DC Solar Solutions Inc., trading as DC Solar, was a

Benicia, California Benicia ( , ) is a waterside city in Solano County, California, located in the North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. It served as the capital of California for nearly thirteen months from 1853 to 1854. The population was 26,997 at the ...

solar power Solar power is the conversion of energy from sunlight into electricity, either directly using photovoltaics (PV) or indirectly using concentrated solar power. Photovoltaic cells convert light into an electric current using the photovoltaic e ...

supplier company whose owners lived lavishly on ill-gotten gains in Martinez. The company was shut down by the

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, ...

in 2018 after it turned out to be a billion-dollar

Ponzi scheme A Ponzi scheme (, ) is a form of fraud that lures investors and pays profits to earlier investors with funds from more recent investors. Named after Italian businessman Charles Ponzi, the scheme leads victims to believe that profits are comin ...

Company history

The company was founded in 2008 in

Concord, California Concord ( ) is the largest city in Contra Costa County, California. According to an estimate completed by the United States Census Bureau, the city had a population of 129,295 in 2019 making it the eighth largest city in the San Francisco Ba ...

, by Jeffrey Carpoff, an auto mechanic.

Berkshire Hathaway Berkshire Hathaway Inc. () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate holding company headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, United States. Its main business and source of capital is insurance, from ...

invested $340 million in the company. The company supplied solar panels, named Solar Eclipse, to various higher education facilities (using a subsidiary, DC Solar Freedom, for education-related partnerships) such as

California State University The California State University (Cal State or CSU) is a public university system in California. With 23 campuses and eight off-campus centers enrolling 485,550 students with 55,909 faculty and staff, CSU is the largest four-year public univers ...

and

Long Beach City College Long Beach City College (LBCC) is a public community college in Long Beach, California. It was established in 1927 and is divided into two campuses, the Liberal Arts Campus in Lakewood Village and the Pacific Coast Campus in central Long Beach ...

and various NASCAR tracks; it also sponsored

Chip Ganassi Racing Chip Ganassi Racing, LLC (CGR), also sometimes branded as Chip Ganassi Racing Teams, is an American auto racing organization with teams competing in the IndyCar Series, NTT IndyCar Series, International Motor Sports Association, IMSA WeatherTech ...

and several races in the NASCAR calendar in 2018. Prior to the 2018 FBI raid, the

Internal Revenue Service The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the revenue service for the United States federal government, which is responsible for collecting U.S. federal taxes and administering the Internal Revenue Code, the main body of the federal statutory ta ...

had investigated the company in 2016 for financial irregularities regarding the company's dealings. The company was raided by the FBI in December 2018 amidst allegations of

associated with the company, and the company later filed for

Chapter 11 bankruptcy Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code (Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, whe ...

. According to the FBI and a later SEC investigation, it was alleged that Carpoff and his wife, Paulette, promised 17 investors between 2011 and 2018 federal solar tax credits, lease payments, and profits, but instead spent lavishly on properties, jets, jewelry, a semi-professional baseball team (

Martinez Clippers The Martinez Clippers were a professional baseball team based in Martinez, California, United States, as members of the Pacific Association of Professional Baseball Clubs, an independent professional baseball circuit not affiliated with Major Leag ...

), sponsoring trips and vacations and even work wardrobes for family members, and sponsorship deals for Chip Ganassi Racing and various NASCAR races. Meanwhile, the majority of the lease revenue was being paid with money from new investors, and as many as three-quarters of the mobile solar generators the company claimed to have built (17,000 units) never existed. GPS trackers purportedly attached to deployed units to verify their locations were buried instead to make it appear that the units were operational and where they were supposed to be. In 2019, federal authorities auctioned a car collection they amassed of more than 150 classic and contemporary cars, including

Kyle Larson Kyle Miyata Larson (born July 31, 1992) is an American professional auto racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 5 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for Hendrick Motorsports. Larson is the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champ ...

's car that won the 2018

Coca-Cola Firecracker 250 The Wawa 250 Powered By Coca-Cola is a NASCAR Xfinity Series race that is held at Daytona International Speedway. Scheduled as a race, it is held the night before the NASCAR Cup Series' Coke Zero Sugar 400, and was run on Independence Day wee ...

race. The raid prompted Chip Ganassi Racing to shut down their

NASCAR Xfinity Series The NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS) is a stock car racing series organized by NASCAR. It is promoted as NASCAR's second-tier circuit to the organization's top level Cup Series. NXS events are frequently held as a support race on the day prior to a ...

team and a lawsuit between

International Speedway Corporation International Speedway Corporation (ISC) was a corporation whose primary business is the ownership and management of motorsports race tracks. ISC was founded by NASCAR founder Bill France Sr. in 1953 for the construction of Daytona International ...

and

SunTrust Bank SunTrust Banks, Inc. was an American bank holding company with SunTrust Bank as its largest subsidiary and assets of US$199 billion as of March 31, 2018. The bank's most direct corporate parent was established in 1891 in Atlanta, where it was ...

regarding the fate of the generators. The Carpoffs pled guilty to wire fraud and money laundering in January 2020, forfeiting $120 million in assets. Four other business partners pled guilty to crimes. On November 9, 2021, Jeffery Carpoff was sentenced to 30 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering. In addition to Jeffery his wife Paulette Carpoff and five other defendants also pleaded guilty to similar charges in relation to the scheme.

Sponsorship

DC Solar began their NASCAR sponsorship at the end of 2014, when they got into contact with then

ARCA Racing Series The ARCA Menards Series is an American stock car series, the premier division of the Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA). It is considered a minor, semi-professional league of stock car racing, used as a feeder series into the three national ...

driver

Brennan Poole Brennan Cole Poole (born April 11, 1991) is an American professional stock car racing driver, engineer, consultant, driver coach, spotter, and crew chief. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, driving the No. 6 Chevrolet Camaro f ...

. After only a few meetings they decided on going to the

operation of

HScott Motorsports HScott Motorsports was an American professional stock car racing team that last competed in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, the Xfinity Series, the K&N Pro Series East and the ARCA Racing Series. The organization was owned by North Carolina bus ...

in the No. 42 car in a partnership with

, moving Poole up from ARCA after 4 seasons of struggling to find rides at

Venturini Motorsports Venturini Motorsports is an American professional stock car racing team that currently competes in the ARCA Menards Series, ARCA Menards Series East, and ARCA Menards Series West. Founded in 1982 by Bill Venturini Sr., Venturini Motorsports is t ...

due to a lack of funding, and taking the spot vacated by

Dylan Kwasniewski Dylan Kwasniewski ( ; born May 31, 1995) is an American real estate broker and former professional stock car racing driver. A champion in both the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East and Pro Series West, he was a developmental driver for Chip Ganassi Rac ...

at the end of 2014 after

Rockstar Energy Rockstar (stylized as ROCKST★R or ЯR) is an energy drink created in 2001, which, , has a 0.3% market share of the US non-alcoholic beverage market. Rockstar is based in Purchase, New York. , Rockstar Energy Drink was available in more than 2 ...

didn't renew their partnership for the 2015 season. In 2016 they expanded upon their partnership adding Christopher Bell and

in select

NASCAR Camping World Truck Series The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series is a pickup truck racing series owned and operated by the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, and is the only series in NASCAR to race production pickup truck based stock cars. The series is one of th ...

races. In 2017, the company once again switched to expanding upon their sponsorship efforts in the sport, this time specifically with

's team, sponsoring Poole as well as Larson in the

Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series The NASCAR Cup Series is the top racing series of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR). The series began in 1949 as the Strictly Stock Division, and from 1950 to 1970 it was known as the Grand National Division. In 1971, ...

. In June of 2018, 6 months before the company's raid, Poole filed a lawsuit against the company,

, and agency

Spire Sports + Entertainment A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spires are ...

for

breach of contract Breach of contract is a legal cause of action and a type of civil wrong, in which a binding agreement or bargained-for exchange is not honored by one or more of the parties to the contract by non-performance or interference with the other party ...

, alleging that both conspired to take away DC Solar's sponsorship from his Xfinity Series' ride and move it to the No. 42 CGR Cup Series team (then driven by Larson) and that Spire's involvement representing both driver and team constituted a conflict of interest. Spire and Chip Ganassi Racing initially cited performance reasons (lack of race victories) as the reason for termination of Poole's sponsorship; The suit was later settled out of court immediately following the raid of the company. They also sponsored Xfinity Series races in 2018 at

Phoenix Raceway Phoenix Raceway is a 1-mile, low-banked tri-oval race track located in Avondale, Arizona, near Phoenix. The motorsport track opened in 1964 and currently hosts two NASCAR race weekends annually including the final championship race since 2020. P ...

and

Las Vegas Motor Speedway Las Vegas Motor Speedway, located in Clark County, Nevada in Las Vegas, Nevada about 15 miles northeast of the Las Vegas Strip, is a complex of multiple tracks for motorsports racing. The complex is owned by Speedway Motorsports, Inc., which is ...

(both now since named

United Rentals 200 The United Rentals 200 was a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race that took place in the fall at Martinsville Speedway in Virginia. The race was first run in 2003 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, 2003 and was the first fall Truck Series race at ...

and

Alsco Uniforms 302 Stock car racing events in the NASCAR Xfinity Series has been held at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Las Vegas, Nevada since the track's inauguration in 1997. Currently, the track holds two races, both sponsored by Alsco, with the 300-mile (480 ...

), the

NASCAR Truck Series The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series is a pickup truck racing series owned and operated by the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, and is the only series in NASCAR to race production pickup truck based stock cars. The series is one of thr ...

race at Las Vegas in 2016 (last known as

Bucked Up 200 The Bucked Up 200 was a 134-lap, 200-mile long NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race that takes place at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. History The race was first held on November 3, 1996 as the Carquest 420K. The race continued annually until 2000, ...

, which has since been discontinued; the race distance was advertised as a race the year DC Solar sponsored the event), as well as the naming rights to the FanGrounds (an area where fans could visit the pit garages) at

Richmond Raceway Richmond Raceway (RR) is a , ''D''-shaped, asphalt race track located just outside Richmond, Virginia in unincorporated Henrico County. It hosts the NASCAR Cup Series, NASCAR Xfinity Series and the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. Known as ...

References

{{Reflist Pyramid and Ponzi schemes American companies convicted of tax fraud Solar energy companies of the United States Energy companies established in 2008 Renewable resource companies established in 2008 NASCAR controversies American companies established in 2008 American companies disestablished in 2018 Renewable resource companies disestablished in 2018