VENTURA : Man Sent to Prison for 1990 Fraud Case

A former Ventura man who sold heat pumps that he said would extract free electricity from the air was sent to prison Friday, almost three years after he was convicted of defrauding customers.

After exhausting his appeals, Dennis Merle Lee, 47, was ordered into custody to begin serving a sentence of three years, four months. Superior Court Judge Allan L. Steele denied Lee’s request for a postponement so he could continue to present seminars and lectures across the country through the end of March.

Lee pleaded guilty in May, 1990, to eight felony violations of a state law designed to protect consumers from investing huge sums of money in questionable schemes. In exchange for the guilty plea, prosecutors dismissed 46 theft charges involving eight customers.

Authorities said Lee may have sold 2,000 heat pump kits to customers, each of whom paid between $2,000 and $5,000 during a one-year period before Lee’s arrest in 1988.

Lee’s criminal history dates back to at least 1975, when he was convicted of passing bad checks and obtaining money by false pretenses, according to court records.

He also was enjoined in a civil lawsuit from making false claims while selling the electricity kits in the state of Washington.

Prosecutors say Lee moved his business after he was caught and changed his sales pitch slightly but still made false claims.

Lee, who had a large following of believers while being prosecuted in Ventura County, appeared in court with five supporters Friday.

One of his appellate attorneys, Bruce Fein of Virginia, said Lee continued to operate his business, CONSERVE, out of New Jersey while he was appealing his conviction.

Lee declined to be interviewed at court Friday.