Man Who Promised to Revive Clenet Car Is Jailed on Probation Charge

The head of an investor group that had promised to revive the Clenet luxury car has been jailed without bail on charges of violating his probation.

Don Dyer of Newport Beach was arrested last week. His arraignment in Orange County Superior Court was postponed Thursday to give Dyer time to find an attorney.

According to county prosecutors, Dyer is suspected of bilking 384 investors of about $1.8 million. Dyer created a stir in January when Minter Mark, a group of Costa Mesa investors he headed, announced with great fanfare that it planned to revive production of the Clenet, a handmade specialty sports car whose manufacturer filed for bankruptcy in the early 1980s. Minter Mark generated much publicity early this year when it displayed a Clenet at a Costa Mesa hotel and tried to lure investors to back its production.

Minter Mark, which is now defunct, did not revive the car.

Dyer was arrested June 23 after a five-month investigation by the Orange County district attorney’s major fraud unit.

According to court papers, Dyer pleaded guilty in December, 1985, to making false financial statements. “He had a home equity-sharing program where people . . . who invested were supposed to be given grant deeds” to property, Deputy Dist. Atty. William Overtoom said in an interview Thursday, but “the victims never got the deeds.”

Dyer was placed on three years’ probation in that case. It is that probation he is now charged with violating. According to prosecutors, Dyer acted illegally by offering investors unregistered securities in two investment schemes: Quality Pay Phones, in which people paid to invest in telephone booths; and Columbia Equities, which Overtoom described as “all kinds of investment programs--gas, coal, mining and pay phones.”

“Essentially, investors were transferred from one investment scheme to the other,” including Clenet, Overtoom said.

Overtoom said his office “is still collecting evidence” concerning Quality Pay Phones, Columbia Equities and Clenet. “We’re still evaluating evidence and most likely” will add more charges in connection with those investment schemes, Overtoom said.

Dyer is scheduled to appear in Orange County Superior Court later this month.