A solar company official has been sentenced to six years in prison and ordered to pay $624m in restitution after being convicted of running a Ponzi scheme.
The Department of Justice revealed on Tuesday that Robert A Karmann, 55, of Clayton, California, was sentenced and fined for operating a Ponzi scheme using solar energy technology.
Karmann, an accountant, was hired by DC Solar in 2014 to be its controller, and later became its chief financial officer.
The company builds mobile solar generator units which are mounted on trailers. Those generators were reportedly sold to investors who were given substantial federal tax credits. They were also led to believe that the generators would be a wildly in-demand technology and third parties would likely pay to rent the machines.
However, that demand never materialised, and the company instead took the money from new investors to pay older investors. The company reportedly tried to hide the transactions as legitimate third party lease revenue.
In addition to the circular payments, DC Solar executives falsified financial documents and contracts. The company also sold units it never intended to build, ultimately taking payment for nearly 8,500 generators that never existed.
The company’s founder, Jeff Carpoff, among other officials were named as co-conspirators in the scheme.
Last year, Carpoff was sentenced to 30 years in prison and ordered to pay $790.6m for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering, according to the…
