Laguna Beach Man Sentenced In $7.4 Million Fraud Case

LAGUNA BEACH, CA — A 63-year-old Laguna Beach man was sentenced to 6 and a half years in federal prison Friday for stealing almost $7.4 million from victims in a series of investment fraud schemes.

Peter Henrich Conrad Reinert was also ordered to pay $7.3 million in restitution, according to Thom Mrozek of the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Reinert pleaded guilty in March to a count of wire fraud, admitting he had run three separate scams.

In one of the schemes he said he was developing a product that could boost gas mileage up to 150 miles per gallon. Another scam involved anti- counterfeiting technology for use on state-issued IDs. The third scheme involved development of technology to convert used tires to oil.

Victims hailed from around the country and included farmers in Missouri, Mrozek said.

Reinert pitched himself to investors as a Secret Service agent and an intelligence officer in the U.S. Marine Corps.

Prosecutors said it was "ironic" that he claimed to be with the Secret Service when it was that agency that investigated him in the late 1990s for prior federal crimes involving identity theft.

"He makes up stories about who he is to get what he wants," U.S. District Judge Josephine Staton said at the sentencing, according to Mrozek.

Reinert also told investigators that Tesla and General Electric showed interested in one of the phony products he pitched through Irvine-based Fazer Technologies. He also falsely claimed Tesla stole Fazer's technology.

Reinert also fibbed about his German citizenship to officials preparing a sentencing report for the judge, who said the defendant's claim of U.S. citizenship was "riddled with more holes than Swiss cheese," according to Mrozek.

Reinert scammed investors from 2010 through April 2015, pocketing their money for various expenses such as luxury automobiles, sales commissions, iTunes purchases and wire transfers to an account in Poland.

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