But in the past decade the conman has lived the high life on money raised from small investors across the country without producing anything that works.

He has taken in personalities such as formula one racing star Alan Jones. Mr Nugent wanted to put his magnetic engine in the supercar that Jones has designed and developed himself.

''It was all very technicolour and exciting,'' Jones told The Sun-Herald. ''But it shows that you should be wary.''

Mr Nugent also fancied himself as a film director and set up Fire from Ice Films Inc, claiming top actors - whom he had met at Hefner's mansion in Los Angeles - were interested in appearing in a film all about him. Mr Nugent and his son, Sonny, and directors were photographed partying at the mansion in 2008.

Mr Nugent also liked to tell people he had clearance from NASA to speak to its top scientists about his engine.

But his business empire is a charade. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has twice taken action against him, for illegal fund-raising and for deceptive conduct. The Supreme Court of Queensland has ruled that his magnetic engine does not work - and cannot work. The Queensland Court of Appeal upheld that decision.

Claims for Mr Nugent's engine are more audacious than the Firepower ''pill'', which claimed merely to drastically cut fuel consumption.

His other ventures - based on a road-and-shipping integration concept in several companies with variations of the name Roadships - are also charades.

The Sun-Herald visited the advertised office address and supposed truck depot for the Roadships business at Chipping Norton, in Sydney's south-west. The premises were vacant and the telephones cut off.

The bluster is catching up with the fast-talking Mr Nugent. Dozens of shareholders hope to form a class action against him and his cohorts to get back some of their lost money.

Former director and shareholder Don Greene said like ''mum and dad investors'' he was taken in by the magnetic engine concept. The Lismore farmer said the ''light came on'' when he realised there was no magnetic engine and the Roadships business - which advertises development of ships, trucks and depots across the country - had no depots, no ships and only one ute. Mr Nugent has taken legal action against Mr Greene over their falling-out.

''It confirmed what dozens of shareholders had already said to me,'' Mr Greene said. ''I had had over 100 shareholders say to me it had to be scam. I realised it had to be true. I have never seen the engine. I never saw it run. All I ever saw were bits and pieces of what he alleged was the engine, lying around in a workshop.''

Peter Hanmer, another investor, said he had taken legal action to get back a $20,000 deposit he paid for shares he never received.

After working as a diesel fitter, Mr Nugent began a now deregistered trucking company in Adelaide. Then he moved on to start companies including Roadships Inc and the Cycclone Magnetic Engine business, taking in a number of other business partners.

He started raising funds for Roadships and spruiking the magnetic engine but his business partners became suspicious when he started living the high life with expensive furnishings, a new car and jewellery.

They called ASIC. The corporate regulator took its first action against Mr Nugent in 2001, in the Queensland Supreme Court, for illegally raising funds for Roadships, forcing him to stop. The company was liquidated in 2002. The ASIC website reports that the Supreme Court of Queensland found that Roadships had unlawfully issued shares and spread false and misleading statements.

But that did not stop Mr Nugent from forming Cycclone Magnetic Engines Inc in the US. He was prosecuted by ASIC again in 2007 in the Supreme Court in Queensland for misleading or deceptive conduct.

The company, while based in the US, operated on the Gold Coast and at Lismore. It raised more than $1 million from investors.

The court found that Cycclone falsely claimed shares in the company were an investment in proven technology and that Mr Nugent and Cycclone had presented a misleading business plan. Money was proposed for research and development but documents showed no money was spent on it. Instead, $401,715 was spent on wages.

The court made injunctions stopping Cycclone Magnetic Engines from engaging in misleading or deceptive conduct by claiming the engine worked. It also stopped the company claiming that acquiring its shares would be an investment in proven technology.

But Mr Nugent is still advertising the engine on a US website. And he is sending newsletters to potential investors saying Cycclone Magnetic Engine Co has a ''commitment'' with Alan Jones to license, assemble, manufacture, service and manage sales for the new supercar. Mr Nugent's four-page September newsletter also tells investors about a one-for-two ''share split'' which was to be in effect by last November.

Jones told The Sun-Herald this week that Mr Nugent wanted to put the magnetic engine in his supercar. He said Mr Nugent had asked him to be a company ambassador. He was to be paid with shares in Roadships. Jones said Mr Nugent told him it would cost him nothing, the shares would go up in value and he would make millions.

Many investors no longer believe the hype and have formed the Concerned Shareholders Association. They say many paid for shares they never received. Others gave money for shares but were never given receipts and were later told it was a loan. Others have complained they paid for shares but got certificates showing a third less value than they paid. Some have asked, unsuccessfully, for their money back.

A Lismore area woman told The Sun-Herald she had lost $54,000 after been strung along for years. ''He is robbing people of their homes and livelihood. But you don't know you are in a con until the bubble bursts.''

A former Nugent business partner said many more investors were still too frightened to come forward. ''They don't want to accept they have been hoodwinked.''

W hen Mr Nugent discovered The Sun-Herald was making inquiries, he spent the latter part of last week sending letters threatening legal action. But when called and asked questions, he said he would not comment because The Sun-Herald would do what it wanted, anyway. He said he had done his own homework on this reporter and ''could join the dots''. ''Game on,'' he said.

He refused to speak about the investors who have lost money. They include Ernesto Angelosanto, who says his life has been ruined.

Murwillumbah lawyer Tony Smith, who acts for some shareholders, said he tried to take up the matter with the state fraud squad and then the Australian Federal Police, who told him to take it up with ASIC.

''It is an extraordinary situation, which is on the face of it a gross fraud - money taken for shares never issued, companies doing nothing,'' Mr Smith said. ''But nobody is remotely interested in people being ripped off. They are doing nothing while people lose their houses.''

Mr Nugent has continued spruiking the fake engine and a new incarnation of Roadships. That, too, is coming unstuck as shareholders, investors, former directors and employees have turned on him.

A shareholder and former accountant who worked for Mr Nugent and another company - Endeavour Logistics, now also in liquidation - has taken legal action against him.

Former directors have complained to ASIC that they were appointed and removed from Nugent companies without their knowledge. Other employees have told how they were promised millions of shares but never received money or the shares.

Fire from Ice Films has ''conducted virtually no business operations'', company documents filed with the US Securities Exchange and Commission show. The documents also say: ''We have no full-time employees and own no real estate or personal property.''

Nugent Engine Technologies, now known as Nugent Aerospace, registered in Florida, has ''no current operating income'', documents filed with the SEC say. Its share value is listed as $US0.001.

While the number of disgruntled investors grows, Mr Nugent has continued his fast lifestyle with cocktail functions promoting the engine, travelling to the US for weeks at a time and partying at Sydney's Sheraton on the Park hotel with dancers from a strip club, The Men's Gallery. They were told they were going to appear in one of his films.

ASIC told The Sun-Herald it was aware of concerns and encouraged investors to report misconduct via its online form.

Mr Nugent's empire, meanwhile, carries on like a film set: nothing behind the facade.

n.obrien@fairfaxmedia.com.au