Man selling lunar land sues contractor

MINDEN - The owner of the Lunar Embassy in Gardnerville has filed a $2 million lawsuit in Douglas District Court against the Canadian ambassador of his company alleging breach of contract.

Dennis M. Hope filed the lawsuit against Lisa Fulkerson, a resident of Chatham, Ontario, Canada.

She is reportedly in custody in Chatham and charged in an unrelated case. Hope said fraud charges are anticipated again Fulkerson because she forged a document that stated she was allowed to sell lunar property in the United States.

The Carson Valley business sells celestial property on the Moon, Mars, Venus and Io, a moon of Jupiter. More than 2.5 million people have paid $19.99 for a 1-acre tract on the Moon. Two thousand-acre tracks on Mars, Venus and Io are offered for the same price.

Hope will present his galactic constitution for review on his Web site by March 7. Property owners will have a chance to vote on the constitution. If the celestial constitution is ratified, Hope will make application to the United Nations. He expects to start the City of Hope on the Moon by 2015.

Fulkerson was the exclusive ambassador to Canada for the Lunar Embassy.

Hope said he won't see a dime from the lawsuit. It is initiated to salvage the reputation of the company in Canada, he said. Because Fulkerson was known as the ambassador, her unrelated legal problems have soiled her reputation, he claimed.

"This has caused some real problems for us," he said. "It is important for us to let people know we were duped, too.

"We are as baffled by this as they are."

Hope said Fulkerson could have sold from $2 million to $20 million of property to investors along the Eastern Seaboard, which was in breach of the contract they had.

Initially, Fulkerson was contracted to buy 6,900 parcels of Moon land of 1.8 acres each at 10-cents an acre.

The U.N. Outer Space Treaty of 1967 states that no nation can have sovereign control over heavenly bodies, but Hope said his research indicates that treaty does not prohibit individual ownership.

Contact Regina Purcell at rpurcell@recordcourier.com or 782-5121, ext. 211.