Oh, they did the right thing: they generated millions of dollars in free advertising by leveraging the world's news services, and if they get lucky, they may get tens of thousands of dollars in free consulting. Good business move.
Of course, if the thing actually worked, they wouldn't need free advertising or free consulting. They could just sell energy back to the power company and finance their operations that way. They wouldn't need investors, and they wouldn't need the approval or even the attention of the scientific community.
If I had a free energy machine, I wouldn't be concerned with whether anybody else believed it worked. Hell, I'd be trying to keep it quiet.
It's actually the investor part that makes me think it would be wiser to debunk the thing than let some suckers be conned. Look if people are that stupid they maybe deserve it, but a good debunking could save them from themselves. Or maybe not... LOL.
We homeschool, and we made a nonelectric fan using magnets. Magnets repel each other. Just give the fan a little push to get it started, and the repulsion keeps the blades moving. It was "Elementary, my dear" - literally. We were doing a science class. The kids came up with the idea.