Well, S#!T, it’s not just cattle that are falling victim to disappearing acts during Ponzi-style scheming — it’s manure too, or manure digesters, that is.
This week, U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert said that Ray Brewer, 66, of Porterville and Sheridan, Montana, was sentenced for running a multimillion-dollar fraud scheme where he purported to turn cow manure into green energy.
According to court records, Brewer was accused of stealing $8,750,000 from investors between March 2014 and December 2019 to build anaerobic digestors at dairy farms in California and Idaho.
Anaerobic digesters are large machines that use microorganisms to break down biodegradable material, turning it into methane, which is then sold on the open market as green energy. The methane also produces Renewable Energy Credits, which represent the property right to the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions achieved through green energy creation.
RECs are commonly purchased by companies to meet green energy regulatory, contractual, and initiative requirements or commitments. Brewer’s investors were supposed to receive 66 percent of all net profits as well as tax incentives.
Needless to say, the investors didn’t receive what they bargained for.
Court documents indicate that throughout the five years, Brewer took investors on tours of dairies where he was going to build the digesters, submitting lease agreements to the dairy’s owners. If that wasn’t enough, Brewer reportedly sent investors agreements with banks showing millions in loans taken out to build the digestors — loans that never existed.
If that wasn’t enough, Brewer is also said to have forged contracts with multinational companies showing revenue streams.
Any doubt his investors may have had was calmed by fake photos sent out of digesters under construction. But, the investor’s money was quickly transferred to other bank accounts. Brewer is accused of opening in the names of different family members and an alias.
Funds were concealed through false descriptions for transfers, concealing the location, source, ownership, and control of the money that Brewer procured before he used it for personal expenditures.
According to Talbert, Brewer allegedly told investors that the digesters were progressing, sending them fake documents, construction schedules, invoices, power generation reports, RECs, and photos to keep investors satisfied.
In some instances, Talbert said that Brewer was purported to have refunded investors all or some of their money. The refunds, however, came from newly received money from other investors who had not authorized Brewer to use their money in this way.
When Brewer’s investors realized the fraud and obtained civil judgments against him, he moved to Montana and assumed a new identity.
Upon his arrest, Brewer told officers that they had the wrong man. Sure, bud.
He also 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. Yet there was no confirmation such an event happened.
Brewer has since admitted that these were both lies, the latter meant to curry favor with law enforcement.
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.
»Related: Ky. ghost cattle scheme victims should file Dealer Trust claims
