Laguna Beach man pleads guilty in schemes that swindled victims out of $6.8 million

A Laguna Beach man pleaded guilty to a federal wire fraud charge based on allegations that he stole $6.8 million from victims nationwide in three investment schemes over four years.

Under a plea agreement signed March 13, Peter Heinrich Conrad Reinert, 63, agreed to forfeit about $300,000 the FBI seized from him in 2015, along with two Mercedes-Benzes.

He is expected to be sentenced June 8 in federal court in Santa Ana. He faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison.

In one of the schemes, prosecutors said, Reinert — who operated an Irvine-based company called Fazer Technologies — claimed he was developing a product that could increase gas mileage for any car up to 150 miles per gallon.

In another, Reinert claimed another of his companies, Global Encryption Imaging Corp., was developing anti-counterfeiting technology to be used on state-issued identification documents, prosecutors said.

In the third scheme, Reinert told victims that another company he ran, Income from Waste Corp., was developing technology to convert used tires into oil, authorities said.

Prosecutors said Reinert pretended to be a Marine and a Secret Service agent as part of the various schemes. He also told victims that Tesla and General Electric were interested in his products and that Tesla had stolen his technology to increase mileage.

“Through various false claims, Reinert induced victims to send him approximately $6.8 million,” the U.S. attorney’s office stated in a news release. “The victims from these schemes came from around the nation and included farmers from Missouri.”

Instead of spending the money to develop the technologies, as promised, authorities said Reinert used it for personal expenses, luxury cars, sales commissions, purchases at Apple’s iTunes store and wire transfers to an account in Poland.

hannah.fry@latimes.com

Twitter: @HannahFryTCN