Torquing Group, by and through its vaporware product “ZANO”, and via facilitation of KickStarter is guilty of knowingly and intentionally defrauding both the general public and all customers who have contributed monetarily to the ZANO product.

The public has been misled by Torquing group and feed material misrepresentations as to both the effective core functionality and to the actual development status of ZANO.

ZANO is a self-purported micro-UAV drone that is also purported to be highly autonomous, intelligent, and capable of taking “selfies” and group photos and videos in automatic and autonomous manners.

Late last year, in the 4th Quarter of 2014, the UK company known as “Torquing Group” started a KickStarter campaign under the guise and pretext of raising funds for mass production of its “ZANO” UAV/drone and in order to ostensibly ‘lower the unit cost’ of the product by raising production volume.

The ZANO campaign on KickStarter was successfully funded on January 8th 2015, and in total it raised about £ 2,335,119 and amassed over 12,000 individual backers.

As of January 16th 2015, there is still zero evidence that a working model or prototype of ZANO actually exists. To date, there is no evidence that ZANO actually flies, and the obviously staged professional promotional teasers of “ZANO” notwithstanding, Torquing Group has never released any images, photos or videos of ZANO product anything working or of ZANO flying or in-flight. Furthermore, Torquing Group has publicly and repeatedly admitted in writing to these aforementioned facts on their own public forums and postings.

Many inconsistent and contradictory reasons have been given by Torquing Group as to why it is the case that a product in which the core functionality is flight has never been even documented to have flown!

The bizarre reasons given range from saturation of WiFi/AP at an event like CES2015 interfering with and blocking signaling between the smart phone (which acts as a remote), and the ZANO unit itself, to the Torquing Group being afraid that their yet unpatented propriety ZANO technology was going to get stolen and reverse-engineered by unscrupulous participants at CES 2015, to the excuse that all ZANO prototypes had to be disassembled and taken apart in order for the team to work on “subsystems”, to something as farfetched as the laptop controlling the ZANO unit was itself stolen and the police allegedly scrambled and already working on the theft case!

Of all the UAV and drones that were presented at CES 2015, Zano was one THE only one in which we do not have any documented evidence that it flew. We certainty do not have any videos of it flying at CES 2015. Every other UAV, drone, and flying device present at CES 2015 gave a flying demonstration and was recorded doing so by documented videos and other evidence.

Not counting the "professionally" done promotional videos, (which were obviously staged) we do not yet have any documented evidence of any videos of Zano actually bona fide flying.

It would be fair and reasonable to say that Torquing Group should have significant experience in the flight and audiovisual aspects where it pertains to miniature flying drones and the corresponding audio and visual recording systems on these drones.

It would also not be unreasonable to assume that at some point or another Torquing Group should have reasonably known and anticipated that it could be going to crowd-funded route to gets its funding, and being a crowded funded project, most people typically want to see a working prototype in actual action.

Being that 'flight' and 'video' are two of the core functionalities of Zano, it seems somewhat odd that we don't have any evidence of any 'videos' of the product actually in 'flight'. These is furthermore exacerbated by the fact that we have been given contradictory, conflicting and inconsistent versions and events of stories and excuses by Torquing Group of why this is so.

One has to wonder, how it is even possible that all this time that NOT ONE single video was ever recorded of Zano prototype in flight (whether before, during or after it was allegedly taken apart for purported "work on sub systems"...)?! Surely this has become big enough of a concern for Torquing group to offer a long response and for them to take the unusual action of closing a forum post and banning members who have openly questioned them.

So if it was the case that Torquing group had ever at any point in time taken ANY videos at all of Zano in flight, during whatever testing, prototype or flying stage, then would it not be in the best interest of Torquing group to post this video publically to quell what it alleges to be "unjustified" concerns?

Surely if such video existed, it would not do them or the community any harm to post it? If such video does not exists, then begs the question how can a company that specializes in micro flight carrying micro video systems as payload have been so remiss as to never have filmed or made a single video of their prototype ever in flight? Especially if they had reason to know that they might be doing a KickStarter crowd-fund campaign? Surely Torquing Group is not going to now claim that their prototype never actually flew at all? Otherwise, how exactly was their "professional promotional" videos made?

During the KickStarter campaign late last year, high level senior representatives from Torquing Group assured all the backers that by January 10th of 2015 they would post “wind and windage” data and specifications for ZANO. They also promised that by January 10th their new and improved “prototyped” models of ZANO would be delivered and they would post videos of ZANO in flight. These prototypes were alleged to have 3% mass increase and 30% trust output increase per unit. It was also alleged these prototypes would be significantly more aerodynamic.

As of January 16th 2015 Torquing group has yet to release any data on the wind and windage performance of any model or any prototype of ZANO. Torquing group has yet to release any images, photos or videos of ZANO flying or actually in flight. The new excuse is that backers would have to wait until late January to early or mid-February in order for the new prototypes to come back from production. And Torquing group has openly and repeatedly stated that it would not release any images or any videos of ZANO flying or in flight until at least after that date.

Reece Crowther of Torquing group was documented and there is evidence captured on camera at CES2015 of Mr. Crowther telling the public that the reason Torquing group did not have a working model of ZANO capable of flying and demonstrating at CES2015 was due to “the laptop controlling ZANO” being “stolen”, and that the “police” already have an open “case” on the incident.

If Zano is purported to be fully autonomous, why does it need a laptop to control it?

And when pressed for an actual case incident number, Torquing group could not and did not provide any response.

Furthermore, this excuse is entirely inconsistent and contradicts the reason given by Ivan at Torquing group as to why a working model of ZANO was not presented at CES 2015.

Namely, Ivan at Torquing Group contradicted statements given by Reece with a public post stating:

“As the director for research and development, it was my call to not let a programmed Zano out of the office. It is a difficult situation, I know people want video but if we miss our project milestones now, the flow on effect to delivery is huge. One of those damned if we do, damned if we don't situations. Our priority has to be project milestones first as that was our promise to you all and foremost and then the natural progression is more video.”

To date, Torquing group has produced absolutely zero evidence that ZANO can actually fly under any conditions or circumstances. Under direct examination and questioning, the senior administrators of Torquing group openly admitted that they do not yet have a single photo or video of any ZANO ever in any stage of flight. Torquing group has repeatedly missed deadlines and presented both CES, its paying customers and the general public with contradictory and inconsistent stories of events.

Torquing has repeatedly made claims on its website, its KickStarter page, to CES and to the general public that ZANO flies. Torquing already presented misrepresentations that they have already possessed a working prototype of ZANO prior to the actual start of the KickStarter funding campaign.

There is absolutely zero evidence to substantiate any of Torquing group’s claims that a working product or flyable prototype of ZANO ever actually existed. And yet Torquing group has succeeded in deceptively and fraudulently collecting over £ 2,335,119 and it has defrauded more than 12,000+ individual financial backers by misrepresenting the actual capabilities of ZANO and its true status or stage of development.