California man sentenced to more than 6 years in cow manure Ponzi scheme

A California man has been sentenced to six years and nine months in prison for duping investors by telling them he was using cow manure to create green energy, the U.S. Attorney’s office announced Monday.

From March 2014 through December 2019, Ray Brewer, 66, falsely told investors he was building machines called anaerobic digesters, which “use microorganisms to break down biodegradable material and turn it into methane,” in several California counties, the U.S. Attorney’s office said. 

Brewer told investors they would receive 66% of the profits from this process along with tax incentives. Throughout the scheme, he tricked his investors by sending forged lease agreements with dairy farms, false bank statements showing he had been given loans to build the digesters, forged contracts with multinational companies and even fake pictures showing the digestors being built.

“None of this was true,” the U.S. Attorney’s office said.

Brewer would also send fake updates on the progress of the construction, which included invoices, power generation reports, construction schedules and more pictures.

Over the course of the scheme, Brewer stole $8,750,000 from investors. After receiving the money, he transferred it to various bank accounts and used it for personal expenses, including Dodge Ram pickup trucks, two plots of land and a 3,700-square-foot custom-built house, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.

Brewer would occasionally refund an investor their money, but he used newly obtained money from other investors he was lying to in order to do so, the U.S. Attorney’s office said. When the investors discovered what was going on, Brewer fled to Montana and changed his identity.

After he was arrested, Brewer “claimed to have been in the Navy and recalled how he once saved several soldiers during a fire by blocking the flames with his body so that they could escape. Brewer has since admitted that these were both lies meant to curry favor with law enforcement.”