To the reader:  If you have factual proof that any of the information presented here does not represent the truth, is incomplete, or is not accurate, we ask that you forward that information via email to truth@lupintruth.com.

The LIE

The TRUTH

Ed Dennis portrayed himself as an unselfish paladin, a court champion with no ulterior motives who would protect naturist traditions, Lupin and Stout Family interests at a challenging time and help Stout defend against an incompetent pool contractor’s predatory legal threats over a failed project at Lupin in 2002.

It has become increasingly evident that Ed Dennis is instead just another competitive predator seeking control of our valuable 110-acre Santa Cruz Mountain property, most likely for a different, more profitable use – a Renaissance Fair facility.

His deceptive plans are probably best advanced by bankrupting both the 70-year old naturist club and the Stouts, who seek to preserve its historic, county-approved use on reasonable and charitable terms for its members and the wider naturist community it serves.

After his initial incorporation of LNC Ltd in Oct 2003, Ed Dennis began using every opportunity to assert his rights and authority at the expense of the Stouts and the Lupin membership, beginning with exaggerated claims of ownership and followed by increasingly abusive management practices, especially after courting and marrying Kassandra in May 2004 (and putting her to work under his management mentorship to help save on wages.)  Our trust in Ed Dennis diminished steadily thereafter, especially as reports of mistreatment of members and staff became an increasing concern.       

In Aug 2004 Dennis and his attorney Steve Levy concocted a suspicious argument in an unrelated case which sought to establish undue, un-negotiated legal rights to the Lupin property using an unnecessary Interpleader lawsuit filed against the Stouts and their mortgage holders. (Counsel advised the Stouts that it appeared to be a crude attempt to establish promissory estoppel.)  This misleading filing admitted the absence of a written agreement between Dennis and the Stouts, and yet falsely implied near-agreement of an unacceptable 99-year lease, a below-market purchase option and a low-ball monthly rental rate, all terms which were never negotiated and which would have assured bankruptcy for the Stouts.

First presented to the Stouts in the form of this unusual filing (which made them and the mortgage holders defendants v. LNC Ltd as plaintiff) and which had a supposedly benign purpose, as was unclearly explained in the noisy courthouse corridors by Steve Levy to the Stouts and the 1^st mortgage holder (a long-time member), the misrepresented long-term lease terms it purported were categorically rejected as ridiculously one-sided and not worthy or relevant to further discussion, especially in view of our overall estate planning goals which would involve the formation of at least one additional 501c3 not-for-profit corporation.  Then and now, we remain determined not to sell this special property to anyone at any price and to preserve its historic use and humanizing ambience as a family legacy.   

This convoluted LNC Ltd interpleader experience persuaded the Stouts that Dennis was not acting in their best interests, probably could not be trusted over the long haul and ended all possibilities of our ever considering anything more than warily continuing our unwritten operating concession on a month-to-month basis.  Lori Kay, who could ill-afford the time, thereafter felt compelled to become more actively involved in the business through regular weekly meetings with the Dennises and soon began questioning the provisions, intentions and understandings which were contained in the handshake agreement between Ed and Glyn which originally led to the formation of LNC Ltd under Ed’s ownership.  Without its benign cooperative purpose as an expected underpinning, Glyn’s retirement announcement on Sep 30, 2003, (the only document Glyn signed that month) would make little sense, given his quite verifiable pre-Lupin resume and much earlier successful retirement from the corporate world.

At Lori’s insistence in Sep 04 Glyn prepared his version of the key aspects of that understanding and first presented it to Ed for his inspection, without demurral, before showing it to Lori Kay.   She was quick to point out the various and increasing areas of its breach, and thereafter questioned Ed’s credibility on multiple levels, especially as she was receiving an increasing number of letters and reports of members’ unhappiness with Ed and Kasandra as the club’s managers.  LNC Ltd operations fell far short of its promises in the first year and lost all credibility in mismanaged insolvency before the end of the second.  Long-term became month-to-month survival, if possible.  Both the Stouts and Lupin’s credit has become increasingly damaged and the negative consequences have seemed almost deliberate and planned.

Our deceptive paladin fully unmasked himself as a predator, not the loyal defender and benefactor he had claimed, when dealing with the Mark Evans lawsuit. Rather than defending Glyn Stout dba Lupin Naturist Club as originally planned, after the pool contractor filed his long-threatened suit in May 2005, Dennis has acted mostly to sabotage the entire case even though it was the primary reason for the existence of his separate operating corporation (instead of one owned by the Stouts, as originally planned) and an inducement for our original handshake agreement in 2003.

He has consistently withheld vital information and member surveys, though often requested and even subpoenaed.   He completely backed off filing any defensive legal action by LNC Ltd as originally planned and broke his agreement to finance Stouts’ legal defense fees, even after including a reimbursement clause counseled by Steve Levy.  Ed Dennis thereafter completely alienated Stout’s attorney, Nick Pastore (though very highly recommended by Steve Levy) by attacking his professional integrity and rejecting payment of all billings, leaving the Stouts with unexpected responsibility for their full payment.  The resulting loss of counsel in mid-case and added financial pressure on the Stouts can only help the litigious pool contractor and causes us to wonder whether these two property predators may be acting in concert.  They seem to share a propensity to falsify evidence.

Shortly after Dennis’ 12/30/05 termination and the Stouts preliminary Jan 2006 settlement conference with his attorney Steve Levy, he (or they) produced fabricated copies of a fraudulent “Memorandum of Agreement” dated 9/20/03 with a paste-on signature of Glyn Stout.  Before faxing a surprise copy of this fakery to the Stout’s attorney, Steve Levy had just previously spent several nights at Lupin and devoted considerable time locked in the office with Ed Dennis where he squats round-the-clock with full, unsupervised access to thousands of Lupin records (a great many with specimens of Glyn Stout’s signature) and computer connected copy-printing equipment.  Ed Dennis has often boasted of his high tech printing expertise.

This previously unmentioned, preposterous forgery purports to grant Ed Dennis absolute control over all of Stout’s intellectual and physical property representing a life’s work, his family estate and a 7-figure, after-tax cash investment for an untraceable $10 cash consideration.  Obviously, no such original document ever existed (or it would surely have been cited in the above Aug 2004 Interpleader ploy.)

We believe that this blatant forgery attempt and its use in any legal proceedings represent a criminal act in pursuit of an overall conspiracy to commit fraud.

The LIE

The TRUTH

Ed Dennis portrayed himself as a wealthy, eccentric, generous philanthropist (at high risk of sudden death from a complicated heart condition) who liked making contributions to worthy causes, such as Lupin.

More accurately a con man, sociopath and misanthropist, he has financially supported himself as an adult almost entirely by deceiving people and living at the expense of others, including his wives, son, sister, parents, married women, divorcees, business associates and public welfare.

Indeed eccentric in appearance, he was recognized by one member who had first seen him playing a troll-like character in a Bay Area Renaissance Faire sometime before he first arrived at Lupin in his old motor-home.  (His characterizations of his Renaissance Fair experiences have implied much more of an entrepreneurial or king-like role.)

Always overweight and unhealthy because of high risk personal habits, he has previously employed the “dying wealthy philanthropist” persona in other cons during the past three decades, especially with vulnerable women whose income or assets he seeks to exploit.  (He stayed with one such woman just long enough to exhaust her divorce settlement.)

There is no evidence of Ed Dennis ever having made a significant philanthropic contribution to anything in his adult life or of his ever having any wealth to contribute.           

The LIE

The TRUTH

Ed Dennis portrayed himself variously as a sought-after business strategist (a think-tank consultant on retainer by multiple Fortune 500 companies), an intellectual genius, an entrepreneur with a natural talent for creating wealth,  and an expert in multiple fields (including publishing, printing, engraving, photography, computers, web design, marketing, accounting, information systems, French cuisine & fine wine, management communications, pre-school education, luxury apartment development, Renaissance Fairs, business law, mortgage finance, mental health, psychology, team-building and organizational behavior, among others.)

He is unquestionably an intelligent person and articulate writer with conversational knowledge in many areas, but his boasted history of career success and wealth simply doesn’t exist.  He is mostly self-educated, computer clever and opportunistic, having nothing to lose and much to gain from deception. 

When confronted by a superficial member-sponsored investigation that revealed the complete absence of any corroborating background information about him, he cryptically explained that he had intentionally learned to live beneath the radar but that a planned book would be written about him soon after his death.

Additional investigations since then suggest that after leaving the military in 1964 as an arrogant, under-achieving E-4 medical technician, he was never able to maintain a regular job, couldn’t successfully develop any profitable business projects and failed to complete basic junior college requirements though financed by a long-suffering wife who often worked three jobs to support him and their son and to pay their mortgage.  

Perhaps tired of his multiple infidelities, always being the sole family bread-winner and left financially ruined from his failed schemes and self-indulgences, his second wife divorced him after enduring 18 years of an unbalanced and abusive marriage, thereby canceling his most reliable fall-back meal ticket.  In his much nobler, fanciful version of that divorce, he claims to have generously left her rich with his share of all that imaginary wealth he had entrepreneurially created during their years together “because she was a good mother”.  In fact, she almost lost her home and must work well beyond retirement age because of her marital share of his unpaid debts.

The LIE

The TRUTH

Ed Dennis portrayed himself as a loving, dutiful son retiring from his successful commercial enterprises a dozen years earlier to return to his Daly City home in order to care for his ailing parents, manage their affairs and live closer to specialized care for his own life-threatening medical condition.

The truth is that his closest family members have always been the biggest victims of his fraudulent and abusive behavior patterns.

Owning no real estate in his name, he has a history of squatting on others’ property and illegally living in the offices of his failed ventures until forced out and always leaving behind a costly mess for the unpaid landlord to dispose of.

Otherwise broke, dining on a Loan Star Card (Texas food stamps), homeless and living in a converted hanger in Ft. Worth in the mid 1990’s, he returned to his parents’ home after his father’s stroke, thus fortuitously gaining power-of-attorney opportunity to live off their retirement income, finance a very expensive electronics collection (now mostly stored at Lupin) and underwrite his own uninsured health care.  He later refinanced their debt-free house to his benefit and then after squandering the equity proceeds and not paying the mortgage, caused its forced sale, creating inheritance loss for his sister and son.

He has virtually abandoned his mother (suffering from Alzheimer’s) whom he impoverished and abused in California before pawning her off to his son (also abused by him as a child and later financially victimized by him as an adult in a failed business venture.) Though his son and ex-wife were providing for his mom’s actual care and support in Texas, Ed threatened to sue his son for control over her widow’s social security benefits.  Ed Dennis was still writing self-beneficial checks at Lupin on his mother’s checking account as recently as April 13, 2003, and may still have access to some of her remaining assets in another form or account.

The LIE

The TRUTH

Ed Dennis portrayed himself as an innovative marketing expert of special insight who would restore Lupin memberships to 1,000 by year-end 2004 and then double them to 2,000 in 2005, and he has reported only glowing progress since he took over.

He has instead been a marketing disaster by any measure, perhaps intentionally so.

In fact, during 2004 there were 207 drops (highest ever) and only 51 new memberships sold (2^nd lowest ever).  During the season of 2005 only 30 new memberships (lowest ever) were sold to off-set an additional 59 drops, leaving memberships at 309, the lowest total since 1977.  

(Only Stout Family intervention forestalled a 2005 year-end resignation en masse by a large group of the remaining members.  A comparable naturist club near Sacramento has enjoyed record growth to 1,700 members, many of them former Lupin members from the Bay Area.)

The high dropout rate is largely attributable to gross mismanagement by Ed and Kassandra Dennis, including deliberate alienation and termination of key members. Long respected members have been threatened with unwarranted lawsuits and credit-damaging collection agencies.  Individuals have been attacked, threatened, scolded and ridiculed in his monthly newsletters and weekly email announcements. He arbitrarily disbanded the members’ camera club and replaced it with one he controlled.  His transparently self-aggrandizing communications contained gross exaggerations of his accomplishments and largesse, took credit for others contributions, denounced all critics, blamed others for his failures and announced grandiose plans and decisions he couldn’t make manifest.

Often treated as Ed’s royal subjects rather than sophisticated customers with other choices, many long-standing members, feeling resentment over their authoritarian mistreatment by management, dropped their memberships and vowed to return only if he and Kassandra were no longer present.

The worst-ever membership sales record stems largely from LNC Ltd’s near elimination of all advertising (and a resulting 40% drop in web visits, the #1 source of new business in the industry) and virtually no welcoming sales effort extended towards those fewer introductory visitors.  (Some guests have even reported rude treatment by the Dennises.)

Annual club revenues have likely dropped about 50% under Ed’s inept, negative marketing direction, causing about a $1 million shortfall over the past two years. 

The LIE

The TRUTH

Ed Dennis portrayed himself as a debt management expert who would renegotiate, refinance, pay down and resolve all the Lupin credit liabilities left by the 1989 quake and the 1999 gas tank remediation project without bankruptcy or additional property liens and thereby restore the Stout Family’s credit rating (damaged from keeping the club afloat throughout multiple, costly natural disasters and bureaucratic struggles from 1977 to the present).

In fact, both the club’s survival and the Stout Family interests have been placed at far greater risk than ever at the hands of Ed Dennis’s financial mismanagement since LNC Ltd assumed operations in Oct 2003.

He has intentionally defaulted on 3 hard-won commercial lines of credit in the club’s name as well as many other legitimate obligations.  His non-payments and negligent follow-though are responsible for an additional 4 liens against the property in the past 2 years, and he precipitated a $65k court judgment paid from club operating funds which could easily have been avoided.

The LIE

The TRUTH

After incorporating himself as LNC Ltd, Ed Dennis portrayed himself as having personally invested large sums in supporting Lupin, thus saving it from certain bankruptcy, and was merely servicing prior debt incurred on behalf of the club by Glyn Stout, dba Lupin Naturist Club out of his own pocket as a philanthropic gesture.

There is no evidence of Ed Dennis ever having made any personal financial investment in Lupin or his corporation (though if old patterns hold true, he may have occasionally borrowed funds from Kassandra as his current female piggy-bank), nor has the Stout family received any checks from him or LNC Ltd.  He has ignored our repeated requests to provide verification of his investment claims and for financial accountability.  His off-shore investment resources are apparently only wishful thinking or a deliberate fraud.

Furthermore, almost all of the initial funding of LNC Ltd in Oct 2003 came from Glyn Stout dba Lupin Naturist Club in the form of about $80k of working capital (cash + accounts receivable) seamlessly transferred/advanced to continue normal club operations and debt payments.  All sources and expenditures of cash since then have also been derived from normal club revenues, dues and fees.  All operating expenses, debt service and capital acquisitions have thus been paid for entirely from club operating funds, as have Ed Dennis’ personal legal fees.  (Ed and Kassandra also dine, drink, reside, acquire stuff and entertain guests on their club corporate tab.)

Lupin was nowhere near bankruptcy in Oct 2003, which marked its 3^rd consecutive year of increasing, positive cash flow.   In fact, there had been an ever-growing capacity to repay all old creditors on a more current basis up until after LNC Ltd assumed operations.  Believing Ed’s impressive deceptions in 2003, Glyn felt optimistic enough about the trends and the future direction to attempt retirement after his 26 years of thankless, unpaid management responsibilities for a high risk, boot-strap investment with poor liquidity, a costly history of (natural and man-made) disasters and limited credit options.  

If Ed Dennis could have kept the trend going, there would have been more than ample cash coverage for all of Lupin’s debt service and then some. 

Thereafter Lupin Naturist Club, Ltd was obviously supposed to assume the operating risks and continue payment of all legitimate Lupin Naturist Club obligations on the same “triage” priority basis as before.  However, LNC Ltd soon began performing miserably and was mostly in breach of that understanding during 2004-2005 as revenues rapidly declined from Ed and Kassandra’s mismanagement, and more legitimate creditors were inevitably ignored.

They were also often in default with late checks for even the highest priority mortgages and tax payments.  LNC Ltd never paid or reimbursed for the vital property taxes, forcing the Stouts to alternative measures to protect their interests.  Ed failed to acquire liability insurance for over two years until Lori Kay proved it possible and available. 

The LIE

The TRUTH

Ed Dennis portrayed himself as an experienced restaurateur and award-winning French chef who would elevate our restaurant’s quality, popularity and profitability in competition with nearby Los Gatos alternatives.

No professional would run a restaurant like Ed and Kassandra, who have ruined Lupin’s former reputation for quality and excellence.  Most members with experience believe he lacks understanding and respect for his customers in a unique hospitality business and now dine elsewhere.  His culinary claim is as fictional as the rest of his resume.

Less convenience, fewer choices, reduced hours, unpalatable buffets, late openings, absent menus, slow service, preparation delays, cluttered décor, rude management, disorganized menu planning and preparation,  uneven cleanliness and an unwelcoming reception are hardly ways to please sophisticated customers profitably and bring them back regularly.  Ed’s cuisine is far from award winning and attracts no following.  He writes far better than he cooks.

Restaurant popularity and revenues have likely declined to 50% of normal, or less.  Social ambience and attendance have noticeably deteriorated for previously successful annual events.

The LIE

The TRUTH

Ed Dennis portrayed himself as an experienced team builder who could develop a productive Lupin staff organization with high morale and would recruit and train his CEO replacement before moving on to start up the business he had originally come to Lupin to develop, a mortgage banking firm.

Over the past two years Ed and Kassandra have driven away almost all human resources with their abusive, authoritarian management practices and dubious accusations, and Lupin Naturist Club, Ltd has devolved into an insolvent mom-and-pop operation which cannot adequately serve the members.

Friends of the Stouts seemed especially targeted, and there has been a virtually complete turnover of experienced staff which has degraded competence, quality and hospitality.

Kassandra has physically assaulted 2 employees and verbally abused others she supervised, and publicly, Ed racially insulted our only black female resident member* and sexually harassed another female staff resident who felt compelled to report it to police authorities.

Kassandra and Ed drove off the property the best, most qualified candidate to become the long-term CEO/General Manager of the club, a woman of high personal integrity and consciousness who was widely respected by the membership.

Ed Dennis’ nearest mortgage banking experience is likely limited to refinancing his relatives’ homes to strip their equity, and no venture of his could ever pass SEC muster.

* there were other, extenuating circumstances relative to this individual - an employee whose work ethic left much to be desired, unpaid rent, etc. - but publicly humiliating and attacking individuals were common practice in Ed Dennis' world. Given his practice of humiliating members, the fact that this individual was black was perhaps incidental to the matter. [This information updated from reader feedback - thanks!]

The LIE

The TRUTH

Ed Dennis portrayed himself as a life-long, contributing naturist and a swimming pool expert who had previously designed and helped install an innovative pool at Riverside Ranch, a nudist club near San Antonio, where he claimed to have been a highly regarded member.

His naturist/nudist credentials are minimal and his history was misrepresented.

He was indeed a member at Riverside Ranch from 1973 to 1976 with his second wife and son, but he was not remembered by current or previous club owners of that time.

He and another woman were 1984-85 members of Live Oak Ranch, a Texas nudist club no longer recognized by established nudist/naturist associations because it began openly sponsoring “swingers” events (a violation of traditional, family-friendly, naturist ethics.)

Neither he nor Kassandra have a recent membership with AANR or The Naturist Society, and LNC Ltd has reneged on previous Lupin agreements with both of those respected national organizations and has dropped all advertising in their publications.

The LIE

The TRUTH

Ed Dennis portrayed himself as a responsible proponent of legality, transparency and accountability in business, all basic assumptions of our underlying relationship.

He has instead attempted to keep the Stouts ignorant of all evidence of his violations and mismanagement, and we have received none of the financial, sales or membership reports which were previously produced from the Lupin data base.  A two-year pattern of information system disruptions now seems part of his cover.    

He harassed Lupin’s bookkeeper into quitting in disgust by leaving his soiled underwear on her desk and then blamed her for not producing the monthly financial reports.

He attempted to discredit and then fire Lupin’s IT professional (the only person with overall knowledge and experience with our complex, out-dated computer network), until informed in no uncertain terms by Glyn that he didn’t own or control the Lupin information system which Glyn had personally designed and developed with member assistance over many years and that such a unwise personnel move would be an instant deal-breaker if he persisted.

Ignoring warnings of their improper, error-creating procedures for data entry and statement preparation, Ed and Kassandra were responsible for repeated errors on many members’ monthly accounts.  Members with late or protested payments were routinely turned over to a collection agency scam or simply dropped arbitrarily.

A reported $34,730 federal tax lien filed against him in Texas by the IRS in 1993 and our personal experience of his chronic inability to provide tax information necessary for the Stouts annual income tax preparation strongly suggest the improbability of Ed Dennis or LNC Ltd having filed any income tax returns since his incorporation in 2003, if ever. 

In early Dec 2005 the Stouts learned from Dennis of the insolvency of LNC Ltd after the State of California EDD had levied its entire Bank of the West checking account, making continuation of the operational relationship financially impossible and fatally breached.

Projecting blame elsewhere in denial, he continued misleading the Stouts about his own responsibility for the State’s crippling action.

He has surreptitiously misappropriated and fraudulently re-registered under his control the domain name of the Lupin web site, the content of which was almost entirely written and organized by Glyn Stout when he originally registered it with the help of a skilled and generous member in 1996.   Ed Dennis recently abused his wrongfully gained authority by illegally terminating Glyn Stout’s email service under his internationally known email address of long standing, glyn@lupin.com, and withholding all communications so addressed to him, seriously damaging his ability to function within multiple naturist and business associations in which he has long been a leader.  An investigation is underway.          

Ed Dennis is probably the most negative influence in club history, and his continued abusive behavior in denial is degrading the entire community.  His communications are full of slanders and deceptions. He threatens or terminates loyal members who dare question anything.  He has unlawfully denied residents’ access to their mail boxes, intercepted their email, cut off their home propane deliveries and inappropriately touched and stalked women on the property.  He threatens expensive nuisance lawsuits against all who don’t support his terminated regime.   And he would like to enrich himself at everyone else’s expense for his failures and have the club members finance his attorney as he sues them.

He is an unwanted, round-the-clock squatter at our entrance who seeks to collect the maximum toll and to bully all opposition to his abuse.  His early eviction will reduce chronic friction and inevitable confrontations.

The LIE

The TRUTH

Ed Dennis portrayed himself as a stalwart Guardian of Naturist Values and touted the many protective security measures he has taken on behalf of women, children and family values.

If we had known what we have only recently discovered about the real Ed Dennis and his life before he first applied for Lupin membership in 2002, he would have been rejected.

An expanding file of historical and recent reports of his improper behavior indicates that Ed Dennis was and is a sexual predator and aggressive bully who abuses power, weakness and advantage.  His victims are usually female, though not always.

The truth of any one of these newly discovered allegations is sufficient to deny acceptance and admission by all reputable naturist organizations, and his continuation in a position of authority at Lupin threatens loss of recognition by national naturist associations and the club’s 70-year reputation for safety and integrity.

Given our responsibilities as property owners with a hard-earned use permit and considerable legal and financial liability if wrong-doing or known predatory leadership were tolerated, the Stouts had little choice but to terminate the unwritten agreement with Ed Dennis dba Lupin Naturist Club, Ltd., and to file for eviction of the Dennises.   

(04/04/2006)