Column: Company claims it will launch Wausau water into outer space. Really?

Wausau’s Independent: By Tom Kilian for Wausau Pilot & Review

You know you are from Wausau, Wis., if…Sir Gary Kong is shooting your local drinking water into outer space.

Say what, now?

Yes, there is a new company in Wausau founded by “Sir” Gary Kong that says it is going to bottle and sell Wausau’s local tap water for profit. The brand is called “Wasa Water.” And the company’s recent press release claimed that the company has a “groundbreaking initiative to send Wasa Water to outer space through the SpaceX rideshare program.” Read the press release here.

As I mentioned in the past, you just could not make this stuff up.

The Vice President of Wasa Water, Billie Mitchell, states on her LinkedIn page that she established “a crucial partnership with Wausau Water, a Wisconsin-based water provider that recently completed an $80 million water filtration upgrade program.” She then says that “Wasa Water is poised to reach a production capacity of 6,000 water bottles per minute, alongside a fully operational distribution center.”

If this is true, it would be a big problem. The City of Wausau has spent millions and millions of public dollars on technology to provide clean, safe water. Water rates have gone up so much that many Wausonians are having a tough time even affording water to drink or to fill up their bathtub. And now a for-profit operation that would put massive disproportionate wear-and-tear on our treatment system says it is going to make it their cash cow. Outrageous.

And it is also a perfect example of why Wausau, in addition to eliminating its “hidden tax on water” – the water utility PILOT – should also be looking at the viability of a progressive water rate structure to increase affordability for regular Wausau residents while companies that profit off of high-volume water use would pay more. That would be logical and proportional. The city is currently doing neither – at least not in action. Just talk.

But Ms. Mitchell’s statement about 6,000 water bottles per minute, at least in regard to timing, is not true. She said that it would happen by November 2023. It did not. I went to their company location at 901A E. Thomas Street, next to Bull Falls Brewing Company. The door was locked and it looked pretty empty to me, other than some miscellaneous unused office furniture.

And this is where the biggest, most likely concern comes in for Wausau: if these public statements about “a partnership” with our local water utility, among other statements by this company, are left unaddressed by the City of Wausau, it could seriously damage the reputation – throughout the country – of our city and its now very-expensive-to-the-ratepayer water

That is going to become crystal clear as you read this column.

Many elements of the new company’s materials, including statements on its website, do not even look credible or legitimate. Research on Sir Gary Kong’s and Billie Mitchell’s past business activities reveals multiple high-profile problems and red flags that should have been readily apparent to anyone that did cursory research.

So why did the local elected official who set up the tour for the “Wasa Water” business people of our new water treatment plant, in relation to their for-profit venture, do absolutely no vetting or background research on them first?

As we will see, he should have. And we will also see that poor vetting of information and the inability or unwillingness to respond appropriately is starting to become a broader problem for the new mayor’s administration.

FTC complaint alleging deceptive marketing and a “Fake” Elon Musk in product launch

How did Billie Mitchell and Sir Gary Kong even connect with the City of Wausau to discuss their new business endeavor and to get a tour of the new water treatment plant in relation to their endeavor?

Information that I gathered confirms that the new mayor – while still an alderperson – met Billie Mitchell on July 24, 2023 at a Chamber of Commerce event at the new Chamber’s depot office. After Ms. Mitchell conveyed to him that the new company was planning on drilling a deep well for a clean water supply (which, in my understanding, is not even allowed in our city), then-Alder Diny suggested that they consider using Wausau Utility water. He subsequently worked with them in August and September 2023 to understand the rates and water quality, and to get them a tour of our new water plant in relation to their endeavor. He thought that the private sector endeavor may offer some marketing value for the city for wider name recognition of Wausau due to bottled water’s name and branding.

Why then-alder and now-mayor Diny did no vetting or background research, at that time and up until yesterday, on the past business history of the individuals he was “working” with, is beyond me. He confirmed to me on Monday when I was seeking a history of the situation that he had not done any research and had been unaware of any past problems when I brought up the topic.

Had he done minimal research, he would have discovered sooner that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) had filed a complaint against Sir Gary Kong and one of the past companies he founded – KW Technology – alleging them of “deceptively marketing their 1 Virus Buster Invisible Mask (Invisible Mask)” as something that protected people from COVID-19 and other infections. The defendants in the complaint purported that their invisible mask “creates a three-foot barrier of protection against 99.9 percent of all viruses and bacteria, including COVID-19.” There was an order settling the FTC’s complaint against the defendants.

FYI – the company of Mr. Kong located at 901A E Thomas Street in Wausau is named “THE 1 WAUSAU WATER INC.” according to its information on the Wisconsin DFI website. And Justia information indicates that the trademark for “1 Wausau Water” related to bottled water was filed on December 30, 2022, and is owned by Gary Kong.

Even Popular Science covered the invisible mask FTC debacle and stated, “Shockingly, the $29.99 ‘pouch of ingredients’ does not provide a ‘protective gaseous barrier’ that busts the virus.”

On the website of World Summit, LLC, on which Sir Gary Kong is listed as a board member of the outfit, it states that Billie Mitchell – who Diny, now the Wausau mayor, met at a local Chamber of Commerce event – was the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) for the Nevada-based company, KW Technology, that launched the invisible mask – and was the focus of the FTC complaint: “In 2020, Sir Kong brought Billie in as CMO of KW Technologies, when it launched ‘The 1 Invisible Mask’ and ‘The Gel Hand Sanitizer.’”

A piece from “The City” states that Timothy Wetzel – a co-founder of the company along with Mr. Kong – was convicted years ago of racketeering and felony theft for some “home repair scheme,” and was fined for unauthorized stock sales: “Wetzel, the other co-founder, decades ago was convicted of racketeering and felony theft in a home repair scheme in Oregon, and in 2017 was hit with a six-figure fine for unauthorized stock sales and other alleged violations of Washington State’s Securities Act by the state’s Department of Financial Institutions.”

And the problems and red flags do not stop there.

The Independent, along with other media outlets, said that Sir Gary Kong used a “fake” Elon Musk to get attendees to the promotional launch event of a magazine put out by Mr. Kong: “A Chinese community leader in New York City is facing accusations of deceit after he invited an Elon Musk impersonator to an event last month.”

A press release put out about the launch party for Mr. Kong’s new magazine, to which Elon Musk was invited, was put out by – wait for it – Billie Mitchell Public Relations.

The Independent piece goes on to say that after some people realized the real Musk was not going to be present, “they accused Mr. Kong of lying and deceiving them to attract a large audience for the event.” It also highlights that select guests from mainland China had reportedly been charged $30,000 for a similar event that been planned and later canceled.

Even the Wasa Water website’s claims (a website which includes information for potential “Investors”) about its product seem bizarre. It says Wasa Water is “[r]efreshing natural hydration from Wausau Wisconsin’s rivers & lakes” and one of the press releases says it is “sourced from the pristine waters of Wausau, Wisconsin.” Our drinking water is sourced from groundwater, not rivers and lakes. Furthermore, where are the “pristine waters” of Wausau if the company is referring to our rivers and lakes? A lot of locals will not even swim in said waters or regularly consume fish that comes from them, out of concerns over pollution.

Other red flags exist, but this is an opinion column, not a thesis, so we will stop here.

In short, I think it is abundantly clear that then-alder and now-mayor Diny should have done even the smallest amount of background research and vetting when dealing with the players of “Wasa Water.” Apparently, that did not occur. And, in my opinion, there should certainly be no public involvement from the City of Wausau with this private endeavor, based on all of the concerning revelations.

New Wausau administration’s trial period is coming to an end

Everybody is human and makes oversights once in a while. If this was Mayor Diny’s first challenge or problem with properly vetting information, I might find that this oversight was somewhat understandable.

But it is not the first challenge.

And the grace period or runway for the new administration is essentially over.

There has been a pattern of very poor vetting of important information on critical policy issues since April.

This ranges from inaccurate or false information being provided by city staff under the mayor’s direct supervision to city council members and the Wausau public, on key issues such as the Ghidorzi Arlington Lane land deal to city staff’s subversion of a formal council directive regarding Thomas Street development, without any apparent proper authority to do so. No public-facing recognition of these serious problems have occurred under the new administration, nor has any timely, appropriate resolution of these serious problems.

Yesterday, I spent an hour at City Hall pointing out fact-based problems and inaccuracies to a relevant city staff member related to information and narratives that are in this evening’s Economic Development Committee packet. At the time of writing this column, the same inaccurate or false elements are still in the packet.

With all of the above issues and some city staff continuing to run the show as they walk all over the city’s elected leader, the Diny administration begins to resemble Wausau’s past administrations in these regards.

On that note, is this type of circus any different than we have seen from prior administrations? No. But that is the point. When one runs on reform through extreme accountability and tight supervisory attributes picked up in the military and business world, it should be and must be different.

From my past columns and commentary, it should be evident that I have agreed with – and continue to agree with – the new mayor’s articulated desire to clean up and reform city government. I also have emphasized that past attacks on the mayor’s first veto were unfounded. That being said, it is going to take a heck of a lot more than one mayoral veto on a $100K-related RFP item, and some new committee assignments this term, to build and sustain any credibility on reforming the longstanding mess that is municipal governance in Wausau.

If the new administration is not able to better vet information in the future, and to resolve situations to date in which the council and public were given poorly vetted information by staff under his supervision, we are in big trouble when it comes to outcomes for the policies and people of Wausau.

At that point, our only option for local improvement may be to ask Sir Gary Kong if it is possible to launch Wausau’s municipal scandals and debt into outer space, along with our tap water.

Wausau’s Independent is a weekly opinion column by former Wausau Alder Tom Kilian, a founding member of the grassroots environmental group Citizens for a Clean Wausau. Views expressed here are independent of this newspaper and do not necessarily reflect the views of Wausau Pilot. To submit an idea for a future column, email [email protected] or mail to 500 N. Third St. Suite 208-8, Wausau, Wis. 54403.