A Texas man gets five years for his part in defrauding investors to sink money into a biodiesel plant that never existed. The Houston Press reports that Kenneth Paul Lawrence was convicted on two charges for his role in raising money for a purported biodiesel plant and sentenced to five years for money laundering.

According to the [Texas State] Securities Board, “Lawrence was the proposed operator of the biodiesel plant, and received money from Greenway Energy Partners LLC, the managing partner of the energy project. Greenway raised more than $800,000 through the fraudulent sale of investments, and Lawrence received $265,000 of that total.”

The board also pointed out that “in 2003, the Texas Securities Commissioner entered an agreed cease and desist order that fined Lawrence for selling unregistered oil and gas securities, and ordered him to stop selling the securities. Lawrence has never been registered in Texas to sell securities.”

Lawrence also received a probated ten-year sentence for engaging in organized criminal activity.