The man behind Sioux Falls-based Global Aquaponics already faces a lawsuit claiming he lied about the company to investors and the public.

Now, an ongoing Argus Leader Media investigation has found another suspect claim by Tobias Ritesman.

Ritesman, majority owner of Global Aquaponics, has said he won an award also given to the likes of Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg.

But the "Entrepreneur of the Year" award Ritesman trumpeted as recognition of his business acumen doesn't exist.

Two men named as members of an "international panel of judges" that supposedly awarded the honor say they've never heard of the panel, the award or Ritesman. And there is no evidence the award existed before last year when it was allegedly bestowed on Ritesman by an organization called Global University Alliance.

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"I have no knowledge of this award, or of the recipients," said Rich Hiliard, a software consultant from Maine supposedly on the judging panel, in an email to the Argus Leader. "I’ve never been invited to join the 'International Panel of Judges' or asked to judge any such competitions."

Fred Cummins, a Detroit-based business systems consultant, was also named as a panel member but said he had never heard of the award.

While Global University Alliance claims to have given out the award to tech sector notables since 2004, even the web page on which prize winners are listed doesn't appear to have existed before last year.

Ritesman didn't reply to a request for comment on this story.

It's not clear why a nonprofit consortium of universities would create a business award and a faux panel of judges and give its inaugural award to an unknown businessman from South Dakota, labeling him "a visionary crusader in sustainability, security, the internet of things and healthcare."

Mark van Rosing, chairman of Global University Alliance, first responded to the Argus Leader via email to say a "competent and experienced" panel of judges chose to bestow the award on Ritesman.

"The international panel of judges are a unique mix of academic and industry peers/leaders that have been carefully put together to give input, rate, analyze, compare and vote the people, teams and organizations," van Rosing wrote.

He didn't answer follow-up questions asking why two named members of his judging panel said they had never heard of it, or if van Rosing could provide any proof the award had ever been bestowed before it was given to Ritesman.

Henrik von Scheel, listed as CEO of Ritesman Enterprises on one of Ritesman's websites, is also listed as a board member of the Global University Alliance. Scheel posted photos to Twitter in May 2016 that show Ritesman being handed what appears to be an award in the chambers of the General Assembly of the United Nations in New York.

The World Summit on Innovation and Entrepreneurship was meeting at the UN at the time, but there is no indication the award was on the summit's agenda, and Ritesman appears to be handed the award when the summit was not in session. There's no indication he was anything other than an attendee. Photos from the event show other attendees posing on the podium, as well.

Global Aquaponics is facing a lawsuit from a former employee who calls it the company a "sham corporation" and said Ritesman and another executive were perpetrating a fraud on potential investors and the public.

Ritesman claims he won the award in May 2016, just prior to a concerted effort to gain investors in his company, Global Aquaponics.

"It’s an honor to get the award. It’s very prestigious,” Ritesman said in an interview with Sioux Falls TV station KDLT, a news story since removed from the TV station's website.

Ritesman not only highlighted the award on his websites but presented himself as a consultant to governments and Fortune 500 companies on his websites and in investment proposal documents.

On one of his websites, Ritesman claims he is a maverick entrepreneur, a groundbreaker of the fourth industrial revolution, a visionary crusader. In his email signature, he called himself "The Tiger."

Documents obtained by the Argus Leader show Ritesman and other Global Aquaponics representatives were attempting to find investors for the company throughout 2016.

Ritesman announced the opening of an office in Sioux Falls in early 2016 and later said Global Aquaponics would break ground on its flagship facility south of Brookings in June 2016.

In announcing its groundbreaking plans, Global Aquaponics pitched its future Brookings facility as “the biggest and most advanced aquaponics system in the world."

Officials did hold a ceremonial groundbreaking in June. But an Argus Leader investigation has previously shown the company broke ground on land it didn't yet own.

And while it now owns the land, it gained the property only after a curious set of transactions in which a former state legislator and lobbyist, Dean Krogman, traded a $175,000 Brookings house for the land and then gave it to Global Aquaponics for a token fee.

It's not yet clear why Krogman made the trade, and the gift. He hasn't responded to Argus Leader requests for comment.

On Tuesday, former employee Gregg Selberg, a one-time pitch man for the company, filed a lawsuit in Brookings County. In the filing, Selberg claims Global Aquaponics, Ritesman and former Chief Operating Officer Tim Burns lied to him about the company and misled him into perpetrating a fraud on potential investors and the public.

Global Aquaponics continues to claim it is a going concern. in a January blog post on its website, it re-announced plans to build its flagship facility, and asked for financial partners.

In April, the company said it was "currently constructing" the facility. Then earlier this month, Ritesman sent out a press release stating the project had yet to beginconstruction, but was "delayed but alive."

In May, after a year of pitching Global Aquaponics and himself as its flamboyant and wildly successful owner, Ritesman posted an image of James Bond to his Facebook page, accompanied by text which appears to paraphrase a quote from British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

"To operate in the world, one must learn to dance with chaos as its master. And if you ever have to tell someone you're powerful, you're not."