Page 13 - IAV Digital Magazine #573

iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine
California Man Gets Prison For Nearly $9M Phony Cow Manure-To- Green Energy Investment Scheme
FRESNO, Calif. (AP) — A California man is going to prison for running a cow dung-to-green energy scheme that authorities say was a load of manure.
Ray Brewer, 66,
of Porterville was sentenced Monday to six years and nine months in federal prison in a years- long scam that bilked investors out of $8.75 mil- lion, according to a statement from the U.S. attor-
ney’s office.
Brewer ran a scheme from 2014 through 2019 in which he claimed to be building anaero- bic digesters at dairies in California’s Fresno, Kern,
Kings and Tulare counties and in Idaho, prosecu- tors said.
Anaerobic digesters “use microorganisms to break down biodegradable material and turn it into methane” that can be sold and that also pro- vide the produc- ers with renew- able energy cred- its for producing green energy, the statement said. Brewer told investors he would turn cow manure into methane while they would receive 66% of net profits and tax incentives, federal prosecutors said.
Brewer took investors on tours
of dairies where he allegedly planned to build the digesters and claimed to have raised millions of dollars for the work. He sent them forged lease agreements with dairy owners, faked loan agree- ments with banks, phony contracts with multinational companies and bogus pictures of the machines under construc- tion, prosecutors said.
The investors’ money went into several bank accounts, and Brewer spent it
on himself, buying up land, a custom home and new Dodge Ram pick- up trucks, authori- ties said.
He also kept his investors up to date on the non- existent construc- tion with fake schedules, invoic- es, power genera- tion reports and pictures, authori- ties said.
Brewer also refunded money to some investors, using money obtained from other investors.
When investors found out they had been bilked, some won law- suits against him. But Brewer moved to Sheridan, Montana, and assumed a new identity before he was finally arrest- ed, the U.S. attor- ney’s office said.
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