Online, the deeds and ingenuity of Dennis Fountaine had no bounds.
One website listed the 67-year-old as a “technologist and entrepreneurial inventor" who has been “conceptualizing, researching, developing and licensing new products and technologies for 20+ years.”
Another webpage described the Los Gatos-based Fountaine as an innovation prodigy, having created a hot dog cooker made of two nails, a wood block and a stripped electric cord at the age of 6. He formed his first business, the site said, selling Red Hots to his Long Island neighbors.
Many of these claims are fake, contends the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office , which refers to Fountaine as a “phony tech investor” and a “serial fraudster.”
There is, however, one title Fountaine recently earned without debate: fugitive.
The district attorney announced Wednesday that Fountaine fled before his scheduled sentencing last month for fraud and is at large.
“The man pretended he was an inventor, but he won’t be able to pretend for long that he’s not a wanted fugitive,” Dist. Atty. Jeff Rosen said in a statement.
Fountaine pleaded guilty on May 20 to three felony counts of grand theft by fraud. He also admitted to the aggravated white-collar enhancement for defrauding four victims of more than $350,000 combined.
His sentencing was set for Aug. 5, but he failed to appear in Santa Clara County Superior Court.
The district attorney's office said the plea deal called for Fountaine to spend two years in county jail and 10 years on formal probation.
Fountaine ran a variety of scams, according to the district attorney’s office.
One case included a robot named “Homer” that was supposed to help distribute medication to the elderly and disabled, according to the district attorney. Fountaine never invented such a robot.
In Florida, he founded an internet development company named Screen Test, according to the district attorney.
The company claimed it could insert individuals into any type of visual medium. This would allow a user to act or sing in a visual clip as the original artist, actor or singer would.
Fountaine called his invention “Face Replacement Technology.” But he never produced it.
The district attorney accused Fountaine of bilking investors out of millions through his schemes.
Part of his success came from a network of fake companies and websites that falsely credited Fountaine with numerous successes, awards and inventions.
One website the district attorney’s office believes is phony listed Fountaine as a “Top 100 inventor.”
“I cannot say that any of the background information contained on these sites are accurate as they appear to be created by the defendant,” said Oanh Tran, deputy district attorney and member of the county’s Major Fraud Unit, which specializes in white-collar crime with losses over $100,000.
This was some of the same biographical information lenders would discover when researching whether to invest in Fountaine.
There were also websites with fake interviews that Fountaine supposedly gave.
The District Attorney’s Office is asking for anyone with information on his whereabouts to please contact investigator Justin DeOliveira at (408) 792-2420.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times .
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