Engine builder scam - Page 10

Jim Wintz · #1 (**permalink**) 10-09-2006, 05:58 AM

Well sounds like this guy is up and running, and in two weeks he is scheduled to enter a guilty plea in court, can't believe it! I called his new shop got the answering machine and sounds like almost the exact same set up. All I can tell you guys is be very very careful of buying anying enginse from the New Brighten area in Minnosota.

I did call the Cheif Deputy and the FBI to let them know and pass on the infor mation and numbers, hopefulle it will help in getting this guy shut down for good.

The gentleman who called me ordered a 393, 518 h.p. engine, what he got was an engine that looked good on the outside but was pretty much a stock 360 that was in such bad shape he feeels there is no way it would hold up and run. This guy is only about an hour from Kents new set up, which folows his old stlye, the guys close did get something (I spoke with 3 people out of about 30 who got an engine or maney back) and the guy fater away got took. This way he has proof that he did provide something once in awhile.

Be careful guys!!!!!

88 stang · #2 (**permalink**) 10-18-2006, 07:54 AM

Hi guys found your site by typing in Kent Helseth on google search. First of all sorry to the guys who got shafted. I also bought a motor from Kent he is in Minnesota going under the name v8 engineering in New Brighton I paid half down said it would be done in 3 weeks called called and called got every excuse from him you guys did I finally got my motor and outside looks good has heads and intake ect. that is was supposed to have have not fired yet when I do I will let you guys know if he has changed or if he is up to his old self. P.S. for a good laugh call 651-631-1888

Jim Wintz · #3 (**permalink**) 10-18-2006, 12:58 PM

I hope your engine is all it is suppose to be. The previous gut I spoke with said his engine looked good but was nowhere near what he ordered. At least this time some of the local people are actually getting something. Last go round I estimate 99% of everyone I spoke with ended up with nothing, one or two ended up with some knid of enging and one ended up getting his money back.

I wish you the best of luck on your enging. Please follow up and let us know if it is actually what you ordered and is in good working order.

David Anton · #4 (**permalink**) 10-20-2006, 09:06 AM

I own V8 Engineering, as well as other businesses, I received two calls from people Kent has had dealings with years ago. I have talked with kent in great depth about this situation, and he is giving me a moth to replace him, as well as train in someone. what I find incredible, is why these two people who called me were hostile towards me. I have known Kent for three years, he has been a wonderful employee at both businesses he has worked at, and i have had no problems with him. In july I placed my shop on the market and he stated he would be happy to take it over, as of this date, funds have not surfaced, and due to his future legal issues I can see why. He supplied me with court papers that have him pleading guilty to one, let me make this clear, one count of mail fraud. He is to be sentenced in January. As for Mr. Damien Frentz, I spoke with im about his complaint, I wient over his build sheet part by part, his file has no less then 121 lines of requests and changes. There are always two sides to a story, and this individual is the only person I am aware of in three years with a complaint. I offered this person to have a judge hear his side and my side, to be fair, he requested a financial settlement to help him place his engine in the form he felt it was suppose to be. I want to emphisize, this engine has a build sheet with every part number, signed by the customer and verified by him to me by telephone. I do not appreciate the two calls i got, and furthermore, Kent is not the "owner" he has been the manager at both of my businesses, and I have enjoyed working with him. When he is past his legal problems I will enjoy working with him in the future. His abilities are undeniable, his automotive intellect is without a rival. I am sorry for anyone who has had a loss due to his failed business, but after reading this thread, I see he had a business that got away from him and he decided making excuses was his way out. While working for me he has had a string of bad luck situations, but unfortunately for the people here who wish to link it to his past, as a employer i easily verified any employee with a issue.
my e-mail is V8Engineering@comcast.net, if you have further questions, and if they are polite. I will NOT be giving out his home phone or address or such, childish questions are of no interest to me. I see this legal action as done, and he will obviously be doing what a judge asks, but any recourse while he is employed by me will not be happening! dave Anton

Jim Wintz · #5 (**permalink**) 11-15-2006, 06:06 AM

David,

Thanks for checking in and sticking by your friend Kent, but as you stated "any recourse while he is employed by you will not be happeneding" then you thpughts and opinions on Kent do not help this issue or the 50 or 60 good folks who lost their money to his scam. You are correct he only plead guilty to one count of mail fraud, the other 5 they charged him with are pending. Unfortunately the way the justice system works (or doesn't) prevented all of the information from being included and part of this case. I have spoken personally with over two dozen people who have been caught up in this, and ther has been more then 6 respond to this thread that have lost money as a result. So to make the statement that he pleaded guilty to only one count is true but not an accurate or true description of what is all involved here. It is great to here you are Kents employer so maybe the justice system will be able to garnish his wages to start paying back some of these folks that had their hard earned money taken from them through deception ans misrepresentation. But at this ponit in time I am so tired and angry over this deal that if you cant help me get the engine I paid for or my money returned then you opinion of Kent does not mean anything.

He is to be sentenced on January 17th. We will see then.

Jim

Leo · #6 (**permalink**) 12-27-2006, 10:52 AM

David,

You are either inordinantly nieve about Kent or have no respect for the injustice you are complicant in by your acknowledged timeline.

Leo

427SnakeSC · #7 (**permalink**) 12-27-2006, 11:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Leo

David,

You are either inordinantly nieve about Kent or have no respect for the injustice you are complicant in by your acknowledged timeline.

Leo

Huh?!

Leo · #8 (**permalink**) 12-27-2006, 12:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Leo

David,

You are either inordinantly nieve about Kent or have no respect for the injustice you are complicant in by your acknowledged timeline.

Leo

Seems I'm making up words...try this:

You are either inordinantly nieve about Kent or have no understanding of your complicty in this injustice as acknowledged by your timeline.

Leo

imagine2frolic · #9 (**permalink**) 12-27-2006, 01:23 PM

I am new to the club, and just found this thread. Jim maybe NIEVE about the way of shameless people, but I do find his TENACITY needs to be admired. Jim you may not get any satisfaction at all with Kent's punishment. Do enjoy the satisfaction that you are now a much wiser person. Now to the important stuff....HOW'S THE BUILD?

Leo · #10 (**permalink**) 12-27-2006, 01:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by imagine2frolic

I am new to the club, and just found this thread. Jim maybe NIEVE about the way of shameless people, but I do find his TENACITY needs to be admired. Jim you may not get any satisfaction at all with Kent's punishment. Do enjoy the satisfaction that you are now a much wiser person. Now to the important stuff....HOW'S THE BUILD?

Whoa, whoa, whoa!!!!

My replies are addresses to DAVID about KENT!! Not to Jim! I'm a big supporter of Jim and I too appreciate his tenacity.

427SnakeSC, is that what you were thinking too?

My apologies to Jim for any misunderstanding.

imagine2frolic · #11 (**permalink**) 12-28-2006, 06:45 AM

My apologies to LEO

Jim Wintz · #12 (**permalink**) 01-15-2007, 06:04 AM

Hey guys,

Latest updat and information.

LAst word from the FBI / courts the trial date for his sentence has been changed from 1-17-07 to 2-26-07. Seems these dates get changed at least 3 times before the event actually happens. Se now we wait until the end of February.

I also got an e-mail from a Brian who gave me a brief review of his situation.

He ordered an engine from "V*-Engineering" on 8-5-06. The owners he stated were Dave Anton and Ken Helseth. He stated after a long string of reasons offered by Ken and Dave the engine or refund never occured as of this date, today. Last week he was told that Dave sold the SBC part of the company to Ken. So now for him, Dave is conviently completely out of the picture or the situation he may have. He stated that Ken told him he had one day left to finish his engine, but since when he purchased the buisness he did not take over the lease on the equipment, so he has been try to pick up used eguipment around the country to enable him to finish up 3 engines he has in progree. Ken was currently out of town for the weekend and will call him as soon as he returned.

Thats a brief overview of his situation. I e-mailed back some info and hopefully will get a chance to speak with him further. This is sad that this still continues. I will update as soon as I know more.

Now on the brighter side, as far as my build, imagine2frolic, it has been on hold since April. We have been building a new home and moving, the wife seems to feel this is more important then finishing the Cobra, what is she thinking???? But we just moved in and as soon as everything is settled the build will resume. I am in the process of assembly the car and finishing all fit and function so it can be disassembled and painted, then reassembled, you all know the drill. I have a little bit of fine tuning on the engine and clutch that needs done now that I have had a chance to drive it during the move. My goal is to have it completed and painted by the end of summer. I hope to have it ready for London but not sure if that will happen.

Leo, are you Leo from Denton Texas that I purchased my RUCC kit from???
If so how are you doing, have not heard from you for several years now?? Whats the latest, are you and your family doing good, did you ever get a chance to get into another kit? I know last we spoke your were looking at possibly relocating? Nice to hear from you.

Take care everyone.

imagine2frolic · #13 (**permalink**) 01-15-2007, 02:36 PM

Will the plate be TENACTY?

Semper Fi · #14 (**permalink**) 01-15-2007, 03:37 PM

Jim,

Good luck. I wish you the best!

I recently got out of boating because of alot of scumbags in the boating industry (salesman, builders, engine builders,etc....) I know there are "good guys" out there, but they (talking boating here) are far and few in between.

I got burned by a boat mechanic trying to make a boat deal happen, but didn't happen............so I bought a COBRA and haven't looked back. I have NO regrets!!

Jim Wintz · #15 (**permalink**) 01-16-2007, 03:47 AM

Imangine2frolic,

No, never thought of that one over the past year, was considering:
"KHP S...X"
"KENTS..X"
"RIPPDOFF"
"PISSDOFF"
"USED"
"TAKEN"
"SCAMMED"

Not that there has been any real thought put in to this......No just joking my plate actually reads "427SN8K".

Stemper fi, I guess there is a lot of bad guys out there these days, I think all of the internet sales makes it a little easier for these guys to set up, ebay for istance can be a scary place sometimes. But it sure is an eye opener the first time you get scammed for a large amount of cash, especially someone that was this good.

Jim Wintz · #16 (**permalink**) 02-26-2007, 07:02 AM

Hey everyone,

Hope we are getting close to the end of this ordeal.

Original sentencing hearing was set for today the 26th, but had been changed to Wednesday the 28th. Well at least the dates are only getting moved a few days now as opposed to monthes like early on.

I am hoping to update you guys with the results of this guys sentencing by the end of this week. I hope this guy gets what is coming to him, all of the people he stolen money and parts from, lied too. Worse parts is not only did he steal some of these peoples money and parts but he took their dreams away from them. Some were not sure they could recover their loss and continue with their project or dream. Many of us on tight budgets, counting every penny cannot take a loss of several throusand dollars and continue. Thats the worst of this ordeal is I talked with several who were considering giving up and throwing in the towel because they had no way to make up what he stole from them. Time will tell and it has been a good long time, too long, long enough for him to set up shop again and continue stealing.

Well enough for now before I go to far, I will post the results to close this out as soon as I get them.

Jim Wintz · #17 (**permalink**) 03-01-2007, 09:33 AM

Well, I told you I would update you this week with the sentencing results, but I have no update.

The sentencing hearing was moved to next Thursday due to weather. Delayed once more. Will follow up next week.

Jim

Bill D · #18 (**permalink**) 05-17-2007, 02:55 PM

Jim
What's the latest? It's been over 2 months?

fastraxsg · #19 (**permalink**) 05-17-2007, 09:50 PM

Hope Mr. slippery hasn't gotten off lightly. I've always wondered at what point we should cry wolf here on orders. There are a lot of companies here that drag their feet when they promise the sky. I ordered a motor from a very reputable company, has high marks here on this site, magazines have praised them too. So I forgo ordering from the little guys thinking I am going to get treated right. I made my my order and paid by credit card in mid-February. The company head honcho emails me a 3-4 weeks delivery statement. So here it is today, 18th May, and the only time I get a response from them is if I write first. I'm an overseas American having a Kit sent overseas along with a motor (well so I assumed) I've gotten a lot of excuses but nothing to show for it yet. I think I will still get my motor but the kit company was waiting for it to make motor/trans mounts and order a driveshaft, the shipper was waiting for it and is getting nervous cause prices are going up and I can only get words. I figure if it isn't delivered by this time next month its time to open the blow torch on that company's part of this site and write some letters to the magazines that shouted their praises. I will be back home in July and alternatively I will contact Visa and see if I can get my money back or see what they can do. We get rid of one and 5 others pop up.

Jim Wintz · #20 (**permalink**) 05-18-2007, 04:26 AM

Bill,

Sorry you did not see the update. I made a seperate post with the results thinking it would be better then calling up this 13 page post. But I will update this one as well.

He was sentenced to 46 months in federal prison, with 3 years probation once he gets out. With this being a Federal case he will not be getting out eafter only serving half his term. The best I was told he could do as far as any early release was one maybe two months for good behavior. He was to report around mid to late April to start serving his time, But I was recently informed that he may have violated the terms of his supervised release. Have not been able to talk with anyone to get the details, I assume this means he did not show up for jail. I will continue to update if I get anymore information.

Jim