California Man Sentenced: An Unbelievable Multimillion-Dollar Cow Manure Scheme
According to the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office, a California man has been sentenced to more than six years in prison due to his involvement in a nearly $9 million cow manure Ponzi scheme.
Ray Brewer, 66, of Porterville, and Sheridan, Montana, will serve prison time for running a multimillion-dollar fraud scheme where he claimed to turn cow manure into green energy, U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert announced.
From 2014 through 2019, Brewer ran a scheme in which he claimed to be building anaerobic digesters at dairies in Fresno, Kern, Kings and Tulare counties in California, as well as in Idaho, prosecutors said.
Brewer’s investors were promised to receive 66% of all net profits, as well as tax incentives from Renewable Energy Credits. Brewer even took investors on tours of dairies where he said he was going to build the digesters and sent dairy owners forged lease agreements. The press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office shared that 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. He also sent fake pictures of the digesters under construction.
After doing all of that, the investor’s money went into several bank accounts, and Brewer spent it on himself, purchasing two 10-acre-plus plots of land, a 3,700 sq. ft. custom home and new Dodge Ram pickup trucks, authorities said.
Authorities shared that Brewer also kept his investors up to date on the non-existent construction with fake schedules, invoices, power generation reports and pictures.
Some investors received refunded money from Brewer, which he used from other investors' money. Once Brewer’s investors realized the fraud and obtained civil judgments against him, he then moved to Montana and assumed a new identity.
This case was the product of an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Social Security Administration Office of Inspector General.
Brewer was indicted on 24 counts, which included wire fraud, money laundering and identity theft.
