Great Oil Sniffer Hoax
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| Date | 1969 - 1979 |
|---|---|
| Exposed by | Pierre Péan |
| Description | A fraudulent scheme purporting to be able to detect oil by a new technology. Details remain rather obscure. |
The Great Oil Sniffer Hoax was a remarkably audacious (~$150,000,000?)[1] and probably quite successful scam to defraud oil companies, including Elf Aquitaine. The perpetrators pretende to have a groundbreaking technology that could detect the presence of oil deposits just be overflying an area.
Perpatrators
The fraud was connected to Jean Violet, who canvassed for funds at a dinner of Le Cercle in Washington in 1970.[2]
The public state did not show much interest in pursuing the fraud - suggesting that it had at least some degree of deep state support.
Exposire
The fraud was exposed by Pierre Péan, and finally broke in December 1983.
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