A Santa Clara County man convicted of complicated fraud schemes fled his sentencing and is now a wanted fugitive, according to the District Attorney’s Office on Wednesday.
Dennis Fountaine, 67, is a “phony tech inventor” who stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from at least four victims, according to District Attorney Jeff Rosen.
According to prosecutors, Fountaine has a history of civil judgments against him for breach of contract and fraud in California and Florida. He scammed his money by asking for loans to fund his “inventions.”
“He creates sham companies and websites touting these inventions,” said District Attorney Rosen.
Fountaine pretended to invent a robot named “Homer” that could dispense medication for elderly and disabled people, prosecutors said.
He generated fake publicity for his inventions by setting up bogus websites with articles and interviews he created to keep the con going.
In Florida, he created a company named Screen Test, which claimed to be able to insert individuals into any type of visual medium, allowing those individuals to “act” or “sing” in a clip as the original actor or singer. He termed this technology, “Face Replacement Technology.” Fountaine used this false representation to convince the victims to loan him millions of dollars.
He was convicted in May of three felony counts of grand theft by fraud with a white-collar enhancement for defrauding four people of over $350,000.
“He has not paid back these loans and continues to defraud unwitting victims,” said Rosen. “His last suspected attempts to dupe investors dated to earlier this summer, a month after his conviction.”
Fountaine was set to be sentenced in Santa Clara County on Aug. 5 but he never showed up.
Prosecutors are asking for anyone who has information on his whereabouts to please contact Investigator Justin DeOliveira at (408) 792-2420.
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