Fake green hydrogen company carries out million-dollar scam in the USA

With great promises and the intention of taking the lead in the production of green hydrogen, partners Paul Croft, a 42-year-old businessman, and JD Frost, a 40-year-old accountant, created the company Rhino Onward International (ROI) in 2022. For the market, the businessmen informed that they would build a green hydrogen factory in Arizona (USA) that would be worth around US$530 million (R$2.7 billion) over a period of five years.

For this to happen, the partners started talking to potential investors for the project. More than 200 customers were contacted and the entrepreneurs managed to raise around US$31 million (R$158 million) for the project. However, the founders of ROI invested only US$200,000 (R$1 million) of this amount raised towards the production of green hydrogen.

In September 2023, the company unexpectedly closed its activities and dismissed all employees immediately. The ROI website is still online, even though the company no longer exists. Paul Croft and JD Frost are now under criminal investigation and face investor class action lawsuits in multiple states.

Arguments used

To convince investors that the ROI proposal was coherent and promising, the partners created documents that extolled green hydrogen technology, in addition to including projections of the value they could acquire with the innovation. The expectation imposed by them was to acquire a net profit of US$36 million (R$184 million) that year.

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_{Example of a hydrogen station with an electric furnace at the steel company BlueScope Steel Ltd. and Rio Tinto Group (Photo: reproduction/Getty Images Embed/Brent Lewin/Bloomberg)}

Employees were hired to join the ROI partner team. Many of these employees became investors in the company and lost money. “Paul and JD had random people on the payroll who made more money than people on the executive team and weren't even employees of the company.”says a former employee in an interview with Forbes.

Fake wealth

Between 2021 and 2023, the partners carried out several scams related to investments in renewable energy and managed to raise approximately US$46 million (R$235 million). All the embezzled money was used to finance the luxurious life they both led, pay loans, lend money to third parties and pay employees at Croft & Frost, a banking consultancy in which they were partners.

Paul Croft purchased several vehicles, including three Ferraris, a Maserati, a Range Rover and a Bentley whose personalized license plate contains the businessman's surname. He even stated in an interview carried out in June 2022, that his assets varied between US$1.8 billion (R$9 billion) and US$3.8 billion (R$19 billion), however, in 2021 He needed to take out a US$600,000 (R$3 million) mortgage to buy a house.

Featured Photo: dollar symbol surrounded by leaves (Reproduction/Getty Images Embed/Richard Drury)