A mechanic in California, Jeff Carpoforo, started a business selling solar panels after failing in other ventures. He developed a plan to secure solar panels on trucks and trailers to prevent theft. To gain technical knowledge, he collaborated with his brother-in-law, a mechanic, and created a mobile solar generator. Despite lacking expertise in marketing and sales, Jeff managed to convince investors, including Warren Buffett, to invest in his company, DC Solar. Through fraudulent tactics, including fake documents and data, Jeff raised millions of dollars from investors. However, the scheme eventually collapsed, and Jeff was arrested and sentenced to prison.
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00:00A mechanic who repairs cars scammed the world's richest investors of 1 billion U.S. dollars,
00:05which is about 8,500 crores.
00:09He did this openly while living in a country like America.
00:12He neither took a loan and ran away, nor did he do any bank fraud, rather he earned all
00:17this money by selling solar panels.
00:20His planning was so dangerous that even the world's big industrialists got trapped in
00:24his trap, but what did he do?
00:27Who was that person who trapped investors like Buffett in his trap?
00:31And above all, how did his secret come out?
00:35Once again, welcome to World Stories.
00:3736-year-old Jeff Karpover of California started a business in which both of them used to earn
00:42a living for their children as mechanics.
00:46But after some time, his business stopped working and now it was difficult for them
00:50to feed their children.
00:52It had become difficult.
00:54Jeff was obsessed with wealth.
00:56So he kept doing something or the other to fulfill his dream.
01:00But failure was always his destiny.
01:03When his financial condition became very bad, he started selling drugs so that he could
01:07feed his children.
01:09Slowly, he started getting into debt.
01:12It became difficult to pay the house rent and other bills.
01:17Selling drugs did not seem like a good option to him.
01:20So he started trying to find a job.
01:23Finally, he got a job as a solar panel salesman.
01:27He used to hold meetings with people all day to sell solar panels and because of this,
01:31he got a chance to know people's feedback.
01:34After some time, he found out that people are interested in buying real life panels
01:39but they are afraid that their solar panels may get stolen.
01:42Jeff Karpover could make a lot of money by eliminating fear because now he had a solid
01:47idea.
01:48He thought why not do something that can keep people's solar panels safe.
01:53If these panels are fixed on a truck or trailer and after using them for the whole day, those
01:57trucks are taken to a safe place at night, then this can be a good option.
02:02The plan was very good, but there was one problem that Jeff Karpover did not have the
02:06technical knowledge to make this plan successful.
02:10So he contacted his brother-in-law who was a mechanic.
02:14After some time of hard work, both of them prepared a mobile solar generator.
02:18It was made on a frame with tires attached below it and solar panels were fixed on this
02:23frame.
02:24After using the solar panels, they could be locked again and taken to a safe place.
02:29Secondly, portable diesel generators were also available in the market and that too
02:34was using Jeff Karpover Energy.
02:37The market for portable generators was $3 billion US dollar.
02:42Neither Jeff nor his brother-in-law had any idea how to compete in this market or how
02:46to convert people from diesel generators to solar generators.
02:51But luck was kind to them.
02:53A customer named Watson used to come to their car repair shop.
02:57He was a software professional himself.
03:00When he came to know about Jeff's invention, he offered to form a company.
03:04The company was named DC Solar and Watson and his team also joined it who started handling
03:09the marketing department.
03:12Instead of targeting the general public first, they thought of doing something bigger.
03:16They first targeted Hollywood because at that time diesel generators were used on movie
03:20sets which created a lot of noise and in this condition, DC Solar Company's mobile solar
03:26generators could be a good option.
03:29Their plan was succeeding and their solar generators were used on the sets of many big
03:33films.
03:35Panels started being used in 2009.
03:38The famous American actor and film producer started sharing pictures of these solar panels
03:43with his businessmen and started building his own network.
03:47He did not leave any public gathering without talking about his company and soon Jeff joined
03:51hands with the world famous law firm Nixon Peabody.
03:55During this time, the American Congress passed a law in which the tax credit on the value
04:00of investment was tripled.
04:02Which means that any business that buys solar panels for itself will get its money back
04:07on 30%, that is, if any company invests in buying solar technology, the government will
04:13pay 30% of it.
04:15This was a double profit for the companies.
04:18With solar panels, they could save the cost of electricity and also get 30% from the government.
04:24Along with this amazing offer from the government, Jeff's company DC Solar also brought a new
04:30package in the market which said that now any company can buy solar panels from them
04:34by paying an advance of only 30% and the remaining 70% can be paid in installments.
04:40DC Solar's offer was so amazing that no one could refuse it because suppose there
04:45are solar panels worth 1 Indian rupee lakh.
04:48By paying 10% the panels could be booked from DC Solar and the same 30% will be returned
04:53by the government in the form of cash back.
04:57That is, without spending any money, people could install mobile solar panels and the
05:01remaining 70% had to be paid to DC Solar in installments which they could easily pay
05:06by saving electricity bills.
05:09This was a win-win situation due to which DC Solar's network started growing rapidly.
05:15In 2011, Jeff was present in the stadium to watch a baseball match when suddenly he got
05:21a message that the famous paint company Sherwin-Williams had purchased 192 mobile solar generators.
05:28This was Jeff's biggest order, which was worth $29 million.
05:33Apart from this, an American bank was working on tax reduction and job creation and wanted
05:37to work with DC Solar.
05:40Jeff prepared fake documents and through fake statistics convinced the American bank that
05:44the demand for solar generators was increasing, which made the American bank the first financial
05:50partner of DC Solar.
05:52The American bank planned to buy solar generators from DC Solar in the next few years and lease
05:58them to people, which would reduce the pressure of tax and electricity bills on people.
06:04Till then everything was going well and then something started going wrong.
06:08The solar generators installed on movie sets started having problems and they would stop
06:13working again and again and this was bound to happen because Jeff and his brother-in-law
06:17made them without any knowledge.
06:20Jeff was very surprised that he often started calling for information.
06:24The paint company Sherwin-Williams was also preparing the panels, but due to slow speed
06:29only the first row of panels were ready and the deadline had passed.
06:34To cheat, the last row of panels were joined with the help of nut bolts only, whereas in
06:38reality the last row of panels were not working.
06:42But Jeff was busy with his pleasures.
06:44He also bought a new house and a new car.
06:48When people did not get orders on time, no company was ready to take these generators
06:52on lease for five to ten years and without long leases DC Solar could not pay returns
06:57and lease payments to its old investors.
07:00But Jeff and his team made another plan.
07:03They secretly made a new scheme that the lease payment of new buyers will be used to give
07:07returns to old investors and for this they will make a new plan.
07:12Apart from this, declaring himself as a solar company, he was also taking millions of dollars
07:17from the government treasury in the form of tax credits.
07:21That is, DC Solar was taking the tax money of the American people through fake documents
07:26and data.
07:27Now it was time to make this scheme practical.
07:31For this, Jeff was looking for new investors so that money could be taken from the new
07:35investors and given to the old ones.
07:38He would show fake data to every investor to make it appear that generators are being
07:42sold in large numbers and for this work.
07:45He would send generators from one place to another without any reason so that investors
07:50would think that the demand for generators is very high and some delivery is happening
07:54all the time.
07:56In this way, investors would consider this work profitable and would be ready to invest
08:00in it.
08:02By doing such acts, Jeff also cheated the Shell company and grabbed $76 million from
08:07them.
08:08In 2014, IRS Internal when the Revenue Service tried to investigate the company, DC Solar's
08:16legal representative convinced the IRS in every way and saved DC Solar.
08:21The entire company had become a scammer to convince the investors.
08:26In reality, the generators were not being sold and the company was not receiving cash
08:30from the public, but money was being taken from the investors continuously.
08:35Jeff was looking for more big investors.
08:38It was his luck that Valley National Bank wanted to buy solar equipment worth $7.6 million
08:44and had asked for a list of such companies that provide solar generators on lease or
08:48rent.
08:49DC Solar Company's name was also in that list, about which it was written that they
08:54rent out 80% of their generators, whereas in reality this number was only 5.
09:00Valley National Bank also became a victim of this fraud.
09:03Similarly, Jeff also brought the Corporator Insurance Company under his clutches.
09:09This company is a branch of Berkshire Hathaway whose owner Warren Buffet is counted among
09:13the richest people in the world, but the question arises here that how did such a big company
09:18get cheated?
09:19For this also Jeff acted very cleverly.
09:22He bribed an employee of America's big telecommunication company T-Mobile and got him to sign a fake
09:28document in which it was said that T-Mobile is taking 1,000 generators on lease from DC
09:34Solar for the next 10 years and when you have companies like T-Mobile in your portfolio
09:38then it becomes easy for other companies to trust.
09:42Gao also signed a 3-year agreement in which 8,000 generators were to be purchased and
09:47its cost was $1.2 billion.
09:50Gao also benefited from this deal initially because he was saving tax of 30% i.e. $377
09:57million but actually his money was being stolen.
10:01It was being used to give returns and lease payments to old investors.
10:06While Jeff's extravagance was at its peak at this time.
10:09He had bought countless villas, more than 100 cars and a private jet.
10:14Now DC Solar's name has even reached NASK.
10:18DC Solar's sponsorships also started appearing on cars meaning no one was able to stop Jeff.
10:25But now nature started tightening Jeff's rope.
10:28One of DC Solar's own employees exposed the company due to which the Security Exchange
10:33Commission and Federal Bureau of Investigation started investigating the matter and Jeff was
10:38arrested when the fraud was proved.
10:41The investigation revealed that Jeff was running a Ponzi scheme under the guise of selling
10:45carp for generators.
10:48Meaning he was taking money from new investors and giving it to old ones.
10:53This type of Ponzi schemes run only for the first few years.
10:57But as only when the inflow of new investors decreases then the real problem begins and
11:01this conditioned the vibration start.
11:04Either the company runs away overnight or the company's owner is caught.
11:09Jeff Karpover ran a fraud scheme.
11:12He had made a total of 177,000 solar generators but only on paper and investors were shown
11:18fake GPS trackers to show that see.
11:21So many of our solar generators are running in the market.
11:25Whereas in the investigation it was found that those GPS trackers were not actually
11:29on the generators but were buried in the ground at different locations.
11:34November 9th, 2021 Jeff Karpover was sent to jail.
11:39Along with him, his wife and five other people were also sentenced for being associated with
11:43this scheme.
11:45It is expected that you will like and share this video a lot.
11:49Thank you very much for your loving comments.
11:52See you in the next great video.