California
Man gets prison for phony cow manure-to-green energy scheme
FRESNO, Calif. (AP) — A California man is going to prison for running a cow dung-to-green energy scheme that authorities say was a load of manure.
Ray Brewer, 66, of Porterville was sentenced Monday to six years and nine months in federal prison in a years-long scam that bilked investors out of $8.75 million, according to a statement from the U.S. attorney’s office.
Brewer ran a scheme from 2014 through 2019 in which he claimed to be building anaerobic digesters at dairies in California’s Fresno, Kern, Kings and Tulare counties and in Idaho, prosecutors said.
Anaerobic digesters “use microorganisms to break down biodegradable material and turn it into methane” that can be sold and that also provide the producers with renewable energy credits for producing green energy, the statement said.
Brewer told investors he would turn cow manure into methane while they would receive 66% of net profits and tax incentives, federal prosecutors said.
Brewer took investors on tours of dairies where he allegedly planned to build the digesters and claimed to have raised millions of dollars for the work. He sent them forged lease agreements with dairy owners, faked loan agreements with banks, phony contracts with multinational companies and bogus pictures of the machines under construction, prosecutors said.
The investors’ money went into several bank accounts, and Brewer spent it on himself, buying up land, a custom home and new Dodge Ram pickup trucks, authorities said.
He also kept his investors up to date on the non-existent construction with fake schedules, invoices, power generation reports and pictures, authorities said.
Brewer also refunded money to some investors, using money obtained from other investors.
When investors found out they had been bilked, some won lawsuits against him. But Brewer moved to Sheridan, Montana, and assumed a new identity before he was finally arrested, the U.S. attorney’s office said.
California
Woman gets 2 years in federal prison for trying to firebomb bank
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A woman who tried to firebomb a Southern California bank because she was furious at waiting in line was sentenced Tuesday to two years in federal prison.
Teranee Millet, 35, of Gardena was sentenced after pleading guilty in March to unlawful possession of a firearm and destructive device, the U.S. attorney’s office said in a statement.
Millet entered a Bank of America branch in the Los Angeles suburb of Torrance in September 2021. She spoke to the bank manager and demanded to be helped by another teller “because she believed she had been waiting in line for too long,” the statement said.
Told no other tellers were available, Millet swore and threatened to blow up the bank, left, then returned a few minutes later with a Molotov cocktail that she hurled into the middle of the bank, prosecutors said.
A customer put out the fire, but Millet left before law enforcement arrived after threatening another customer and throwing a glass bottle at that person’s truck in the parking lot, authorities said. No one was injured.
About two months later, Millet was arrested in Georgia after crashing a stolen U-Haul van during a law enforcement chase, the U.S. attorney’s office said, citing court documents.
Inside the van, authorities found glass bottles with tissue paper inserted in them, a can of lighter fluid and a can of gasoline, according to court documents.
Alabama
Extortion trial delayed for man in Natalee Holloway’s disappearance
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — A U.S. judge on Tuesday agreed to delay Joran Van der Sloot’s extortion trial until the fall to give him more time to prepare a defense or decide if he wants to enter a guilty plea.
Van der Sloot’s attorney Kevin Butler had asked for the continuance from the July 31 trial docket to give more time to “review the discovery, investigate this case, and prepare for trial.” Prosecutors agreed to the change.
Van der Sloot, often considered the chief suspect in Natalee Holloway’s 2005 disappearance in Aruba, faces federal charges that he tried to extort money from the missing teen’s mother in exchange for revealing where to find her daughter’s remains. He was extradited from Peru this month to face trial in Alabama, Holloway’s home state.
“Given the defendant’s need to adequately prepare his defense and to make an informed decision on whether to enter a guilty plea or proceed to trial, the court finds that the ends of justice served by extending the pretrial deadlines and granting a continuance outweigh the best interest of the public and the defendant in a speedy trial,” U.S. Magistrate Gray Borden wrote. Borden said the extension would last until Oct. 2, but said the exact trial date would be set later by the presiding judge.
Holloway went missing during a high school graduation trip with classmates and was last seen leaving a bar with van der Sloot, a student at an international school on the island where he grew up. Her remains have never been found. No one has been charged in her disappearance.
U.S. prosecutors said that in 2010, van der Sloot sought money from Beth Holloway to disclose the location of her daughter’s body. A grand jury indicted him that year. He has initially plead not guilty to the charges.
Van der Sloot earlier this month was brought shackled into an Alabama courtroom to be arraigned on the federal charges as Holloway’s parents watched.
