For six years and nine months, a California man will be behind bars for scamming investors with a bogus cow manure green energy project. He lured them with promises of tax breaks and profits from turning cow poop into clean energy.

Ray Brewer, 66, of Porterville, lied to his investors that he was constructing devices to convert cow dung into green energy at dairies in four California counties and Idaho, prosecutors said.

Brewer lured his investors with 66 per cent of net profits and tax incentives, but it was a $8.75 million scam. He spent the money on a lavish lifestyle, lands, a house and Dodge Ram trucks.

He tricked his investors by showing them dairy farms where he said he would build digesters. He also sent them fake documents and images of the machines.

He kept up the lie with false updates and refunded some investors with other investors’ money, prosecutors said.

Some investors sued Brewer when they uncovered the scam, but he escaped to Sheridan, Montana, and got a new identity.