominion of Melchizedek, which was invented by some criminals while they were spending their time in the pokey, but which now purports to have its own ministries, courts, and a stock exchange -- and even a claim to a sizeable chunk of Antarctica. The Dominion of Melchizedek now claims that it is some of Ecclesiastical Sovereignty, sort of like the Vatican, but unlike the Vatican it raises money by selling bogus Melchizedek bank licenses and the like.
It's your money. Don't get taken in.
Originally from this webpage
(Which now seems to be down )
The following is taken directly from an e-mail sent by Ian W.
Sawyer. The words are his:
"I was involved with the project as one of the Board of Governors from early 1998 through to late 1999, resigning after very major problems started appearing in the whole basis of the legality of New Utopia and Prince Lazarus' dogmatic and dictatorial approach to them. "Unfortunately I am restricted somewhat on what I can say as the result of a court ruling following a spectacularly unsuccessful attempt by Lazarus to sue me and a colleague for $10 billion, however there are copies of all the correspondence, which include the legal basis for the reasons I resigned from the project and all the subsequent comments by Lazarus and others, on the New Utopia Discussions Group with Yahoo at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/new-utopia, starting in October 1999. There have been further exchanges on the present position of New Utopia as late as the end of 2000 when it seems to have regrettably become little more than a scam.
I hope that these are of interest to you and possibly your web site readers should you wish to publicise this URL; after all, it is an open discussion group for all to read.
I'm still very interested in the principle of free nations, but subsequent to the considerable research I did into the subject following the discovery of Lazarus' own inadequate research, I now firmly believe that about the only way that we will be able to achieve a new free sovereign nation, particularly one run along laissez faire capitalist lines, will be by the purchase of an uninhabited island from a poor third world nation, then seceding from it under economically viable terms for the formerly owning country."
Apparently, New Utopia now has a PDF file with a master plan, and is claiming to have contracted with the "Dallas Global Development Corporation". Michael Anderson wrote:
The Prince replied:Mr. Lazarus,
I was wondering if you might be willing to answer why it is that Dallas Global Development Corporation is headquartered in a residential neighborhood? Specifically inside the home of Dale C. Harris? I have verified the address, name and phone of Dale C. Harris, the CEO, and have determined without doubt that the address is for a residential home. I used public information available to anyone with access to a good online phone directory and it was very easy to determine this.
I have not been able to find ANY information in ANY business directory with regards to Dallas Global Development Corporation.. Clearly if this company exists, it is a recent invention..
The email address for Verizon would also indicate that this company is rather fly-by-night..
So I was wondering if you would be willing to answer these questions?
Thanks for your time..
Michael Anderson.
From: "Lazarus Long"We'll see what the excuse is next month...
To: "michael anderson"
Subject: RE: Dallas Global Development Corporation
Date: Thu, 6 Nov 2003 08:01:42 -0600
Dear Mr. Anderson,
How very astute of you. Dallas Global has been formed by Mr. Harris and a group of other professionals specifically to develop projects in New Utopia. They are in the process of moving into offices this month. They have incorporated in Nevada and have been busy putting together their plans and financing. They plan to begin operations in New Utopia by the end of next month. Attached is an update with additional information. Please do not hesitate to write or call. My direct line is XXX-XXX-XXXX.
Sincerely,
Lazarus Long
In short, New Utopia is a dream adrift. It is based on lies and hyperbole - a parade of fools led by a charismatic figurehead manipulated by the insane. Honest people of integrity could accomplish all Prince Long has envisioned, but it will not happen upon this foundation of shifting sand. This is the opinion of the Official Chronicler of the Principality of New Utopia.