Man gets 3 years in prison, ordered to pay $481 million

A judge sentenced a 46-year-old electrician Tuesday to a three-year prison term and ordered him to pay $481 million in restitution for his part in a solar company’s billion-dollar Ponzi scheme, authorities said.

According to documents referenced in a U.S. Justice Department statement, Martinez resident Joseph Bayliss was hired to pose as a licensed engineer who would inspect mobile solar generator units constructed by Benicia-based DC Solar Solutions.

Investors who bought the trailer-mounted units, promoted as able to provide emergency power to cellphone towers and lighting at sporting events, also received federal tax credits.

When the company’s sales model fell short and earlier investors’ need for returns loomed, DC Solar owner Jeff Carpoff stopped making the units but kept selling nonexistent ones to new investors. From 2016 to 2018, Bayliss earned about $1 million to falsify thousands of reports alleging new units’ inspection and testing, and to remove and replace vehicle identification numbers on the generators.

After authorities carried out search warrants at DC Solar in 2018 and at Carpoff’s home, Bayliss went to a Nevada warehouse and “scraped off approximately 200 replacement VIN stickers and destroyed at least 1,000 VIN stickers stored in boxes,” the Justice Department said.

After an FBI investigation, the IRS’ criminal investigation division and the Federal Insurance Corporation Office of Inspection General, five conspirators were charged with a range of offenses, including money laundering and conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

Carpoff, 50, of Martinez pleaded guilty in January 2020 to charges of money laundering and conspiring to commit wire fraud, authorities said. He was sentenced last week to 30 years in prison and ordered to pay $790.6 million in restitution.

His wife, Paulette Carpoff, 47, also has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States and money laundering.

She faces a maximum of 15 years in prison; her sentencing was set for March.

Robert A. Karmann, 54, of Clayton and Ryan Guidry, 44, of Pleasant Hill, 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.

All three face sentencing on Dec. 14.

Ronald Roach, 54, of Walnut Creek pleaded guilty to related charges associated with the Carpoff scheme in 2019 and faces a Feb. 15 sentencing, authorities said.