Scammer Sentenced to Prison for Running $9 Million Cow Manure Ponzi Scheme Raymond Brewer said he was building machines that could convert cow manure into renewable energy. He was full of it.
By Dan Bova Edited by Jessica Thomas
For five years, 66-year-old Porterville, Calif. resident Raymond Holcomb Brewer convinced investors that he ran a company that used anaerobic digestion equipment to convert cow manure into renewable natural gas.
But turns out the cow patty business was a real crock of…well, you know.
This week, Brewer was sentenced to more than six years in prison for running an $8.75 million Ponzi scheme.
Related: How American Quack John R. Brinkley Got Rich Performing the World's Weirdest Surgery
According to a statement released by the United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of California, his very dirty dealings involved telling investors that his company was building industrial plants that would generate millions in revenue and promising backers 66% of all net profits plus tax incentives.
It was a bunch of bull, and the U.S. Attorney's office broke it all down:
- Brewer took investors on tours of dairies where he pretended he was going to set up shop and sent them forged lease agreements.
- He altered bank agreements to make it look like he secured millions of dollars in loans.
- He forged contracts with companies that were supposedly lined up to buy the gas.
- He sent investors fake photos of the plants and machinery and included bogus construction schedules, invoices for building costs, and the like.
What he did with the investors' money was a lot less friendly to the planet and much more friendly to his wallet. He transferred the funds to multiple bank accounts and bought two 10-acre plots of land, a 3,700-square-foot custom home and new Dodge Ram pickup trucks.
Related: 'The Most Hated Man in America' Where Is Pharma Bro Martin Shkreli Now?
Savvy investors began to think something about this deal stunk in 2019. And when they asked for their money back, Brewer turned to the age-old method of using new investor money to pay the old ones back. And like a backed-up sewer, Brewer quickly had a mess on his hands no amount of paper towels could handle. So he did what any honorable person would do: He ran to Montana and assumed a new identity.
The ruse didn't last, and in 2020, he was scooped up by authorities. According to the U.S. Attorney's statement, "Upon his arrest, Brewer told officers that they had the wrong man. 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. Brewer has since admitted that these were both lies meant to curry favor with law enforcement."
"He is a fraudster through and through," Phillip A. Talbert, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of California, wrote, "and needs to be punished harshly to ensure both specific and general deterrence."
Brewer was sentenced to six years and nine months in prison for his cow-crud scheme and was ordered to pay $8.75 million to defrauded investors. Something tells us that if they are approached by any other renewable energy entrepreneurs, they'll pass on the gas.
Related: Did the FBI Bust or Botch a Massive Chicago Stock Scam?
