A man from California who ran a multimillion-dollar fraud scheme where he claimed to turn cow manure into green energy has been sentenced to over six years in prison, the US attorney’s office for the Eastern District of California announced this week.
Ray Brewer, 66, stole over $8.7 million from investors, court records from between March 2014 and December 2019 showed.
Brewer’s scam involved convincing investors he could build anaerobic digesters – large machines that create methane through microorganisms breaking down biodegradable material – on dairies in several California and Idaho counties, the US attorney’s office said in a news release. This methane can “then be sold on the open market as green energy,” the release stated.
Brewer’s investors were meant to receive tax incentives and 66% of all net profits as part of the scheme, authorities said.
Brewer gave the investors tours of the dairies where he claimed he’d build the digester machines and “sent them forged lease agreements with the dairy owners,” according to the US attorney’s office release.
“He also sent the investors altered agreements with banks that made it appear as though he had obtained millions of dollars in loans to build the digesters,” the release said.
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Article URL : https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/01/business/california-man-prison-cow-manure-scheme-trnd/index.html