One-time owner of solar company sentenced to 30 years in prison

Jeff Carpoff also owned a professional baseball team based in Martinez

The one-time owner of a Benicia-based solar company was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison Tuesday for his role in a billion-dollar Ponzi scheme that prosecutors call the biggest in the region’s history, authorities said.

Jeff Carpoff, 50, of Martinez pleaded guilty in January 2020 to charges of money laundering and conspiring to commit wire fraud, authorities said. His wife, Paulette Carpoff, 47, also has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States and money laundering.

Paulette Carpoff is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 16. She faces a maximum of 15 years in prison.

Jeff Carpoff was the owner of DC Solar, a company that manufactured mobile solar generator units — generators powered by solar panels mounted on trailers. Authorities said Carpoff promoted the generators’ ability to provide emergency lighting but lied to investors about the the market demand for them.

Authorities said Jeff Carpoff then took steps to cover up his lies — including a claim that the company’s stock of generators was more than twice as large as it actually was.

The sentence was announced by acting U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert of the Eastern District of California. In court records, federal prosecutors wrote that Jeff Carpoff’s actions deserved a “substantial sentence.”

“This fraud had no greater purpose than the gluttonous and thoughtless accumulation of wealth,” two assistant U.S. attorneys wrote in a sentencing memo. “(Jeff) Carpoff hoarded over 150 collector automobiles and other high-end vehicles. He bought properties in Lake Tahoe, Las Vegas, the Caribbean and Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, and paid for a subscription private jet service. He threw money at people and excelled at buying people’s loyalty when committing criminal acts.”

One example, prosecutors say, was using a “burner phone” to instruct an employee to travel to an Nevada warehouse and destroy evidence, including 1,000 vehicle identification number stickers on solar panel units.

Jeff Carpoff used money generated in his scheme to buy with his wife the Martinez Clippers, a now-defunct independent professional baseball team that played in 2019, authorities said. He also bought a sponsorship with a NASCAR race car team and a 1978 Pontiac Firebird previously owned by actor Burt Reynolds of “Smokey and the Bandit” fame, authorities said.

Overall, authorities said they have been able to recoup about $120 million in assets that will be put toward restituion for the victims of the fraud. An auction of some of the 148 luxury and collector’s vehicles that the couple bought has yielded more than $8 million, according to the release.

Jeff Carpoff’s attorneys painted a picture of a man who overcame adversity to achieve mass wealth, noting that he grew up in downtown Martinez in a unit overlooking a “biker bar” and worked menial jobs in his early years, like “cleaning caustic chemicals” or cleaning shelves of a local liquor store, where he also spent nights. They said after building his business he fell into a scheme he knew was dishonest to keep up with demand, and that the walls slowly crashed around him.

“With the stress of the potential criminal prosecution of himself and his family and the inability to rescue the business in Chapter 11 proceedings using all of his personal resources, he was taking physician- prescribed anxiety medication but still turned to excessive consumption of alcohol to try to sleep,” attorneys Malcolm Segal and Emily Doringer wrote in their sentencing memo. “That has not removed the feelings of guilt for his conduct, for which he has accepted responsibility.”

Five other people also have been charged in relation to the fraud scheme.

Joseph Bayliss, 46, of Martinez and Ronald Roach, 54, of Walnut Creek pleaded guilty to related charges associated with the Carpoff scheme in 2019, authorities said.

Bayliss is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 16 and Roach is slated to be sentenced Feb. 15.

Robert A. Karmann, 54, of Clayton and Ryan Guidry, 44, of Pleasant Hill also have pleaded guilty to related charges and await sentencing, authorities said. Alan Hansen, 50, of Vacaville, a former employee of a company that DC Solar purported to do business with, pleaded guilty to participating in the fraud scheme and accepting a $1 million bribe to sign a false contract, authorities said.

Karmann, Guidry and Hansen are slated to be sentenced Dec. 14.