By: Ian MacDougall, Associated Press
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP).- As his trial drew to a close, a former Rhode Island art dealer said Friday that witnesses lied to the jury in claiming he duped them in what prosecutors call a $6 million con. Rocco DeSimone says his former business partners and investors who testified against him have falsely portrayed him as a con man who systematically defrauded them by lying about access to deep-pocketed business connections. Witnesses have testified that DeSimone solicited investments in inventions by falsely claiming brand-name companies had offered to buy them for millions of dollars. In one case, witnesses say, DeSimone falsely claimed that companies such as Fidelity Investments and Raytheon Corp. had offered to buy an invention called the Drink Stik, a device that connects