A federal jury found Colorado businessman William Orr guilty Thursday of 22 criminal counts that involved defrauding investors and the U.S. government.

Orr was founder, president and a board member of Octane International Ltd., a company he created purportedly to fund and develop an alternative-fuel additive. He was convicted of misrepresenting to investors — who, in total, gave him more than $500,000 — the results of scientific testing regarding the additive and that companies such as Exxon and Enron were interested in making substantial investments.

He also used those misrepresentations to obtain a $3.6 million federal grant from the Environmental Protection Agency six years ago. The money for the grant was provided in a congressional earmark. A then-House Appropriations Committee staffer slipped the earmark into a conference report after the bill passed, according to a federal official with knowledge of the government's case. Each of Orr's convictions could result in federal prison time. Some counts permit sentencing of up to 20 years.

Orr created the National Alternative Fuels Foundation, a nonprofit, to use the grant money. One member of his board of directors was former Republican Rep. and now-U.S. Senate candidate Bob Schaffer, who served as an unpaid board member from October 2004 through March 2005. His time there narrowly overlapped with Orr's scheme, which went from late 2000 to December 2004.

Schaffer has denied any knowledge of fraud to receive the earmark and said he left the nonprofit when he found out Orr was under investigation.