A mechanic who repairs cars duped the world’s richest investors of 1 billion US dollars which is about 8500 crores. He did this openly in a country like America. He did not dare to do this openly in a country like America. He did not take any loans and ran away. He did not commit any fraud in any bank. He got all this money by selling solar panels. His planning was so dangerous that even the biggest industrialists in the world got trapped in his trap.
But what did he do?
Who was that person who even trapped investors like Buffett in his trap?
Early Life:
Jeff Carpofor started a car repair business in which both of them worked as mechanics to earn a living for their children but after some time their business failed and now it became difficult for them to feed their children Jeff was obsessed with wealth so he kept doing something or the other every time to fulfill his dream but failure always remained his fate.
When his financial condition became very bad, he started selling drugs so that he could feed his children and gradually he started getting into debt for house rent and other things It became difficult to pay the bills, and selling drugs did not seem like a good option to do all this so he started looking for a job and finally got a job as a solar panel salesman.
He would spend meetings with people all day to sell solar panels and this way he would get a chance to know people’s feedback. After a very long time, he was interested in buying Real-life panels but he was afraid that his panels might get stolen.
Got Idea Of DC Solar Jeff Carpofor could make a lot of money by eliminating the fear because now he had a solid idea he thought why not do something This should be done to make people’s solar panels safe. If these panels are fixed on a truck or trailer and after using them the whole day, those trucks are taken to a safe place at night then this can be a good option.
The plan was very good but there was one problem Jeff means he did not have the technical knowledge to make this plan successful. So he contacted his brother-in-law who was a mechanic. After a lot of hard work, both of them prepared a mobile solar generator.
It was a frame with tires attached underneath and this was a mobile solar generator. Solar panels were fixed on the frame After using the solar panels they could be locked again and kept in a safe place to cross the second life.
Portable diesel generators were also available in the market and Jeff was using Carpophor Energy the market for portable generators was 3 billion US dollars. Jeff had no idea how to compete in this market or how to convert people from diesel generators to solar generators neither Jeff nor his brother-in-law had any idea about this but luck was kind to him when his car repair shop had a customer named Watson who himself was a software professional.
Founding of DC SOLAR:
When Jeff came to know about his invention, he offered to form a company. The company was named DC Solar and Watson and his team also joined it and started handling the marketing public first, he thought of doing something bigger.
He first targeted Hollywood because at that time diesel generators were used on movie sets which made a lot of noise and this made it difficult to create a lot of noise in this condition, mobile solar generators of DC Solar Company could be a good option.
Their plan was succeeding and their solar panels started being used on the sets of many big films. In 2009, the famous American actor and film producer started sharing pictures of these solar panels with his business and started creating his network.
Rise the DC Solar:
He did not go without telling about his company in public gatherings and soon Jeff shook hands with the world-famous law firm Nixon P. Body. During this time, the American Congress passed a law that increased the tax credit on the value of investments.
The price was increased three times which meant that any business that buys solar panels for itself would get its money back at 30% i.e. if any company invests in buying solar technology, the government will pay 30% of it.
This was a double profit for the companies with solar panels, they could save the cost of electricity and also get 30% from the government with this amazing offer, Jeff’s company DC Solar brought a new package to the market which it was said that now any company can buy solar panels from them by paying an advance of only 30% and the remaining 70% can be paid in installments onwards.
DC Solar’s offer was so exhilarating that no one could refuse it because suppose there are solar panels worth ₹1 lakh of which by paying 30%, the panels could be booked from DC Solar and the same 30% would be refunded by the government in the form of cash back i.e. without spending any money, people could install mobile solar panels and the remaining 70% would have to be paid to DC Solar in the electricity bill.
This was a win-win situation due to which the network of DC Solar started growing rapidly. In 2011, Jeff went to a stadium to watch a baseball match to watch a baseball match. He was present when he suddenly got a message that the famous paint company Sherwin Williams had ordered 192 mobile solar generators. This was Jeff’s biggest order worth $29 million. Apart from this, an American bank was working on tax reduction and job creation. Jeff wanted to work with DC Solar. Jeff prepared fake documents and gave fake statistics to the American bank. Jeff convinced the American bank that there was a huge demand for solar generators. Jeff convinced the American bank that there was a huge demand for solar generators. Jeff convinced the American bank that there was a huge demand for solar generators. Jeff convinced the American bank that there was a huge demand for solar generators. Jeff convinced the American bank that there was a huge demand for solar generators. Jeff convinced the American bank that there was a huge demand for solar generators.
Starting Downfall DC Solar:
Jeff convinced the American bank that there was a huge demand for solar generators. Jeff convinced the American bank that he would make solar generators for DC Solar in the next few years I would buy solar generators from DC Solar and lease them to people which would reduce the burden of taxes and electricity bills
Everything was going well till then and anything Enermek started getting into trouble when the solar generators installed on movie sets started to have problems and would shut down frequently this was bound to happen because Jeff and his brother-in-law had built them without any knowledge and the surprising thing was that he often started taking information from the paint company Sherwin Preparation of Williams’ panels was also going on But due to slow speed, only the first row of panels was ready and the deadline had passed.
To deceive, the last panels were joined only with the help of nuts and bolts In reality the last row of panels was not working, Jeff was busy with his pleasures, he bought a new house and a new car too. When people did not get orders on time, no the company was ready to take these generators on lease for 5 to 10 years and without long leases, DC Solar cannot pay its returns and lease payments to its old investors.
Starting Scamming To Investor:
Jeff and his team made another plan They secretly made a new scheme that the lease payments of new buyers would be used to give returns to old investors and besides this, by declaring itself as a solar company were also taking millions of dollars in tax credit from the government treasury that is, through fake documents and data the tax money of the American people was also being taken by DC Solar.
Now it was the turn to make this scheme practical. For this, Jeff was looking for new investors so that money could be taken from new investors and given to the old ones by showing fake data to every investor This would make it appear that generators were being sold in large numbers, and for this purpose, he would send generators from one place to another without any reason so that investors would think that the demand for generators was very high and every time some delivery was being made.
In this way, investors would consider this business profitable and get ready to invest in it. By doing such things Jeff also cheated a shell company and swindled 76 million dollars from them in 2014 The Internal Revenue Service tried to investigate the company but DC Solar’s legal representative convinced the IRS in every way.
The entire DC Solar company was saved to reassure investors that the scam had been generators were not being sold and cash was not coming into the company from the public but money was being taken from investors continuously.
Jeff was looking for more investors. His luck was that Valley National Bank wanted to buy solar equipment worth $7.6 million and they had asked for a list of such companies that provide solar generators on lease or rent and in that list DC Solar company’s name was also there about which it was written that it was selling generators on its 800 They rent out whereas, in reality, this number was only 5%.
Valley National Bank also fell prey to this fraud. In the same way, Jeff also trapped the Insurance company in his trap. This company is a branch of Burke Sher Hathaway. Whose owner is Warren Buffet, who is included in the list of the richest people in the world.
Time to Arrest:
But now nature started tightening Jeff’s rope. One of DC Solar’s employees exposed the company. Security Exchange Commission and Federal the Bureau of Investigation started investigating the case. When the fraud was proven, Jeff was arrested.
The investigation revealed that Jeff was running a Ponzi scheme under the guise of selling Carpophor generators. The company was being duped by new investors. He was taking money from and giving it to the old ones This type of Ponzi scheme lasts only for the first few years but as soon as new investors start coming less than the real problem begins in this condition the company runs away overnight or the company owners are caught Jeff.
They ran a cartel scheme of Carpofor total of 177000 solar generators were made but only on paper and investors were shown fake GPS trackers to see so many of our solar generators were running in the market whereas during investigation it was found that those GPS trackers were not actually on the generator Rather at different locations. They were buried in the ground on 9th November 2021 Jeff Carpophor Along with him, his wife was sent to jail and five more people were also sentenced for being involved in the same scheme