1
00:00:00,480 --> 00:00:02,720
Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime. It's a production of iHeartRadio.

2
00:00:03,560 --> 00:00:07,800
Speaker 2: Hello, Elizabeth dutch Zaren, How you doing great? I like

3
00:00:07,840 --> 00:00:09,639
Speaker 2: this sweater. It's nice stripes.

4
00:00:09,920 --> 00:00:10,560
Speaker 3: Yeah, thank you.

5
00:00:10,800 --> 00:00:13,800
Speaker 2: You look like a French sailor nineteenth century.

6
00:00:14,000 --> 00:00:19,000
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, it is sort of right. Yeah. She blows

7
00:00:19,160 --> 00:00:22,040
Speaker 3: a little little lawn and I like your pink sweatshirt.

8
00:00:22,239 --> 00:00:25,400
Speaker 2: Thank you, thank you. It's Muhammad Ali Special. I got

9
00:00:25,440 --> 00:00:27,000
Speaker 2: a question for you. You know what's ridiculous?

10
00:00:27,160 --> 00:00:30,320
Speaker 3: Oh do I what I do? I do know it's ridiculous.

11
00:00:31,520 --> 00:00:35,519
Speaker 3: Do you remember walking into your favorite pizzeria quarters for

12
00:00:35,560 --> 00:00:40,160
Speaker 3: the arcade, infamous red plastic cups, bells, ringing for your order,

13
00:00:40,280 --> 00:00:41,919
Speaker 3: trading tickets for prizes.

14
00:00:42,200 --> 00:00:42,760
Speaker 2: Oh I didn't.

15
00:00:42,800 --> 00:00:45,720
Speaker 3: Hell yeah, these moments weren't just about pizza. They were

16
00:00:45,720 --> 00:00:48,360
Speaker 3: about family, friendship, and happiness.

17
00:00:48,920 --> 00:00:50,199
Speaker 2: You're reading your press, I.

18
00:00:50,240 --> 00:00:53,120
Speaker 3: Am so there's this company you're.

19
00:00:52,960 --> 00:00:55,200
Speaker 2: Like, oh, we walk you down right into the blender.

20
00:00:55,320 --> 00:00:59,520
Speaker 3: There's this company called Bundy called Commerce Perfey, Perfey, perfey.

21
00:01:00,040 --> 00:01:01,760
Speaker 2: Get this perfect perfect.

22
00:01:01,440 --> 00:01:03,760
Speaker 3: The perfect soda is what they make.

23
00:01:03,880 --> 00:01:05,039
Speaker 2: You know, it's right there? Perfect?

24
00:01:05,040 --> 00:01:09,280
Speaker 3: I mean, come on, so they are offering pepperoni pizza soda.

25
00:01:09,840 --> 00:01:13,920
Speaker 3: Oh god, yeah, this is courtesy of Ron Dugod on Instagram.

26
00:01:14,040 --> 00:01:17,520
Speaker 3: It's a great source for these things. Yeah, it's a here,

27
00:01:17,600 --> 00:01:22,040
Speaker 3: let me read you their copy. Listen kid, listen kid,

28
00:01:22,160 --> 00:01:24,839
Speaker 3: sure put my place. Each can of Pepperoni pizza comes

29
00:01:24,880 --> 00:01:27,760
Speaker 3: loaded with just three grams of sugar, thirty calories, and

30
00:01:27,800 --> 00:01:31,160
Speaker 3: a little something extra enough flavor to make Nona shed

31
00:01:31,200 --> 00:01:33,880
Speaker 3: a tear, like a secret recipe from the Old Country.

32
00:01:34,040 --> 00:01:35,839
Speaker 2: Oh you needed to read this with like, hey, listen.

33
00:01:35,920 --> 00:01:38,880
Speaker 3: Can ships the week of two seventeen twenty five. But

34
00:01:38,920 --> 00:01:39,800
Speaker 3: it's already sold out.

35
00:01:39,840 --> 00:01:40,600
Speaker 2: It's already shipped.

36
00:01:40,640 --> 00:01:43,119
Speaker 3: Caffeine, forget about it.

37
00:01:43,200 --> 00:01:46,399
Speaker 2: The energy Gabba Ghoul approved. Oh my goodness, I.

38
00:01:46,440 --> 00:01:48,080
Speaker 3: Know made by Uncle PAULI.

39
00:01:48,360 --> 00:01:50,520
Speaker 2: Really do they really put an Uncle Pauli in the Yeah, it.

40
00:01:50,480 --> 00:01:56,680
Speaker 3: Says shumpulp, I don't know a no sugar added and

41
00:01:56,720 --> 00:02:00,440
Speaker 3: then vegan Vinnie approved. And they don't talk about what

42
00:02:00,480 --> 00:02:01,240
Speaker 3: they don't.

43
00:02:01,040 --> 00:02:02,920
Speaker 2: Have, like a no, we don't sell baked ZD.

44
00:02:04,320 --> 00:02:08,160
Speaker 3: They don't. The don doesn't wear shorts. They don't have.

45
00:02:08,400 --> 00:02:11,040
Speaker 3: They don't explain the flavor profile.

46
00:02:11,480 --> 00:02:12,400
Speaker 2: I don't think they need to.

47
00:02:12,520 --> 00:02:14,480
Speaker 3: So you know what I did. I went digging and

48
00:02:14,520 --> 00:02:18,280
Speaker 3: I found some reviews and basically it apparently tastes like

49
00:02:18,560 --> 00:02:20,880
Speaker 3: carbonated tomato juice.

50
00:02:21,400 --> 00:02:24,880
Speaker 2: Yeah, the head of like spice for the pepperoni.

51
00:02:26,160 --> 00:02:28,160
Speaker 3: It's vegan, so there's no real pepperoni.

52
00:02:28,200 --> 00:02:30,520
Speaker 2: Yeah, but pepperon pepperoni's got a little heat, not like

53
00:02:30,560 --> 00:02:31,880
Speaker 2: a lotty heat.

54
00:02:32,000 --> 00:02:33,720
Speaker 3: A little bit of the oil isn't an oily, So

55
00:02:33,919 --> 00:02:37,480
Speaker 3: totally there you go. I don't know, but the consensus

56
00:02:37,560 --> 00:02:38,480
Speaker 3: was disgusting.

57
00:02:38,840 --> 00:02:40,480
Speaker 2: I bet you know. I was like an oil slick

58
00:02:40,520 --> 00:02:41,960
Speaker 2: on top of my soda.

59
00:02:42,240 --> 00:02:42,919
Speaker 3: It's so good.

60
00:02:43,240 --> 00:02:45,320
Speaker 2: It's not a fish sauce. Can I get a pepperoni?

61
00:02:45,639 --> 00:02:50,480
Speaker 3: And to sum that all up in conclusion, that's ridiculous.

62
00:02:49,919 --> 00:02:52,280
Speaker 2: Elizabeth Zaren, I'm so.

63
00:02:52,680 --> 00:02:53,839
Speaker 3: You know it's ridiculous.

64
00:02:54,120 --> 00:02:58,160
Speaker 2: Yes they do, you know. Okay, listen, but you know

65
00:02:58,160 --> 00:02:59,919
Speaker 2: how sometimes a person will start out with good into

66
00:03:00,560 --> 00:03:03,480
Speaker 2: or at least like innocent intentions me but surprise, surprise,

67
00:03:03,520 --> 00:03:06,919
Speaker 2: it all works out and suddenly you're successful. Then naturally

68
00:03:07,000 --> 00:03:09,000
Speaker 2: you enjoy the success. It feels good, right, you know

69
00:03:09,000 --> 00:03:10,400
Speaker 2: what I mean? So naturally you start I want to

70
00:03:10,480 --> 00:03:13,839
Speaker 2: enjoy greater success because I don't feel even better. Right,

71
00:03:14,400 --> 00:03:17,080
Speaker 2: But since you got lucky in the first place, you

72
00:03:17,080 --> 00:03:19,840
Speaker 2: don't exactly know how to reach greater success. So instead

73
00:03:20,280 --> 00:03:23,440
Speaker 2: you cheat a little, just a little corruption as a treat.

74
00:03:24,120 --> 00:03:26,200
Speaker 2: But then you need to cheat some more to keep

75
00:03:26,280 --> 00:03:28,520
Speaker 2: up right, to keep that ball going. And then soon enough,

76
00:03:28,560 --> 00:03:31,080
Speaker 2: you're cheating all the time. And that, Elizabeth, is when

77
00:03:31,120 --> 00:03:34,800
Speaker 2: you've become your own monster. It's a surprisingly common story.

78
00:03:34,840 --> 00:03:36,920
Speaker 2: It's a human fable we see over and over again.

79
00:03:37,200 --> 00:03:41,720
Speaker 2: Today I have exactly such a fable for you about

80
00:03:41,760 --> 00:03:45,800
Speaker 2: a solar powered wanna be genius who became a solar

81
00:03:45,840 --> 00:04:11,280
Speaker 2: powered monster. This is Ridiculous Crime, a podcast about absurd

82
00:04:11,360 --> 00:04:16,640
Speaker 2: and outrageous capers, heists and cons. It's oh ways nine

83
00:04:16,800 --> 00:04:20,800
Speaker 2: nine percent murder free and one hundred percent ridiculous. Yes

84
00:04:20,839 --> 00:04:25,000
Speaker 2: it is, Elizabeth. What do you know about portable diesel generators?

85
00:04:25,360 --> 00:04:27,440
Speaker 2: They're loud, yes, this is true.

86
00:04:27,480 --> 00:04:29,440
Speaker 3: And you can't run them inside.

87
00:04:29,760 --> 00:04:31,200
Speaker 2: No, that is bad for your health.

88
00:04:31,240 --> 00:04:34,720
Speaker 3: It's bad business, the portable ones. I've known some people

89
00:04:34,720 --> 00:04:37,200
Speaker 3: who live in areas where they lose power lots and

90
00:04:37,200 --> 00:04:40,880
Speaker 3: they get like a permanent one outside totally. But you

91
00:04:40,920 --> 00:04:44,000
Speaker 3: can use it for like powering things and a power outage.

92
00:04:44,800 --> 00:04:48,520
Speaker 3: Construction folks using Yeah, all, you're good at this, pretty good. Yeah?

93
00:04:48,680 --> 00:04:50,000
Speaker 2: Do you know how much they cost for like a

94
00:04:50,080 --> 00:04:51,360
Speaker 2: get you one for personally.

95
00:04:51,120 --> 00:04:53,080
Speaker 3: I'd say like one point six million dollars.

96
00:04:53,279 --> 00:04:55,440
Speaker 2: You're not so good there. Four thousand dollars is get

97
00:04:55,480 --> 00:04:57,240
Speaker 2: your small one personal.

98
00:04:57,640 --> 00:04:59,680
Speaker 3: Exactly costco probably cheap.

99
00:04:59,520 --> 00:05:01,080
Speaker 2: Probably cheap, are you with your membership?

100
00:05:01,160 --> 00:05:01,400
Speaker 3: Yeah?

101
00:05:01,400 --> 00:05:03,719
Speaker 2: Now, one of those big daddy's in the industrial strength

102
00:05:03,800 --> 00:05:05,920
Speaker 2: kind like you'd mentioned about a construction site or say

103
00:05:05,960 --> 00:05:07,880
Speaker 2: like to power a Hollywood set that's out in the

104
00:05:07,880 --> 00:05:11,000
Speaker 2: middle of nowhere, right, that'll set you back about twenty

105
00:05:11,040 --> 00:05:13,680
Speaker 2: grand yikes for entry level and it goes on up

106
00:05:13,680 --> 00:05:14,279
Speaker 2: from there.

107
00:05:14,240 --> 00:05:15,600
Speaker 3: And it's just diesel power.

108
00:05:15,520 --> 00:05:17,720
Speaker 2: Diesel powered. Right now, if you're on a construction site

109
00:05:17,800 --> 00:05:19,720
Speaker 2: or a Hollywood set and you get super used to

110
00:05:19,760 --> 00:05:23,600
Speaker 2: that site of the industrial portable diesel generator, right, typically

111
00:05:23,600 --> 00:05:25,960
Speaker 2: it's a company like Bob Cat or Caterpillar. They'll sell

112
00:05:25,960 --> 00:05:28,440
Speaker 2: you one, the rench you one whatever. In the US,

113
00:05:28,520 --> 00:05:31,839
Speaker 2: I look this up. Portable diesel generators is approaching four

114
00:05:31,880 --> 00:05:34,400
Speaker 2: billion dollars a year as a business billion.

115
00:05:34,120 --> 00:05:37,000
Speaker 3: With a b B. And we know how much a billion.

116
00:05:36,760 --> 00:05:39,560
Speaker 2: Is exactly, it'd be a lot. So it was three

117
00:05:39,560 --> 00:05:41,880
Speaker 2: point six and twenty twenty two, three point seven and

118
00:05:41,920 --> 00:05:44,760
Speaker 2: twenty twenty three three point eight and twenty twenty four

119
00:05:44,839 --> 00:05:48,440
Speaker 2: market is what is growing. It's projected yes, for a

120
00:05:48,440 --> 00:05:50,480
Speaker 2: passing four million in a couple of years. Now, Elizabeth,

121
00:05:50,520 --> 00:05:53,360
Speaker 2: what do you know about portable solar power generators?

122
00:05:53,720 --> 00:05:56,040
Speaker 3: Huh? I actually have.

123
00:05:56,120 --> 00:05:57,919
Speaker 2: Do you have one? It feels like something you would.

124
00:05:57,760 --> 00:05:58,120
Speaker 4: Have to have.

125
00:05:58,520 --> 00:06:02,440
Speaker 3: I have this power bank for emergencies when the power

126
00:06:03,120 --> 00:06:04,800
Speaker 3: you keep it charged up. But it's not like the

127
00:06:04,839 --> 00:06:06,960
Speaker 3: little ones the size of your phone. Do you put

128
00:06:06,960 --> 00:06:09,480
Speaker 3: like this is a big mama, And it's like, I mean,

129
00:06:09,480 --> 00:06:11,760
Speaker 3: it's like the size of like two shoe boxes.

130
00:06:11,880 --> 00:06:12,400
Speaker 2: Oh damn.

131
00:06:13,240 --> 00:06:16,640
Speaker 3: You keep all charged up and then you know I've

132
00:06:16,640 --> 00:06:20,080
Speaker 3: lived through hurricanes or earthquakes. You go without power.

133
00:06:20,360 --> 00:06:22,039
Speaker 2: I don't like that, and you don't. You don't have

134
00:06:22,080 --> 00:06:23,640
Speaker 2: to get ready if you stay ready, and I know

135
00:06:23,680 --> 00:06:24,160
Speaker 2: that your mom.

136
00:06:24,279 --> 00:06:26,800
Speaker 3: I would rather never have to use any of this stuff.

137
00:06:27,360 --> 00:06:30,200
Speaker 3: So you can run a bunch of stuff on it

138
00:06:30,320 --> 00:06:32,120
Speaker 3: so you don't have to go like charge phones in

139
00:06:32,120 --> 00:06:34,640
Speaker 3: the car. But then if it was like, oh this

140
00:06:34,720 --> 00:06:37,320
Speaker 3: is bad, this is gonna go on a while. It

141
00:06:37,360 --> 00:06:41,800
Speaker 3: has a little solar sheet like a panel, sure that

142
00:06:41,880 --> 00:06:44,080
Speaker 3: you set up over it to recharge it.

143
00:06:44,320 --> 00:06:48,640
Speaker 2: That's really nice, very you. It is Yeah, so like

144
00:06:49,000 --> 00:06:51,440
Speaker 2: as you basically pointed out of, a portable solar powdered

145
00:06:51,520 --> 00:06:56,239
Speaker 2: generator is a panel of solar photo voltaic cells attached

146
00:06:56,279 --> 00:06:58,520
Speaker 2: to like a battery and a transformer. They then converts

147
00:06:58,600 --> 00:07:02,760
Speaker 2: the power into usablevoltage. Now there are the industrial portable

148
00:07:02,880 --> 00:07:05,719
Speaker 2: solar powered generators. You get a trailer you can drag

149
00:07:05,800 --> 00:07:09,240
Speaker 2: around a panel of solar fotable Ta excels and that

150
00:07:09,279 --> 00:07:13,360
Speaker 2: will run you about say twenty six grand entry level. Now, Elizabeth,

151
00:07:13,400 --> 00:07:16,480
Speaker 2: you mentioned how loud diesel generators are. Can you imagine

152
00:07:16,480 --> 00:07:22,200
Speaker 2: how silent a solar powered generator. No smell, no smoke, choking, Yeah,

153
00:07:22,280 --> 00:07:22,800
Speaker 2: no pollution.

154
00:07:22,920 --> 00:07:25,080
Speaker 3: Well, and I think it made it's more expensive. But

155
00:07:25,200 --> 00:07:27,600
Speaker 3: you spend a lot of money on diesel totally.

156
00:07:27,680 --> 00:07:31,880
Speaker 2: Yes, hidden costs, yeah, operating costs. Now, about fifteen years ago,

157
00:07:31,960 --> 00:07:35,160
Speaker 2: this dream to create a cheap solar powered diesel generator

158
00:07:35,240 --> 00:07:37,680
Speaker 2: was a dream for commercial interests, Like it became this thing.

159
00:07:37,680 --> 00:07:39,120
Speaker 2: They're like, what if we could kind of do this?

160
00:07:39,160 --> 00:07:42,160
Speaker 2: Everybody was going kind of green. Right, enter our man

161
00:07:42,160 --> 00:07:44,360
Speaker 2: of the hour, Jeff Carpoff's come on.

162
00:07:44,400 --> 00:07:46,200
Speaker 3: Down, Jeff Jeff Carpoffs.

163
00:07:46,320 --> 00:07:52,960
Speaker 2: Carpoff with a singular car like car Poffpoffkarpoff. I could

164
00:07:52,960 --> 00:07:57,160
Speaker 2: be putting emphasis in the wrong place. Maybe Carpoff. Now,

165
00:07:57,200 --> 00:07:59,400
Speaker 2: he is not who you might imagine as a leader

166
00:07:59,480 --> 00:08:01,840
Speaker 2: in the green revolution of the early aughts and the

167
00:08:01,880 --> 00:08:05,480
Speaker 2: twenty teens. Right. He was that rare rebel working in

168
00:08:05,520 --> 00:08:09,240
Speaker 2: the green space who watched Nascar every Saturday. He was

169
00:08:09,320 --> 00:08:12,000
Speaker 2: He enjoyed a chew of tobacco and none of that.

170
00:08:12,080 --> 00:08:15,520
Speaker 2: He didn't spit it. He swallowed it, which is horrendous. Yeah,

171
00:08:15,560 --> 00:08:19,200
Speaker 2: that's like real commitment, doesn't It makes you sick and

172
00:08:19,200 --> 00:08:20,880
Speaker 2: the unless you get used to it with little bits

173
00:08:20,880 --> 00:08:22,840
Speaker 2: and then you can just kind of like stomach a lot.

174
00:08:22,840 --> 00:08:25,240
Speaker 2: I knew guys who did that, but it was not

175
00:08:25,320 --> 00:08:28,960
Speaker 2: healthy anyway. He's from around these parts, like people guys

176
00:08:29,000 --> 00:08:32,320
Speaker 2: I knew Elizabeth. Jeff Karpoff was from Martinez, California.

177
00:08:32,480 --> 00:08:32,880
Speaker 3: Yeah.

178
00:08:32,960 --> 00:08:34,160
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, when I was a boy and we

179
00:08:34,280 --> 00:08:36,439
Speaker 2: drive into the Bay area, we drive past Martinez and

180
00:08:36,480 --> 00:08:39,040
Speaker 2: you can always tell you're in Martinez from the smell.

181
00:08:39,280 --> 00:08:39,600
Speaker 3: Yeah.

182
00:08:39,720 --> 00:08:42,040
Speaker 2: Now, nothing against Martinez. This is not the town's fault.

183
00:08:42,040 --> 00:08:44,040
Speaker 2: There wasn't like a stinky town. There's a big oil

184
00:08:44,080 --> 00:08:46,840
Speaker 2: and gas refineries that line the hills. Chevron and others.

185
00:08:46,960 --> 00:08:50,200
Speaker 3: He's a green energy guy exactly. That's interesting.

186
00:08:52,920 --> 00:08:56,559
Speaker 2: Sugar sugar totally California, Hawaiian. That's what the CNCH stamps for.

187
00:08:56,679 --> 00:09:01,640
Speaker 2: Look at you your real bay a Martinez being real

188
00:09:01,679 --> 00:09:03,520
Speaker 2: Bay area that you are. What do you mean just

189
00:09:03,559 --> 00:09:05,280
Speaker 2: describe it as a town just so I can imagine.

190
00:09:05,280 --> 00:09:06,920
Speaker 3: You know, I've been there, but I think it's it's

191
00:09:06,920 --> 00:09:10,080
Speaker 3: like a working class town. It's right on the Carquinez

192
00:09:10,160 --> 00:09:12,480
Speaker 3: straight yep. Or it's San Pablo Bay.

193
00:09:12,559 --> 00:09:14,439
Speaker 2: Yeah, you carcinas straight, your crust.

194
00:09:14,200 --> 00:09:17,920
Speaker 3: And it's like you know, it's it's a cool older town.

195
00:09:18,000 --> 00:09:20,679
Speaker 3: You have right across the street is Benetia.

196
00:09:20,880 --> 00:09:23,680
Speaker 2: Yes, we'll also met.

197
00:09:22,800 --> 00:09:25,480
Speaker 3: That used to be a capital of California early day.

198
00:09:25,679 --> 00:09:26,440
Speaker 2: Yes for a little bit.

199
00:09:26,559 --> 00:09:28,679
Speaker 3: I mean, I can just go on, you really can.

200
00:09:29,200 --> 00:09:31,040
Speaker 2: Well, you'll be having to know. Our story starts in

201
00:09:31,080 --> 00:09:33,760
Speaker 2: Martinez in two thousand and seven. At that point, Jeff

202
00:09:33,800 --> 00:09:36,280
Speaker 2: Karpoff is a mechanic. He's a pretty good car mechanic, right,

203
00:09:36,320 --> 00:09:40,360
Speaker 2: but he's not a good businessman. His repair shops multiple

204
00:09:40,480 --> 00:09:42,560
Speaker 2: keep going out of business. He tries a few times,

205
00:09:42,600 --> 00:09:45,280
Speaker 2: and it leads to a personal bankruptcy that results in

206
00:09:45,320 --> 00:09:47,719
Speaker 2: a foreclosure on his home. So there he is in

207
00:09:47,760 --> 00:09:50,160
Speaker 2: two thousand. He's a thirty six year old father of

208
00:09:50,200 --> 00:09:53,400
Speaker 2: two small kids, married, unemployed, A man who's tried his

209
00:09:53,480 --> 00:09:55,760
Speaker 2: hand at owning the American dream a few times and

210
00:09:55,800 --> 00:09:58,760
Speaker 2: walked away bankrupted business failure. A man who's also, by

211
00:09:58,800 --> 00:10:01,480
Speaker 2: the way, kicked a meth habit five years earlier, but

212
00:10:01,559 --> 00:10:03,880
Speaker 2: now has lost the roof that sheltered his family, just

213
00:10:03,920 --> 00:10:06,679
Speaker 2: like he never gave up the habit. So the ups

214
00:10:06,720 --> 00:10:08,680
Speaker 2: and downs for this man are dizzying. So by age

215
00:10:08,720 --> 00:10:11,679
Speaker 2: thirty six, Jeff is a human yo yo. Growing up

216
00:10:11,679 --> 00:10:14,000
Speaker 2: in Martinez, Jeff was used to tough times. Like you said,

217
00:10:14,000 --> 00:10:16,280
Speaker 2: it's a working class town. It's gone through its ups

218
00:10:16,280 --> 00:10:18,640
Speaker 2: and downs as a boy, like his family home was

219
00:10:18,760 --> 00:10:20,640
Speaker 2: right next door to a Hell's Angels.

220
00:10:20,280 --> 00:10:21,800
Speaker 3: Bar that totally track.

221
00:10:21,880 --> 00:10:23,959
Speaker 2: Yeah right, I thought you'd like that. According to Jeff,

222
00:10:24,000 --> 00:10:28,319
Speaker 2: as a boy, he watched quote fights, stabbings, shootings, prostitution,

223
00:10:28,480 --> 00:10:31,840
Speaker 2: all kinds of just really crazy stuff. But he also

224
00:10:31,920 --> 00:10:34,720
Speaker 2: watched his single mother, Rosalie, worked three jobs to take

225
00:10:34,760 --> 00:10:37,240
Speaker 2: care of Jeff and his older sister, and when she

226
00:10:37,400 --> 00:10:40,840
Speaker 2: was faced with hard times, unlike his you know, i'd say,

227
00:10:40,880 --> 00:10:43,360
Speaker 2: after his latest repair shop closed up and he lost

228
00:10:43,360 --> 00:10:45,720
Speaker 2: his family's home. Jeff didn't act like his mother because

229
00:10:45,720 --> 00:10:48,720
Speaker 2: he'd seen her suffer, so instead he went back to drugs,

230
00:10:48,720 --> 00:10:51,280
Speaker 2: but not to doing meth, don't worry. Instead he started

231
00:10:51,280 --> 00:10:54,520
Speaker 2: to sell pot. So specifically, medical marijuana was coming a

232
00:10:54,559 --> 00:10:56,520
Speaker 2: thing at the time. It was still the new market

233
00:10:56,520 --> 00:10:58,640
Speaker 2: in two thousand and seven, kind of wild West market

234
00:10:58,679 --> 00:11:01,439
Speaker 2: where an independent person make their mark and go to

235
00:11:01,480 --> 00:11:04,280
Speaker 2: big profit. So he goes down to another one of

236
00:11:04,320 --> 00:11:07,760
Speaker 2: your old stopping grounds, Santa Cruz. Oh yeah, he tries

237
00:11:07,800 --> 00:11:11,320
Speaker 2: to get into the medical marijuana game there by pot. Yeah,

238
00:11:11,360 --> 00:11:14,480
Speaker 2: exactly right. So but the pot he brought to Santa

239
00:11:14,480 --> 00:11:16,559
Speaker 2: Cruz was rejected by the dispenser.

240
00:11:16,720 --> 00:11:18,520
Speaker 3: Is it bringing coals to Newcastle?

241
00:11:18,880 --> 00:11:21,720
Speaker 2: No not not that's a really good analogy for this one.

242
00:11:21,760 --> 00:11:24,040
Speaker 2: But no, in this case, it was his pot may

243
00:11:24,040 --> 00:11:26,840
Speaker 2: have looked good, but that was the dead giveaway that

244
00:11:26,880 --> 00:11:29,920
Speaker 2: he'd been pumping his pot full of chemicals. And oh,

245
00:11:30,040 --> 00:11:32,520
Speaker 2: that doesn't fly, according to that's according to the founder

246
00:11:32,559 --> 00:11:35,199
Speaker 2: one dispensary. Right, yeah, that doesn't fly. Yeah, So Jeff

247
00:11:35,280 --> 00:11:37,960
Speaker 2: was showing the door. Now this is when fate stepped

248
00:11:38,000 --> 00:11:40,720
Speaker 2: in threw a little action into that. Yo, yo, that

249
00:11:40,840 --> 00:11:43,480
Speaker 2: is Jeff's life. An old customer from one of his

250
00:11:43,480 --> 00:11:46,880
Speaker 2: shuttered repair shops right asked Jeff if he thought he'd

251
00:11:46,880 --> 00:11:50,160
Speaker 2: be any good at a selling solar panels, and this

252
00:11:50,280 --> 00:11:53,040
Speaker 2: leads to a conversation with a neighbors. Jess mulling this

253
00:11:53,160 --> 00:11:54,560
Speaker 2: over at this idea, He's like, well, let's do a

254
00:11:54,559 --> 00:11:56,439
Speaker 2: solar Is that a good thing? Trying to lean into this.

255
00:11:56,640 --> 00:11:59,520
Speaker 2: His neighbor tells him, you know, he would personally love

256
00:11:59,600 --> 00:12:01,560
Speaker 2: to use roller up at his cabin, but you know,

257
00:12:01,679 --> 00:12:03,760
Speaker 2: he always fears it some jerk would steal it while

258
00:12:03,760 --> 00:12:05,600
Speaker 2: he's away, or some kids will break it, so he

259
00:12:05,600 --> 00:12:08,080
Speaker 2: doesn't want to like invest in it. The neighbor says

260
00:12:08,080 --> 00:12:10,560
Speaker 2: he wished what he had was like a portable solar

261
00:12:10,600 --> 00:12:12,800
Speaker 2: power generator he could just take up to the cabin

262
00:12:12,880 --> 00:12:14,880
Speaker 2: with him, use it while he's there, and then bring

263
00:12:14,880 --> 00:12:18,160
Speaker 2: it back. Jeff's like, huh. Gives him an idea, a

264
00:12:18,240 --> 00:12:22,280
Speaker 2: billion dollar idea, Elizabeth. So he draws up this idea,

265
00:12:22,320 --> 00:12:24,839
Speaker 2: he develops it, and then he patents it. The title

266
00:12:24,880 --> 00:12:27,520
Speaker 2: of his patent is simple, straight to the point quote

267
00:12:27,600 --> 00:12:28,880
Speaker 2: trailer with solar panels.

268
00:12:28,920 --> 00:12:29,600
Speaker 3: Oh, I love that?

269
00:12:29,679 --> 00:12:30,199
Speaker 2: Right?

270
00:12:30,240 --> 00:12:33,240
Speaker 3: Itays interesting around this time I had friends who were

271
00:12:33,280 --> 00:12:36,800
Speaker 3: getting into selling and like installing solar oh yeah, because

272
00:12:36,800 --> 00:12:39,559
Speaker 3: they were all like the rebate at tax credits oh yeah,

273
00:12:39,640 --> 00:12:42,720
Speaker 3: yeah yeah. And you look at something like Martinez, it's

274
00:12:42,800 --> 00:12:46,840
Speaker 3: like blue collar sat to the Earth. Yeah, like all

275
00:12:46,840 --> 00:12:53,520
Speaker 3: that area Panol Crockett, Crockett, El seborani El Saw Yeah, amazing,

276
00:12:53,760 --> 00:12:55,720
Speaker 3: amazing folks who just work really hard.

277
00:12:55,960 --> 00:12:58,400
Speaker 2: Totally. I'm a big fan. So I'm pulling for this

278
00:12:58,440 --> 00:13:01,120
Speaker 2: guy at this point in the story. So what does

279
00:13:01,160 --> 00:13:04,360
Speaker 2: this look like this trailer with solar panels? Great question, Elizabeth,

280
00:13:04,640 --> 00:13:07,600
Speaker 2: what does it look like this? I love this energy

281
00:13:07,640 --> 00:13:11,240
Speaker 2: you're bringing. I also, I know you love the text

282
00:13:11,240 --> 00:13:14,880
Speaker 2: specs and the tech talk tech tech techy. So I'll

283
00:13:14,880 --> 00:13:17,319
Speaker 2: put it to you this way. Imagine a flatbed trailer

284
00:13:17,360 --> 00:13:19,160
Speaker 2: that you'd pull behind a car or a truck.

285
00:13:19,280 --> 00:13:19,600
Speaker 3: Right now.

286
00:13:19,640 --> 00:13:22,040
Speaker 2: Imagine that same flatbed trailer. It's like the kind you'd

287
00:13:22,120 --> 00:13:22,920
Speaker 2: runt from like a U.

288
00:13:22,840 --> 00:13:25,520
Speaker 3: Haul, but you'd put like a riding mower up.

289
00:13:25,760 --> 00:13:28,720
Speaker 2: Sure, perfect right, chain it down that time right now.

290
00:13:28,760 --> 00:13:31,560
Speaker 2: Imagine that's covered in solar panels, and at one end

291
00:13:31,559 --> 00:13:33,559
Speaker 2: there's a battery and a transformer box that can turn

292
00:13:33,600 --> 00:13:37,640
Speaker 2: all that sustainable sunlight into steady, reliable electric power. That's

293
00:13:37,679 --> 00:13:40,360
Speaker 2: what he designed, right to have no tech talk.

294
00:13:40,440 --> 00:13:42,120
Speaker 3: Huh like that that made sense to me?

295
00:13:42,240 --> 00:13:44,480
Speaker 2: Now what it looked like a more specific visual terms,

296
00:13:44,520 --> 00:13:47,480
Speaker 2: imagine a ray of two rows of solar panels. Right,

297
00:13:47,640 --> 00:13:50,600
Speaker 2: they're five panels in each row. They're adjustable, which means

298
00:13:50,600 --> 00:13:52,559
Speaker 2: you can anchor them on this rotating arm so you

299
00:13:52,600 --> 00:13:54,880
Speaker 2: can stand them up in a vertical position. He drives

300
00:13:54,920 --> 00:13:57,199
Speaker 2: them out to the location so they don't get damage,

301
00:13:57,440 --> 00:13:59,439
Speaker 2: and then he can put them down and adjust them

302
00:13:59,480 --> 00:14:02,840
Speaker 2: to this angle. Boom, good to go. All right, So

303
00:14:03,200 --> 00:14:07,080
Speaker 2: Jeff calls his new invention the solar Eclipse, an ironic

304
00:14:07,200 --> 00:14:10,880
Speaker 2: name for solar power if you ask me, Yeah, but whatever,

305
00:14:10,920 --> 00:14:14,960
Speaker 2: Yeah it's Jeff. He's a rebel, definitely Elizabeth. So anyway,

306
00:14:14,960 --> 00:14:17,160
Speaker 2: he starts to market and sell his new invention and

307
00:14:17,160 --> 00:14:20,600
Speaker 2: attract investors for this cutting edge technology he got that's

308
00:14:20,600 --> 00:14:22,720
Speaker 2: self sustained solar generators.

309
00:14:22,800 --> 00:14:22,920
Speaker 3: Right.

310
00:14:22,920 --> 00:14:24,920
Speaker 2: People are like, oh, so what happens next for Jeff?

311
00:14:25,040 --> 00:14:26,680
Speaker 3: Yeah, what happens next for Jeff?

312
00:14:26,720 --> 00:14:29,040
Speaker 2: Do things turn around for this crazy kid? Well, his

313
00:14:29,120 --> 00:14:32,840
Speaker 2: new invention. It attracts interest. People immediately see the practicality,

314
00:14:32,920 --> 00:14:36,720
Speaker 2: the market friendly pitch. He's going it's clean green tech, right,

315
00:14:36,760 --> 00:14:39,400
Speaker 2: which is buzzwords in two thousand and seven. This is

316
00:14:39,480 --> 00:14:42,840
Speaker 2: at a time when people were earnestly interested in these things.

317
00:14:42,880 --> 00:14:45,920
Speaker 2: Like it seems so long ago now, right, the energy

318
00:14:45,960 --> 00:14:48,800
Speaker 2: coming into that Obama era of like green tech, which

319
00:14:49,080 --> 00:14:52,120
Speaker 2: interestingly we'll get into later. George W. Bush spearheads this

320
00:14:52,120 --> 00:14:55,120
Speaker 2: whole green energy movement. So anyway, it may not seem

321
00:14:55,160 --> 00:14:57,520
Speaker 2: like this when you're you're there, but Martinez isn't that

322
00:14:57,560 --> 00:14:59,640
Speaker 2: far from the Silicon Valley, so it's like an hour

323
00:14:59,720 --> 00:15:01,880
Speaker 2: drive away, right, And like I said, at this time,

324
00:15:01,880 --> 00:15:04,280
Speaker 2: there's a lot of hype and excitement about the future

325
00:15:04,320 --> 00:15:07,240
Speaker 2: for new green tech, so that the investors come a calling.

326
00:15:07,760 --> 00:15:10,720
Speaker 2: With the backing of initial investors, Jeff he forms his

327
00:15:10,800 --> 00:15:13,400
Speaker 2: company and then the investors they aim their sites at

328
00:15:13,440 --> 00:15:17,800
Speaker 2: Hollywood in a concentrated effort to leverage Hollywood's desire to

329
00:15:17,880 --> 00:15:19,960
Speaker 2: go green. And they want to get you know, pats

330
00:15:19,960 --> 00:15:22,479
Speaker 2: on the head from like that Al Gore inspired environmental

331
00:15:22,560 --> 00:15:23,280
Speaker 2: activists of.

332
00:15:23,280 --> 00:15:24,960
Speaker 3: The early adds Leo DiCaprio.

333
00:15:26,560 --> 00:15:30,080
Speaker 2: Oh you just hold that thought, Elizabeth. So the solar power, right,

334
00:15:30,120 --> 00:15:32,480
Speaker 2: it's supposed to be, Oh, it's not loud, it's not gross,

335
00:15:32,480 --> 00:15:34,920
Speaker 2: it doesn't pollute Hollywood. People love it. And then for

336
00:15:35,040 --> 00:15:38,400
Speaker 2: far off locations it's perfect right, free energy from the sun.

337
00:15:38,760 --> 00:15:40,800
Speaker 2: So I think it sells itself right. And for me

338
00:15:41,000 --> 00:15:44,000
Speaker 2: it's quiet there when I know you love that. So

339
00:15:44,040 --> 00:15:46,400
Speaker 2: one of the early Hollywood types to get involved is

340
00:15:46,520 --> 00:15:49,960
Speaker 2: Heart Backner. Now this actor offers to throw his Hollywood

341
00:15:50,040 --> 00:15:52,760
Speaker 2: muscle behind them to help promote Karpoff's new green tech.

342
00:15:52,760 --> 00:15:56,520
Speaker 2: And you, Elizabeth, you may be thinking heart Backner. I

343
00:15:56,520 --> 00:15:58,680
Speaker 2: don't know that name. What Hollywood muscle does a whole

344
00:15:58,720 --> 00:15:59,120
Speaker 2: heart have?

345
00:15:59,440 --> 00:16:00,560
Speaker 3: Is that like his birth name?

346
00:16:00,560 --> 00:16:03,120
Speaker 2: And his real name is no? You know his work?

347
00:16:03,280 --> 00:16:06,560
Speaker 2: Or rather, I'm confident you'd recognize him from one specific role.

348
00:16:07,320 --> 00:16:10,680
Speaker 2: You remember Diehard? Yeah? Do you remember the slimy bearded

349
00:16:10,760 --> 00:16:13,040
Speaker 2: cokehead Harry Ellis who tries to cut a deal with

350
00:16:13,040 --> 00:16:15,480
Speaker 2: Hans Krueber. Ellis says, and I quote, this will probably

351
00:16:15,480 --> 00:16:18,360
Speaker 2: throw you back. Hey, babe, I negotiate million dollar deals

352
00:16:18,400 --> 00:16:20,600
Speaker 2: for breakfast. I think I can handle this euro trash.

353
00:16:20,640 --> 00:16:21,160
Speaker 2: That's him?

354
00:16:21,320 --> 00:16:23,320
Speaker 3: Or is he the guy standing behind that guy?

355
00:16:23,480 --> 00:16:26,720
Speaker 2: No, Bauyo, that's Heart. So he's the one who tries

356
00:16:26,760 --> 00:16:30,080
Speaker 2: to throw his Hollywood muscle behind a rt H A

357
00:16:30,200 --> 00:16:32,440
Speaker 2: R T Yeah, bachner bo c HN.

358
00:16:32,440 --> 00:16:36,000
Speaker 3: I don't know why I'm getting wanting. Yeah, spellings, I

359
00:16:36,000 --> 00:16:36,240
Speaker 3: don't know.

360
00:16:36,840 --> 00:16:39,440
Speaker 2: I'm happy to help him provide them. So anyway, Jeff

361
00:16:39,440 --> 00:16:41,600
Speaker 2: and he they're like, yeah, let's do this, let's take

362
00:16:41,640 --> 00:16:44,240
Speaker 2: over Hollywood. So I with that, Elizabeth, I'd like to

363
00:16:44,240 --> 00:16:47,240
Speaker 2: take a little break these messages. I'll tell you about

364
00:16:47,240 --> 00:16:50,520
Speaker 2: where Jeff takes his solar powered dreams of Hollywood. And yes,

365
00:16:50,680 --> 00:16:55,560
Speaker 2: Leonardo DiCaprio gets involved.

366
00:16:52,920 --> 00:17:15,040
Speaker 4: All right, Elizabeth, we're back.

367
00:17:15,600 --> 00:17:16,399
Speaker 2: So where were we?

368
00:17:17,480 --> 00:17:19,159
Speaker 3: You were telling me about how he was going to

369
00:17:19,240 --> 00:17:20,439
Speaker 3: take Hollywood by storm.

370
00:17:20,600 --> 00:17:23,280
Speaker 2: That's right, Jeff takes Hollywood. Yeah, okay, and I promise

371
00:17:23,359 --> 00:17:24,920
Speaker 2: you Leonardo DiCaprio would.

372
00:17:24,720 --> 00:17:26,639
Speaker 3: Enter the picture theo Lecaprio.

373
00:17:26,840 --> 00:17:29,800
Speaker 2: Well, he does, he does right now. So in twenty ten,

374
00:17:29,880 --> 00:17:32,639
Speaker 2: DiCaprio gives this interview about his latest film, a Little

375
00:17:32,640 --> 00:17:35,359
Speaker 2: Diddy called Inception. You may have heard of it, the

376
00:17:35,440 --> 00:17:38,919
Speaker 2: Christopher Nolan film that was proudly made with solar power.

377
00:17:39,240 --> 00:17:41,760
Speaker 2: According to DiCaprio, well, it was like twenty percent of it.

378
00:17:41,800 --> 00:17:45,440
Speaker 2: But anyway, He gave an interview to the Philippine Daily

379
00:17:45,480 --> 00:17:48,639
Speaker 2: Inquirer in which I love the press junkets. What are

380
00:17:48,680 --> 00:17:51,639
Speaker 2: you going to do right, so Leo said, and I quote,

381
00:17:51,760 --> 00:17:53,800
Speaker 2: A lot of this movie was made with solar power.

382
00:17:53,880 --> 00:17:55,920
Speaker 2: It's the first movie I got to do with solar power.

383
00:17:56,000 --> 00:17:58,160
Speaker 2: I had a conversation about it with Alan Horn, who's

384
00:17:58,160 --> 00:18:00,520
Speaker 2: the head of Warner Brothers. The generation that we had

385
00:18:00,560 --> 00:18:02,920
Speaker 2: on the set were all powered by solar energy. It's

386
00:18:02,920 --> 00:18:05,160
Speaker 2: gonna be a big conversion to do stuff like that

387
00:18:05,320 --> 00:18:07,800
Speaker 2: every day, not just in making movies, but everything in

388
00:18:07,840 --> 00:18:08,640
Speaker 2: the world.

389
00:18:08,760 --> 00:18:10,960
Speaker 3: So Leo DiCaprio is so spot on.

390
00:18:11,240 --> 00:18:15,160
Speaker 2: He's like, really gangbusters about this right now. The reason

391
00:18:15,200 --> 00:18:19,160
Speaker 2: why this well known environmentalist obviously so geeked unportable solar

392
00:18:19,200 --> 00:18:22,399
Speaker 2: power is obvious, but he still expresses it to the

393
00:18:22,480 --> 00:18:25,520
Speaker 2: Philippine Daily Inquirer for those catching up in twenty ten,

394
00:18:26,119 --> 00:18:27,480
Speaker 2: we do a lot of things in the world that

395
00:18:27,480 --> 00:18:30,200
Speaker 2: are wasteful. We keep talking about this all the time. Hopefully,

396
00:18:30,400 --> 00:18:33,480
Speaker 2: fingers crossed, with these small steps, we'll make that transition

397
00:18:33,640 --> 00:18:36,520
Speaker 2: on a much larger scale in the future. It got

398
00:18:36,520 --> 00:18:37,399
Speaker 2: bad news from the future.

399
00:18:37,520 --> 00:18:37,720
Speaker 4: Leo.

400
00:18:39,400 --> 00:18:42,520
Speaker 3: Listen, no, I know you had good intentions, buddy, but.

401
00:18:43,840 --> 00:18:47,480
Speaker 2: This fingers still crossed. Brother. So guy's on fire. I'm

402
00:18:47,480 --> 00:18:48,600
Speaker 2: on your side this.

403
00:18:48,720 --> 00:18:51,439
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, I'm even pushing.

404
00:18:51,520 --> 00:18:54,080
Speaker 2: But Elizabeth, this is obviously not what happens. We do

405
00:18:54,119 --> 00:18:57,200
Speaker 2: have portable solar generators now, but that green energy has

406
00:18:57,240 --> 00:19:01,120
Speaker 2: not become the industry standard because of scammer like Jeff Carpoff.

407
00:19:01,320 --> 00:19:02,560
Speaker 3: Oh, I wouldn't put it squarely.

408
00:19:02,880 --> 00:19:06,160
Speaker 2: Oh just hold that thought. Oh. The story of Jeff

409
00:19:06,359 --> 00:19:09,240
Speaker 2: low Key pisses me off because I agree with Leo

410
00:19:09,400 --> 00:19:11,480
Speaker 2: that we like what he's talking about. We need green tech,

411
00:19:11,520 --> 00:19:14,200
Speaker 2: we need green sustainable tech, all right. This guy is

412
00:19:14,240 --> 00:19:16,440
Speaker 2: a big part of the reason why we don't because

413
00:19:16,920 --> 00:19:19,920
Speaker 2: him and a couple other cylinders. Another example, the green

414
00:19:19,960 --> 00:19:22,320
Speaker 2: tech has had its moment, and then that moment is

415
00:19:22,400 --> 00:19:25,720
Speaker 2: largely over in the public's imagination now because of there

416
00:19:25,720 --> 00:19:28,760
Speaker 2: were so many green tech scams. Yeah, wasted the tax

417
00:19:28,800 --> 00:19:31,480
Speaker 2: credits that they got, They wasted the chance to actually

418
00:19:31,560 --> 00:19:35,080
Speaker 2: establish it. Instead, we got a solar power energy industry,

419
00:19:35,240 --> 00:19:37,639
Speaker 2: and that's it pretty much. It should have been a

420
00:19:37,680 --> 00:19:40,360
Speaker 2: lot bigger, It's my point. Anyway, How exactly did our

421
00:19:40,760 --> 00:19:44,280
Speaker 2: zero of the day, Jeff go bad? Well? By twenty ten,

422
00:19:44,320 --> 00:19:47,240
Speaker 2: his company was now called DC Solar, and he detracted

423
00:19:47,240 --> 00:19:51,359
Speaker 2: the attention of industrial investors at this point, like US Bank, Right,

424
00:19:52,119 --> 00:19:55,560
Speaker 2: companies like Sherwin Williams, the paint company. Yeah, both of them.

425
00:19:55,880 --> 00:20:00,400
Speaker 2: They could see the potential for this commercial like application. Right.

426
00:20:00,520 --> 00:20:03,080
Speaker 2: So soon now he's got big money interest. What does

427
00:20:03,119 --> 00:20:06,520
Speaker 2: Carpoff do? Well, Jeff makes the curious choice to raise

428
00:20:06,560 --> 00:20:10,000
Speaker 2: the price for his portable solar generators. New starting price

429
00:20:10,040 --> 00:20:13,879
Speaker 2: one hundred and fifty thousand dollars per portable generator trade?

430
00:20:14,560 --> 00:20:16,480
Speaker 3: How much was it before? Was twenty grand?

431
00:20:16,480 --> 00:20:18,520
Speaker 2: One hundred thousand is what he was telling investors before.

432
00:20:18,520 --> 00:20:22,479
Speaker 2: It's fifty thousand dollars. Now he's basically added fifty percent.

433
00:20:23,040 --> 00:20:25,400
Speaker 2: So but with all this initial interest, why not make

434
00:20:25,440 --> 00:20:27,840
Speaker 2: even more of each sale? Thought the man who couldn't

435
00:20:27,840 --> 00:20:29,200
Speaker 2: make a mechanic shop work.

436
00:20:29,280 --> 00:20:30,240
Speaker 3: How about volume?

437
00:20:30,800 --> 00:20:34,520
Speaker 4: So anyway, yeah, right, Jeff, he has a Martinez Martinez.

438
00:20:34,600 --> 00:20:37,600
Speaker 2: Yes, come on. So he's got a rental scheme in mind.

439
00:20:37,600 --> 00:20:39,080
Speaker 2: That's where he thinks there's a real money. He's like

440
00:20:39,119 --> 00:20:41,600
Speaker 2: these these trailers could be rented out at like eighteen

441
00:20:41,680 --> 00:20:44,359
Speaker 2: hundred dollars a month. And again, there's more to the scheme.

442
00:20:44,359 --> 00:20:47,520
Speaker 2: He's got a scheme right, specifically, he told his investors

443
00:20:47,680 --> 00:20:51,119
Speaker 2: will make big profits off government buy a tax credits.

444
00:20:51,640 --> 00:20:53,159
Speaker 2: In other ways, he found a way to melk the

445
00:20:53,240 --> 00:20:57,040
Speaker 2: US taxpayers. It's a surprisingly common business strategy really, just

446
00:20:57,080 --> 00:20:57,920
Speaker 2: ask Elon Musk.

447
00:20:58,000 --> 00:20:58,200
Speaker 3: Yeah.

448
00:20:58,480 --> 00:21:01,000
Speaker 2: Anyway, the story goes in two thousand and five, the

449
00:21:01,080 --> 00:21:05,040
Speaker 2: George W. Bush ERAIC Congress approved tax credits for green

450
00:21:05,240 --> 00:21:08,320
Speaker 2: energy investment. Right, it was a big deal. This business

451
00:21:08,320 --> 00:21:11,359
Speaker 2: could now reduce their federal taxes by thirty percent for

452
00:21:11,480 --> 00:21:14,639
Speaker 2: every dollar they spent on green energy. So this this

453
00:21:14,720 --> 00:21:17,080
Speaker 2: moment in US history right when Solvent Energy was first

454
00:21:17,160 --> 00:21:19,920
Speaker 2: blowing up as a big business. Interestingly, it was under

455
00:21:19,960 --> 00:21:22,640
Speaker 2: a Republican president. I think that's notable, right, And that's

456
00:21:22,680 --> 00:21:24,840
Speaker 2: also how it became a real deal industry, and that's

457
00:21:24,840 --> 00:21:26,880
Speaker 2: why industry gets behind it. Now. It seems like it's

458
00:21:26,960 --> 00:21:27,800
Speaker 2: not like a like.

459
00:21:27,760 --> 00:21:30,480
Speaker 3: Oh, we're going to do a thing job creating, because

460
00:21:30,480 --> 00:21:33,119
Speaker 3: that's what they put these finite resources that we're going

461
00:21:33,200 --> 00:21:35,920
Speaker 3: to run out of we need anyway.

462
00:21:35,720 --> 00:21:37,480
Speaker 2: It's an obvious thing. So they were trying to make

463
00:21:37,480 --> 00:21:39,080
Speaker 2: the smart play and business are trying to get him

464
00:21:39,080 --> 00:21:41,000
Speaker 2: on board, and then Jeff was their partner for it.

465
00:21:41,000 --> 00:21:43,320
Speaker 2: Because they didn't understand this stuff. They didn't know how

466
00:21:43,400 --> 00:21:44,439
Speaker 2: to pick we got.

467
00:21:44,359 --> 00:21:46,800
Speaker 3: Jack and I'm Jeff exactly.

468
00:21:47,000 --> 00:21:49,800
Speaker 2: So this federal cash it's splashing around in the green

469
00:21:49,920 --> 00:21:52,359
Speaker 2: energy space and excites the interest of the corrupt and

470
00:21:52,400 --> 00:21:54,600
Speaker 2: the criminal minded because they see a ton of free

471
00:21:54,600 --> 00:21:58,000
Speaker 2: money for anyone with a halfway decent green energy proposal.

472
00:21:58,280 --> 00:22:00,240
Speaker 2: Back to Jeff, who has, by the way, is the

473
00:22:00,280 --> 00:22:02,520
Speaker 2: same thing, but he's got the perfect product ready to

474
00:22:02,560 --> 00:22:04,960
Speaker 2: take advantage of all this free cast. So his solar

475
00:22:05,040 --> 00:22:08,639
Speaker 2: generators are a picture perfect tax credit scheme aimed at

476
00:22:08,640 --> 00:22:13,399
Speaker 2: big corporations, because they'll say, you know, essentially he worked basically,

477
00:22:13,440 --> 00:22:15,000
Speaker 2: I'll put it to you this way. His big steel

478
00:22:15,040 --> 00:22:17,920
Speaker 2: works out that the mega corporations looking to lessen their

479
00:22:17,960 --> 00:22:21,040
Speaker 2: tax bill, they could determine how much they wanted to save,

480
00:22:21,280 --> 00:22:23,960
Speaker 2: and then they could buy exactly that many solar generators

481
00:22:23,960 --> 00:22:26,679
Speaker 2: from Jeff's company, DC's solar Then all they need to

482
00:22:26,680 --> 00:22:28,520
Speaker 2: do is put down a deposit, because he's doing like

483
00:22:28,600 --> 00:22:32,639
Speaker 2: a lease buy agreement thing that's equal to thirty percent

484
00:22:32,680 --> 00:22:35,760
Speaker 2: of the generator's cost, and then the corporation could deduct

485
00:22:35,800 --> 00:22:38,520
Speaker 2: from their tax bill the exact amount based on the

486
00:22:38,520 --> 00:22:41,560
Speaker 2: green investment tax credits incentive. So what this means is

487
00:22:41,760 --> 00:22:44,280
Speaker 2: the corporations wanted to play ball, but didn't want to

488
00:22:44,280 --> 00:22:46,600
Speaker 2: buy the solar generators. They could lease them in a

489
00:22:46,680 --> 00:22:48,879
Speaker 2: long term deal. That way, they never have to touch them,

490
00:22:48,960 --> 00:22:52,160
Speaker 2: maintain them, move them around anything. They have him bring

491
00:22:52,200 --> 00:22:54,239
Speaker 2: them out whenever they need them, which they never really do.

492
00:22:54,280 --> 00:22:56,600
Speaker 2: They're just getting the investment credit the entire time. They

493
00:22:56,680 --> 00:22:59,520
Speaker 2: just stays on the books. And then so they have

494
00:22:59,600 --> 00:23:01,399
Speaker 2: the tax credit in a long term deal. Now they

495
00:23:01,440 --> 00:23:05,800
Speaker 2: can write off thirty percent of their budget every year. Boom,

496
00:23:05,920 --> 00:23:08,720
Speaker 2: this huge deal. So twenty eleven, DC Solar starts signing

497
00:23:08,760 --> 00:23:11,720
Speaker 2: deals with corporations like Sherwin Williams. Two months after the

498
00:23:11,760 --> 00:23:14,119
Speaker 2: ink on that deal drives, Jeff buys himself a million

499
00:23:14,119 --> 00:23:17,040
Speaker 2: dollar home. Boom. He's like ready to enjoy life. He

500
00:23:18,080 --> 00:23:21,280
Speaker 2: buys a home on a hill in Martinez. Yeah, the

501
00:23:21,280 --> 00:23:23,320
Speaker 2: mansion has in a gated community, has like a six

502
00:23:23,400 --> 00:23:27,360
Speaker 2: car garage, all a guest cottage. Jeff's finally made good.

503
00:23:27,400 --> 00:23:29,840
Speaker 2: Now he's looking down in his hometown. So there were

504
00:23:29,840 --> 00:23:33,359
Speaker 2: signs though that not all was as it appeared, because

505
00:23:33,359 --> 00:23:35,240
Speaker 2: when the fall came, but Sherwin Williams came to the

506
00:23:35,320 --> 00:23:38,400
Speaker 2: DC Solar production facility to inspect their purchases that they're

507
00:23:38,400 --> 00:23:40,879
Speaker 2: not going to really take possession of DC solar sales

508
00:23:40,920 --> 00:23:44,120
Speaker 2: executives who are there to show him these things. They

509
00:23:44,200 --> 00:23:46,600
Speaker 2: noticed that there's a little bit of a fiction, okay,

510
00:23:46,640 --> 00:23:49,320
Speaker 2: a lot of fiction hiding behind the impressive face of

511
00:23:49,359 --> 00:23:52,760
Speaker 2: the presentation. So basically, the generators put out in the

512
00:23:52,800 --> 00:23:56,720
Speaker 2: front row look great, that first row, after that, every

513
00:23:56,800 --> 00:23:58,400
Speaker 2: other row not fully assembled.

514
00:23:59,200 --> 00:24:02,639
Speaker 3: Oh yes, it's like a British bakeoff. You if you

515
00:24:02,680 --> 00:24:04,000
Speaker 3: mess up, you put the good stuff.

516
00:24:04,119 --> 00:24:06,280
Speaker 2: Yeah, except two thirds of the generators are just there

517
00:24:06,320 --> 00:24:09,320
Speaker 2: like they they don't work, They're just there to look good.

518
00:24:09,359 --> 00:24:11,119
Speaker 2: Like there it is. There's another one. You can count

519
00:24:11,119 --> 00:24:13,360
Speaker 2: them basically though, it's the wheels and all the panels.

520
00:24:13,800 --> 00:24:16,520
Speaker 2: So anyway, Jeff, he gets confronted by a sales exec

521
00:24:16,600 --> 00:24:18,679
Speaker 2: about this, and Jeff tells them, you don't worry about that.

522
00:24:18,800 --> 00:24:20,040
Speaker 3: Huh, I don't worry.

523
00:24:20,040 --> 00:24:23,520
Speaker 2: Pretty sales exec quit right, So now good for them, Yeah,

524
00:24:23,560 --> 00:24:24,920
Speaker 2: good guy, they had their integrity.

525
00:24:25,080 --> 00:24:25,280
Speaker 3: Yeah.

526
00:24:25,280 --> 00:24:27,159
Speaker 2: No, there's something I haven't mentioned yet. Jeff was a

527
00:24:27,160 --> 00:24:30,440
Speaker 2: car mechanic, but not a solar engineer. Like he literally

528
00:24:30,520 --> 00:24:32,399
Speaker 2: had no idea what he was doing. Yeah, but he

529
00:24:32,440 --> 00:24:35,240
Speaker 2: didn't let that stop I'm Elizabeth. He set his sights

530
00:24:35,240 --> 00:24:37,560
Speaker 2: on bigger and bigger come ups, right, So I remember

531
00:24:37,600 --> 00:24:39,560
Speaker 2: I told you he and his initial investors and that

532
00:24:39,720 --> 00:24:42,480
Speaker 2: the guy from die Hard wanted to leverage the potential

533
00:24:42,880 --> 00:24:46,320
Speaker 2: portable solar generators for on set shoots for Hollywood. While

534
00:24:46,320 --> 00:24:49,800
Speaker 2: they start focusing on that totally right, if it really

535
00:24:49,840 --> 00:24:53,280
Speaker 2: was a legit thing. So what was their next move?

536
00:24:53,359 --> 00:24:56,280
Speaker 2: Like other than like whatever movie Leonardo DiCaprio was working on?

537
00:24:56,320 --> 00:24:58,600
Speaker 2: Next like other than him? Where there they go? Well,

538
00:24:58,640 --> 00:25:01,760
Speaker 2: they branch out, they start conn other productions. Okay, But

539
00:25:01,840 --> 00:25:03,960
Speaker 2: rather than me tell you about that, Elizabeth, I'd like

540
00:25:04,000 --> 00:25:05,680
Speaker 2: to take you there, which means I'd like you to

541
00:25:05,680 --> 00:25:09,760
Speaker 2: close your eyes. I'd like you to picture it. Elizabeth.

542
00:25:10,520 --> 00:25:13,560
Speaker 2: It's a warm and sunny day, the arisoft, the sunlight

543
00:25:13,600 --> 00:25:16,359
Speaker 2: on your face warms your cheeks as you watch Steve

544
00:25:16,440 --> 00:25:20,199
Speaker 2: Carrell shove a chocolate Eclaire into his gaping maw. The

545
00:25:20,280 --> 00:25:23,879
Speaker 2: beloved comedic actor pushes pastry into his pie hole like

546
00:25:23,920 --> 00:25:26,920
Speaker 2: he's getting paid to eat, but he's not. He's actually

547
00:25:26,920 --> 00:25:29,560
Speaker 2: getting paid to wait. Welcome to the hurry up and

548
00:25:29,600 --> 00:25:32,120
Speaker 2: wait world of life on a film set. You are

549
00:25:32,160 --> 00:25:35,040
Speaker 2: currently sitting near craft services, nibbling on a protein bar

550
00:25:35,400 --> 00:25:37,360
Speaker 2: that you pulled out of your pocket, which is why

551
00:25:37,400 --> 00:25:40,359
Speaker 2: you're watching Steve Carell maw down on chocolate he Claire's.

552
00:25:40,359 --> 00:25:43,440
Speaker 2: He's now working on his second apparently Steve Carell's stress eats.

553
00:25:43,760 --> 00:25:45,840
Speaker 2: The stress is coming from the fact that the film

554
00:25:45,880 --> 00:25:48,920
Speaker 2: set for the new movie Alexander in The Terrible, Horrible,

555
00:25:48,960 --> 00:25:52,399
Speaker 2: No Good, very Bad Day is currently stalled, waiting for

556
00:25:52,480 --> 00:25:55,000
Speaker 2: the power to come back on. You were supposed to

557
00:25:55,000 --> 00:25:57,520
Speaker 2: be a set photographer working as a favor for a friend,

558
00:25:58,080 --> 00:25:59,640
Speaker 2: but you thought there would be a camera on set

559
00:25:59,640 --> 00:26:01,280
Speaker 2: for you to not that you had to bring your

560
00:26:01,280 --> 00:26:03,840
Speaker 2: own gear, so you were fired within the first hour.

561
00:26:04,119 --> 00:26:06,840
Speaker 2: But since it's an outdoor shoot far from anywhere that

562
00:26:06,840 --> 00:26:09,920
Speaker 2: resembles civilization, you've had to stay on set the whole day,

563
00:26:10,600 --> 00:26:13,359
Speaker 2: and then solar power generator blew out and the sets

564
00:26:13,400 --> 00:26:15,160
Speaker 2: all shut down. So now you're waiting for the shooting

565
00:26:15,200 --> 00:26:16,880
Speaker 2: day to be called and for the shuttles to arrive

566
00:26:16,960 --> 00:26:18,680
Speaker 2: so you can catch a lift back to the parking lot,

567
00:26:18,720 --> 00:26:21,639
Speaker 2: which is a couple miles away. But from what you

568
00:26:21,760 --> 00:26:24,520
Speaker 2: just heard from a passing ad walking and talking into

569
00:26:24,520 --> 00:26:27,880
Speaker 2: a walkie talkie, answering the questions of the gaffer aka

570
00:26:27,920 --> 00:26:31,320
Speaker 2: the electrician for the film set. A generator must have blown.

571
00:26:31,520 --> 00:26:33,719
Speaker 2: That's why the lights cut out and plunged the outdoor

572
00:26:33,760 --> 00:26:37,840
Speaker 2: shoot into unscheduled darkness. So you follow another star as

573
00:26:37,880 --> 00:26:41,000
Speaker 2: she makes her way to craft services. It's Jennifer Garner.

574
00:26:41,400 --> 00:26:44,200
Speaker 2: She wears a sweet smile on her face despite the delay.

575
00:26:44,560 --> 00:26:47,960
Speaker 2: Soon enough, Megan Malayally joins her at the craft services table.

576
00:26:48,160 --> 00:26:50,760
Speaker 2: The two actresses pick over the options. Jennifer Garner goes

577
00:26:50,800 --> 00:26:53,760
Speaker 2: for a yogurt. Megan Malayali ops for gummy bears and

578
00:26:53,760 --> 00:26:56,919
Speaker 2: a banana. You wait to grab some more food. You

579
00:26:57,000 --> 00:26:58,680
Speaker 2: don't want to crowd the stars. You know you're not

580
00:26:58,720 --> 00:27:00,640
Speaker 2: supposed to, but you also want to get it's something deep.

581
00:27:00,640 --> 00:27:02,720
Speaker 2: You've been on the set for about twelve hours. When

582
00:27:02,720 --> 00:27:05,920
Speaker 2: you see Meghan Malayley walk away, you pop up. Before

583
00:27:05,960 --> 00:27:08,640
Speaker 2: you've taken three steps towards craft services table, you see

584
00:27:08,720 --> 00:27:11,920
Speaker 2: Donald Glover. He's headed there too. This movie has someone

585
00:27:11,960 --> 00:27:14,680
Speaker 2: for everyone, you think before you take a wide turn

586
00:27:14,720 --> 00:27:17,240
Speaker 2: and peel off. Now you wait some more. It takes

587
00:27:17,280 --> 00:27:20,120
Speaker 2: Donald Glover forever to decide what he wants to eat.

588
00:27:20,160 --> 00:27:22,920
Speaker 2: How hard could it be Donald, you think to yourself.

589
00:27:22,920 --> 00:27:25,879
Speaker 2: You're getting angry. You can feel it. Donald Glover finally

590
00:27:25,920 --> 00:27:29,280
Speaker 2: decides on a blow pop candy. He walks off. You

591
00:27:29,320 --> 00:27:31,560
Speaker 2: don't delay. You head for craft services. But would you

592
00:27:31,560 --> 00:27:34,280
Speaker 2: believe it? Jennifer Coolidge pops up out of nowhere. It's

593
00:27:34,320 --> 00:27:37,200
Speaker 2: headed for it. You guessed it, the craft services table.

594
00:27:37,400 --> 00:27:39,520
Speaker 2: You have got to be kidding me, you think to yourself.

595
00:27:39,520 --> 00:27:41,600
Speaker 2: But again you peel off and give way to the

596
00:27:41,720 --> 00:27:44,919
Speaker 2: latest hungry star. Jennifer Coolidge is quick to pick out

597
00:27:44,960 --> 00:27:47,560
Speaker 2: some cookies and an energy drink. Smart choice, you think,

598
00:27:47,720 --> 00:27:49,439
Speaker 2: But then she puts the cookies back and ops for

599
00:27:49,480 --> 00:27:52,159
Speaker 2: a granola bar and some strawberries. But she changes her

600
00:27:52,160 --> 00:27:54,359
Speaker 2: mind again. She puts the granola bar back. You're like

601
00:27:54,359 --> 00:27:58,000
Speaker 2: a kid who desperately needs to pee. You're standing in place, squirming, waiting,

602
00:27:58,320 --> 00:28:02,359
Speaker 2: humming to yourself. Meanwhile, Jennifer Coolidge finally decides to take

603
00:28:02,400 --> 00:28:05,200
Speaker 2: a box of cereal into the strawberries and the energy drink.

604
00:28:05,320 --> 00:28:08,600
Speaker 2: She walks away. You practically speed walk like one of

605
00:28:08,640 --> 00:28:11,520
Speaker 2: those Olympic hip swingers, towards the craft services table, but

606
00:28:11,800 --> 00:28:14,879
Speaker 2: a first ad catches you halfway there. She's got good news.

607
00:28:15,119 --> 00:28:17,520
Speaker 2: The solar power generators are a bust. They're going to

608
00:28:17,560 --> 00:28:19,240
Speaker 2: be called the day. Turns out it was a hair

609
00:28:19,359 --> 00:28:21,520
Speaker 2: dryer that tripped the brake or shut down the solar

610
00:28:21,520 --> 00:28:25,320
Speaker 2: power generators. Who knew the first ad says, thankfully, the

611
00:28:25,359 --> 00:28:27,119
Speaker 2: shuttles will be here in ten minutes. You can go

612
00:28:27,160 --> 00:28:29,400
Speaker 2: with her to the drop off site, so you never

613
00:28:29,440 --> 00:28:31,919
Speaker 2: get to grab a snack. Instead, you curse whoever it

614
00:28:32,040 --> 00:28:35,160
Speaker 2: was that made those stupid solar power generators. As you're

615
00:28:35,200 --> 00:28:37,520
Speaker 2: led off to the shuttles, but wait on the way,

616
00:28:37,560 --> 00:28:39,920
Speaker 2: you see another star from the set of this movie.

617
00:28:40,040 --> 00:28:43,480
Speaker 2: It's mixed Dick van Dyke. And when the genial old

618
00:28:43,520 --> 00:28:46,080
Speaker 2: actress sees you, he gives you this big smile. The

619
00:28:46,160 --> 00:28:49,680
Speaker 2: old trooper is unbothered by shooting, delays, his smile stays

620
00:28:49,720 --> 00:28:53,480
Speaker 2: with you. Oh, Dick van Dyke. So there you go, Elizabeth.

621
00:28:53,920 --> 00:28:56,000
Speaker 2: That's how it went day for me, right, finally a

622
00:28:56,040 --> 00:28:59,400
Speaker 2: fun day. That's how it went when the solar power

623
00:28:59,480 --> 00:29:03,520
Speaker 2: generators were actually put to use a Yeah that was

624
00:29:03,560 --> 00:29:06,000
Speaker 2: actually a true story. Yeah, Pink had the same thing

625
00:29:06,000 --> 00:29:08,000
Speaker 2: when she did use them for a concert on MTV.

626
00:29:08,120 --> 00:29:13,320
Speaker 2: They were so Luckily for Carpoff, his usagees are actually

627
00:29:13,360 --> 00:29:15,080
Speaker 2: kind of rare. So most of the time the companies

628
00:29:15,120 --> 00:29:17,480
Speaker 2: were fine but just holding the leases on their books

629
00:29:17,520 --> 00:29:20,720
Speaker 2: and taking the tax credit. That kept things simple. And

630
00:29:20,560 --> 00:29:23,560
Speaker 2: then came the first whiffs of real trouble. The IRS

631
00:29:23,640 --> 00:29:26,640
Speaker 2: started making noise that tax credits could be denied if

632
00:29:26,680 --> 00:29:30,880
Speaker 2: the generators weren't actually being used. That was bad days, right,

633
00:29:30,920 --> 00:29:33,840
Speaker 2: totally total, because the tax credit was really what Karpoff

634
00:29:33,960 --> 00:29:36,800
Speaker 2: was selling, and his buyers didn't really want his solar generators.

635
00:29:36,800 --> 00:29:39,720
Speaker 2: So what does Carpoff do next? Elizabeth, Well, is it

636
00:29:39,760 --> 00:29:42,600
Speaker 2: time to fold up shop again, declare bankruptcy, and walk

637
00:29:42,640 --> 00:29:45,120
Speaker 2: away from yet another failed business? Way to go, Jeff,

638
00:29:45,680 --> 00:29:49,680
Speaker 2: not this time, Sister. Twenty twelve, Jeff met with his accountant,

639
00:29:49,800 --> 00:29:52,920
Speaker 2: Ronald Roach and the company's general counsel are A Lauer,

640
00:29:53,120 --> 00:29:55,160
Speaker 2: and the question he ran by them was quite simple,

641
00:29:55,280 --> 00:29:58,000
Speaker 2: right to the point, what if they mixed their funds

642
00:29:58,040 --> 00:29:59,920
Speaker 2: and they used money from the purchases of new gen

643
00:30:00,040 --> 00:30:02,400
Speaker 2: narrators to pay for the missing lease money for their

644
00:30:02,440 --> 00:30:05,360
Speaker 2: earlier deals they just kept this thing going. In other words,

645
00:30:05,400 --> 00:30:08,560
Speaker 2: what if we did a Ponzi game? So, but in

646
00:30:08,600 --> 00:30:10,080
Speaker 2: this case, the one who would be left holding the

647
00:30:10,120 --> 00:30:14,440
Speaker 2: bag would be us. Taxpayers, no loss. That was the argument. Yeah, Tota,

648
00:30:14,600 --> 00:30:17,360
Speaker 2: perfect magic trick for tax cheats. Now they could keep

649
00:30:17,360 --> 00:30:19,760
Speaker 2: the money rolling in with new clients like T Mobile

650
00:30:19,840 --> 00:30:22,600
Speaker 2: and Disney, and they did. So this this Ponzi scheme

651
00:30:23,240 --> 00:30:26,480
Speaker 2: calmed the financial waters. But there was one other huge

652
00:30:26,600 --> 00:30:30,520
Speaker 2: problem for DC Solar. Jeff was never the perfect person

653
00:30:30,600 --> 00:30:33,480
Speaker 2: to be a leader in this new green energy space,

654
00:30:33,520 --> 00:30:36,120
Speaker 2: you know. I kind of pointed that out earlier, like, well, okay.

655
00:30:36,160 --> 00:30:39,320
Speaker 2: For instance, they shot a promotional video with him, and

656
00:30:39,360 --> 00:30:41,600
Speaker 2: the crew from marketing was like, yeah, let's have you

657
00:30:41,640 --> 00:30:43,440
Speaker 2: would be the face of talk right. So he's there

658
00:30:43,480 --> 00:30:45,800
Speaker 2: on camera and Jeff He's got pre written lines like

659
00:30:45,920 --> 00:30:48,680
Speaker 2: gass holding up the Q cards and Jeff is trying

660
00:30:48,680 --> 00:30:50,640
Speaker 2: and this is how it goes. He's like, uh, we

661
00:30:50,720 --> 00:30:54,840
Speaker 2: strive for a healthier planet by offering unique solar products

662
00:30:54,840 --> 00:30:59,360
Speaker 2: that I can't remember what the son of a Wow.

663
00:31:00,040 --> 00:31:01,600
Speaker 2: He go hit it like a shot at tequila to

664
00:31:01,600 --> 00:31:03,920
Speaker 2: call down because that's probably the answer, and then he

665
00:31:04,040 --> 00:31:07,400
Speaker 2: try again. So this debacle leads to the hiring of

666
00:31:07,480 --> 00:31:09,760
Speaker 2: John Miranda. There's a guy from Hollywood. He's hired to

667
00:31:09,760 --> 00:31:12,080
Speaker 2: help out as a communications director. We'll just smooth things

668
00:31:12,080 --> 00:31:14,400
Speaker 2: out with the communications director. His first day on the job.

669
00:31:14,440 --> 00:31:16,840
Speaker 2: He pulls up to DC Solar. He sees a muscle

670
00:31:16,880 --> 00:31:19,920
Speaker 2: car parked in the handicapped spot out front getting its

671
00:31:19,920 --> 00:31:24,200
Speaker 2: oil changed by some employee. You know who car it was. No,

672
00:31:24,320 --> 00:31:27,080
Speaker 2: he's not handicapped. So then comes the news that Jeff

673
00:31:27,120 --> 00:31:29,480
Speaker 2: wants to launch a brand partnership to bring more attention

674
00:31:29,560 --> 00:31:32,120
Speaker 2: to DC Solar. Right, get them out ahead, So he

675
00:31:32,160 --> 00:31:34,480
Speaker 2: tells the new comms director he wants to become a

676
00:31:34,520 --> 00:31:39,320
Speaker 2: big time sponsor for you guessed it, NASCAR because nothing

677
00:31:39,400 --> 00:31:42,080
Speaker 2: says screen energy like NASCAR.

678
00:31:42,360 --> 00:31:44,080
Speaker 3: Beginning, I was pulling for this.

679
00:31:44,000 --> 00:31:46,280
Speaker 2: Right, didn't it flip real quick? So he wanted to

680
00:31:46,280 --> 00:31:48,080
Speaker 2: see his company's name painted on the skin of a

681
00:31:48,120 --> 00:31:51,080
Speaker 2: stock car. He loves this man, Come on, he loves Nascar,

682
00:31:51,120 --> 00:31:54,160
Speaker 2: Elizabeth loves gas guzzlin muscle cars. Now he's a rich guy.

683
00:31:54,160 --> 00:31:56,560
Speaker 2: He collects cars. He by the way, he had a

684
00:31:56,560 --> 00:31:59,720
Speaker 2: seventy eight trans Am Firebird, just like the one from

685
00:31:59,720 --> 00:32:01,680
Speaker 2: Smokey and the Band. In fact, even better than that,

686
00:32:01,720 --> 00:32:05,800
Speaker 2: it was personally owned by good old boy Burt Reynolds himself. Jeff.

687
00:32:05,800 --> 00:32:08,640
Speaker 2: He also had another iconic Southern good old boy dream car,

688
00:32:08,720 --> 00:32:13,160
Speaker 2: he bought himself a general Lee a Dodge Chargers of course, Elizabeth,

689
00:32:13,680 --> 00:32:14,480
Speaker 2: anyway back to.

690
00:32:14,560 --> 00:32:18,320
Speaker 3: Generally a big old house and Martinez.

691
00:32:17,880 --> 00:32:21,360
Speaker 2: Yes, so anyway back to NASCAR sponsor deal. Jeff wants

692
00:32:21,400 --> 00:32:24,200
Speaker 2: to spend millions of the company's money to associate his

693
00:32:24,280 --> 00:32:28,680
Speaker 2: clean green energy company with the most easily identifiable, anti green,

694
00:32:29,160 --> 00:32:32,200
Speaker 2: most polluting sport there is, you know, like completely anyway,

695
00:32:32,440 --> 00:32:34,680
Speaker 2: so that's what happens. DC Solar ends up on stock

696
00:32:34,720 --> 00:32:38,320
Speaker 2: cars for NASCAR. This no way, Oh yeah, So somehow though,

697
00:32:38,360 --> 00:32:41,800
Speaker 2: this works for from twenty eleven on for about eight years,

698
00:32:41,800 --> 00:32:44,600
Speaker 2: he's able to keep this long con going along the

699
00:32:44,640 --> 00:32:48,000
Speaker 2: way he sings the national anthem in a baseball game, Yes,

700
00:32:48,040 --> 00:32:52,360
Speaker 2: like other Texo who knows. I did not watch his performance. No,

701
00:32:52,720 --> 00:32:55,960
Speaker 2: Jeff watches the value of his company just balloon into

702
00:32:56,000 --> 00:33:00,760
Speaker 2: a billion dollar business. It's this ridiculous moment in American history, Elizabeth. Yes,

703
00:33:00,920 --> 00:33:02,800
Speaker 2: they couldn't tell it at the time because everyone was

704
00:33:02,800 --> 00:33:05,000
Speaker 2: making too much money and getting accolades for how green

705
00:33:05,040 --> 00:33:07,360
Speaker 2: they were. And so by the time d C Solar

706
00:33:07,560 --> 00:33:10,960
Speaker 2: is worth two point five billion dollars, Jeff is now

707
00:33:10,960 --> 00:33:14,240
Speaker 2: a fully formed, fully corrupt monster of his own making yeah, sure, right,

708
00:33:14,400 --> 00:33:16,120
Speaker 2: and he leans into it at this point. So now

709
00:33:16,120 --> 00:33:18,320
Speaker 2: he's got a red pickup truck lifted and he drives

710
00:33:18,320 --> 00:33:21,040
Speaker 2: around as a newly minted billionaire and his red truck

711
00:33:21,120 --> 00:33:24,600
Speaker 2: blast the star spangled banner from speakers aimed out at

712
00:33:24,600 --> 00:33:27,280
Speaker 2: the world. What yeah, but no, but even better in

713
00:33:27,320 --> 00:33:29,600
Speaker 2: Las Vegas, he has had this custom chopper built for

714
00:33:29,680 --> 00:33:31,959
Speaker 2: him on a TV show, and he had the motorcycle

715
00:33:31,960 --> 00:33:34,840
Speaker 2: painted with an American theme, like on the gas tanks

716
00:33:34,840 --> 00:33:37,840
Speaker 2: of flags and eagles. And Jeff told the bike builder

717
00:33:37,960 --> 00:33:40,120
Speaker 2: the tanks, I want, look the statue of liberty holding

718
00:33:40,120 --> 00:33:42,360
Speaker 2: the flag and the flag blowing in the wind. I

719
00:33:42,480 --> 00:33:44,640
Speaker 2: want the Constitution on the backfender.

720
00:33:45,040 --> 00:33:47,240
Speaker 3: We the people the Constitution.

721
00:33:47,880 --> 00:33:54,000
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, anyway, and does.

722
00:33:54,600 --> 00:33:57,520
Speaker 3: Everyone just talks about how Idiocracy was a documentary.

723
00:33:57,640 --> 00:34:01,360
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, this exhibit A. So meanwhile, there was this

724
00:34:01,480 --> 00:34:04,560
Speaker 2: actual nation and its taxpayers who were bank rolling all

725
00:34:04,600 --> 00:34:06,720
Speaker 2: of this exactly fraud, wasting abuse.

726
00:34:06,840 --> 00:34:09,040
Speaker 3: And there are kids who like have no school lunch.

727
00:34:09,120 --> 00:34:10,359
Speaker 3: But no, Jeff's got a lift.

728
00:34:10,880 --> 00:34:12,920
Speaker 2: We're paying for this. So the irs is about to

729
00:34:12,960 --> 00:34:14,880
Speaker 2: expose all the rot at the core of this new

730
00:34:14,960 --> 00:34:17,200
Speaker 2: multi billion dollar business. I don't want you wearing Elizabeth.

731
00:34:17,480 --> 00:34:19,920
Speaker 2: But in twenty fifteen, Jeff spoke with the VP of

732
00:34:19,960 --> 00:34:23,480
Speaker 2: Operations for DC Solar. He had a strange request. He's like,

733
00:34:23,480 --> 00:34:25,799
Speaker 2: you want to know if the VP could generate, you know,

734
00:34:25,880 --> 00:34:27,960
Speaker 2: some fake paperwork. You know, I just wanted to get

735
00:34:28,040 --> 00:34:30,759
Speaker 2: us patched up a little hole. It's for tax purposes.

736
00:34:30,920 --> 00:34:33,399
Speaker 2: He said, he needed fake paperwork. They made it look

737
00:34:33,440 --> 00:34:36,520
Speaker 2: like on paper T Mobile was leasing a thousand solar

738
00:34:36,560 --> 00:34:39,160
Speaker 2: generators for a term of a decade at about a

739
00:34:39,239 --> 00:34:42,600
Speaker 2: rate of you know, thirteen million dollars. So you know,

740
00:34:42,719 --> 00:34:45,080
Speaker 2: so all told that's an annual rate. It's all told

741
00:34:45,080 --> 00:34:46,880
Speaker 2: it will be one hundred and thirty million dollar deal.

742
00:34:47,040 --> 00:34:50,600
Speaker 2: And so the VP of Operations was like, I don't know, man,

743
00:34:50,880 --> 00:34:52,440
Speaker 2: I don't know if I can do that. Jeff's like,

744
00:34:52,480 --> 00:34:54,080
Speaker 2: what if I gave you a million dollars? The guy

745
00:34:54,160 --> 00:34:56,160
Speaker 2: was like, well, He's like, what if I gave you

746
00:34:56,200 --> 00:34:58,919
Speaker 2: and the guy you find to sign the paperwork from

747
00:34:58,960 --> 00:35:02,080
Speaker 2: T Mobile of him million dollars too? Now? How you doing?

748
00:35:02,200 --> 00:35:04,520
Speaker 2: Guy's like, I could probably find a guy. I got

749
00:35:04,520 --> 00:35:07,120
Speaker 2: a friend a tea mobile. Turns out that at that price,

750
00:35:07,200 --> 00:35:10,000
Speaker 2: this VP was able to look past in the ethical lapses.

751
00:35:10,239 --> 00:35:12,880
Speaker 2: He did find someone from T Mobile, a fellow executive,

752
00:35:12,920 --> 00:35:16,320
Speaker 2: a foreign navy veteran, a man who once had integrity.

753
00:35:16,320 --> 00:35:19,759
Speaker 2: I think now you know his price. He's willing to

754
00:35:19,800 --> 00:35:22,680
Speaker 2: set it aside for one million dollars. Ethics over to

755
00:35:22,719 --> 00:35:25,040
Speaker 2: the left exactly. So this keeps the I R s

756
00:35:25,080 --> 00:35:27,319
Speaker 2: away for a little while longer. So how long can

757
00:35:27,360 --> 00:35:31,640
Speaker 2: Jeff find wielding stooges willing to race jail time in

758
00:35:31,760 --> 00:35:35,600
Speaker 2: service of his long con? Great question, Elizabeth. Well, just

759
00:35:35,640 --> 00:35:37,759
Speaker 2: like his fake investments and deals, he would need a

760
00:35:37,800 --> 00:35:40,879
Speaker 2: steady stream of suckers to sell their ethics out at

761
00:35:40,960 --> 00:35:43,320
Speaker 2: market rate. Yeah, okay, let's take a little break and

762
00:35:43,400 --> 00:35:47,200
Speaker 2: after these smooth, cool, watery ads, we'll be back and

763
00:35:47,200 --> 00:36:11,399
Speaker 2: see how this whole scam goes. Put Boy, Elizabeth, it's

764
00:36:11,480 --> 00:36:15,319
Speaker 2: twenty sixteen now, Oh yeah, the long con scam that

765
00:36:15,440 --> 00:36:18,200
Speaker 2: is known as d C Stolar is still a rollin.

766
00:36:18,680 --> 00:36:21,359
Speaker 2: Jeff Carpoff is still at it, and this is when

767
00:36:21,400 --> 00:36:24,920
Speaker 2: things start to really go off the rails. At first,

768
00:36:24,960 --> 00:36:27,600
Speaker 2: they enter into a deal with the car insurance giant Geico.

769
00:36:28,480 --> 00:36:31,880
Speaker 2: One interesting wrinkle about that Elizabeth. Geico is owned by

770
00:36:31,960 --> 00:36:35,319
Speaker 2: Warren Buffett's company Berkshire Hathaway. Is it known for it's

771
00:36:35,440 --> 00:36:38,839
Speaker 2: really you know, sober and smart minded investment strategy. Yeah,

772
00:36:39,000 --> 00:36:43,000
Speaker 2: he's also he is no stranger to a tax credit. Also,

773
00:36:43,040 --> 00:36:43,879
Speaker 2: in the twenty.

774
00:36:43,600 --> 00:36:46,480
Speaker 3: Teams, you don't become a billionaire.

775
00:36:46,080 --> 00:36:49,319
Speaker 2: Without sucking off the government. Teat oh welfare them.

776
00:36:49,440 --> 00:36:51,600
Speaker 3: I was gonna say, you gotta get your welfare totally.

777
00:36:51,640 --> 00:36:53,560
Speaker 2: Now. In the twenty Teams, Warren Buffett was all in

778
00:36:53,600 --> 00:36:56,840
Speaker 2: on the green energy green tech, in particular solar energy.

779
00:36:56,880 --> 00:37:00,200
Speaker 2: He was cuckoo for coconuts at it. Okay, we're this

780
00:37:00,239 --> 00:37:03,800
Speaker 2: is not just conjecture. At twenty seventeen shareholders meeting, Warren

781
00:37:03,800 --> 00:37:06,719
Speaker 2: Buffett told investors, quote, somebody walks it in with a

782
00:37:06,719 --> 00:37:09,680
Speaker 2: solar project tomorrow and it takes a billion dollars or

783
00:37:09,680 --> 00:37:12,120
Speaker 2: it takes three billion, We're ready to do it, and

784
00:37:12,160 --> 00:37:16,840
Speaker 2: the more the better. So all in right there somebody

785
00:37:16,920 --> 00:37:19,320
Speaker 2: who walked in with a deal. It was Jeff Karpoff

786
00:37:19,360 --> 00:37:22,280
Speaker 2: with DC Solar. So he walked in with a solar project,

787
00:37:22,320 --> 00:37:24,560
Speaker 2: and they're like, oh, true to form, Geico was down

788
00:37:24,560 --> 00:37:26,680
Speaker 2: to do business just like the big Boss had ordered.

789
00:37:27,160 --> 00:37:29,319
Speaker 2: So right up until Jeff tried to rush the deal though,

790
00:37:29,480 --> 00:37:32,759
Speaker 2: so In response, the chief financial officer for Geico said

791
00:37:32,760 --> 00:37:35,000
Speaker 2: at the time, quote, if there's a way out of

792
00:37:35,040 --> 00:37:36,120
Speaker 2: this deal, take it.

793
00:37:36,400 --> 00:37:36,799
Speaker 3: Oh wow.

794
00:37:36,960 --> 00:37:39,440
Speaker 2: But big Boss Warren Buffett was all in on solar,

795
00:37:39,480 --> 00:37:41,279
Speaker 2: so everyone was like, oh, we got to ink the deal.

796
00:37:41,320 --> 00:37:43,759
Speaker 2: So Geico inks the deal. Price tag one point two

797
00:37:43,760 --> 00:37:48,399
Speaker 2: billion dollars for portable solar power generators, and no one

798
00:37:48,440 --> 00:37:50,799
Speaker 2: thinks that it will become suspicious about this.

799
00:37:51,239 --> 00:37:53,760
Speaker 3: How many could there possibly back to where.

800
00:37:53,560 --> 00:37:56,560
Speaker 2: Are you cornering the market? Like, are you buying all

801
00:37:56,640 --> 00:37:57,520
Speaker 2: of the solar.

802
00:37:57,320 --> 00:37:59,120
Speaker 3: Power seperators the taco trucks?

803
00:37:59,280 --> 00:38:01,759
Speaker 2: Is Geythard now distributing them to their customers?

804
00:38:02,080 --> 00:38:02,279
Speaker 3: Yeah?

805
00:38:03,120 --> 00:38:05,480
Speaker 2: So the real deal was tax credits. They would save

806
00:38:05,600 --> 00:38:08,160
Speaker 2: Geico three hundred and seventy seven million dollars on their

807
00:38:08,200 --> 00:38:12,200
Speaker 2: tax bill, all thanks to Jeff's Carpoff's scamming American taxpayers

808
00:38:12,239 --> 00:38:14,759
Speaker 2: with this federal tax credit. So, with this influx at

809
00:38:14,760 --> 00:38:17,319
Speaker 2: one point two billion on the books, DC Solder now

810
00:38:17,400 --> 00:38:21,640
Speaker 2: moves to headquarters in Benetia, that's right, former capital of

811
00:38:21,719 --> 00:38:24,319
Speaker 2: California for a full thirteen months. If you were from

812
00:38:24,400 --> 00:38:26,480
Speaker 2: eighteen fifty three to eighteen fifty four, had to look

813
00:38:26,520 --> 00:38:28,920
Speaker 2: that up. I'm as good as you on the California history.

814
00:38:29,320 --> 00:38:32,160
Speaker 2: So this then it basically as you described. It's a

815
00:38:32,160 --> 00:38:34,440
Speaker 2: small industrial town on the other side of the carkeenas

816
00:38:34,440 --> 00:38:35,680
Speaker 2: straight from Martinez.

817
00:38:35,760 --> 00:38:35,800
Speaker 5: No.

818
00:38:36,200 --> 00:38:39,160
Speaker 2: DC Solar love it. Yeah, by one of my best

819
00:38:39,200 --> 00:38:41,160
Speaker 2: friends grew up there, spent a bunch of time there,

820
00:38:41,239 --> 00:38:43,200
Speaker 2: so like he would take me around and show me

821
00:38:43,280 --> 00:38:45,360
Speaker 2: like the good sides of it. Yeah, it's helpfool to

822
00:38:45,400 --> 00:38:48,560
Speaker 2: have a local Anyways. DC Solar had a huge pile

823
00:38:48,600 --> 00:38:50,800
Speaker 2: of orders for new generators now because it got the

824
00:38:50,840 --> 00:38:53,040
Speaker 2: one point two billion dollar deal plus all their previous

825
00:38:53,080 --> 00:38:55,239
Speaker 2: deals that they've you know, but if you visited the

826
00:38:55,280 --> 00:38:57,839
Speaker 2: production facility, you'd have no idea that was the case.

827
00:38:58,080 --> 00:39:00,719
Speaker 2: There was no sense of urgency, No business is getting done,

828
00:39:00,760 --> 00:39:02,919
Speaker 2: No like we're rolling them out, cranking them out. It's

829
00:39:02,920 --> 00:39:05,880
Speaker 2: just like three guys walking around probably on break. They

830
00:39:05,920 --> 00:39:08,560
Speaker 2: look like they're on break. So the generator factory, there's

831
00:39:08,560 --> 00:39:10,359
Speaker 2: no rush at all. Right, Jeff has a different plan.

832
00:39:10,440 --> 00:39:13,160
Speaker 2: He has his company focusing on the least business, where

833
00:39:13,200 --> 00:39:15,399
Speaker 2: that's much easier to fake with paperwork and they don't

834
00:39:15,440 --> 00:39:17,600
Speaker 2: have to actually build all those solar generators that are

835
00:39:17,640 --> 00:39:19,960
Speaker 2: such a problem. So he and his team come up

836
00:39:20,000 --> 00:39:22,560
Speaker 2: with his fresh con. They send the buyers a report

837
00:39:22,719 --> 00:39:26,720
Speaker 2: from an independent engineer that details the portable solar generators

838
00:39:26,760 --> 00:39:31,120
Speaker 2: that they least, identifying them by their DMV vehicle identification numbers.

839
00:39:31,160 --> 00:39:35,480
Speaker 2: They're vin except the independent engineer was Jeff's high school buddy,

840
00:39:35,920 --> 00:39:39,400
Speaker 2: Joseph Bayliss. So the real deal is between twenty eleven

841
00:39:39,440 --> 00:39:43,400
Speaker 2: and twenty eighteen, DC Solar sold seventeen thousand generators at

842
00:39:43,440 --> 00:39:47,480
Speaker 2: that inflated price, and that same time they built six thousand.

843
00:39:47,760 --> 00:39:49,719
Speaker 2: So you can kind of see a little problem they're building, like, yeah,

844
00:39:50,280 --> 00:39:53,239
Speaker 2: not quite one to three exactly. So for those folks

845
00:39:53,280 --> 00:39:56,080
Speaker 2: who bought solar generators, Jeff obviously I said he had

846
00:39:56,120 --> 00:39:59,920
Speaker 2: got his different strategy than actually delivering what they purchase. Instead,

847
00:40:00,280 --> 00:40:03,600
Speaker 2: he offers to ware house their generators and deliver them

848
00:40:03,840 --> 00:40:07,279
Speaker 2: whenever and wherever they're needed, and to make that all

849
00:40:07,360 --> 00:40:10,120
Speaker 2: work out with his limited number of solar generators. What

850
00:40:10,200 --> 00:40:12,880
Speaker 2: this means is all these companies owned these same generators

851
00:40:13,280 --> 00:40:15,799
Speaker 2: and he just peels off the ven numbers and puts

852
00:40:15,880 --> 00:40:19,080
Speaker 2: them ven numbers according to what is on the paperwork,

853
00:40:19,160 --> 00:40:20,680
Speaker 2: like let's make sure we've got it this, And so

854
00:40:20,760 --> 00:40:23,080
Speaker 2: they put the bag of VN numbers. They pop them

855
00:40:23,120 --> 00:40:25,000
Speaker 2: all off, they label them, and they put them in

856
00:40:25,000 --> 00:40:26,520
Speaker 2: another bag, and they take the other bag and they

857
00:40:26,560 --> 00:40:28,279
Speaker 2: put them all back on and they drive out to

858
00:40:28,320 --> 00:40:28,680
Speaker 2: the spot.

859
00:40:28,800 --> 00:40:29,200
Speaker 3: Oh wow.

860
00:40:29,360 --> 00:40:31,520
Speaker 2: Yeah. So if there's some pain in the neck buyer

861
00:40:31,560 --> 00:40:34,160
Speaker 2: who wanted evidence that their solar generators were actually in

862
00:40:34,280 --> 00:40:36,680
Speaker 2: the field where they said they would be, Jeff had

863
00:40:36,680 --> 00:40:38,560
Speaker 2: an answer for that. He would send his team out

864
00:40:38,600 --> 00:40:41,560
Speaker 2: with a GPS transponder and then he'd have them bury

865
00:40:41,680 --> 00:40:43,600
Speaker 2: that there and then when they would look on the

866
00:40:43,640 --> 00:40:45,399
Speaker 2: app and they oh, look, see there it is. There's

867
00:40:45,480 --> 00:40:47,120
Speaker 2: your there's problem solved.

868
00:40:47,520 --> 00:40:49,800
Speaker 3: There are no generators.

869
00:40:49,320 --> 00:40:52,160
Speaker 2: There, just no just a GPS transponder buried in the

870
00:40:52,600 --> 00:40:55,560
Speaker 2: tag in the dirt, and so it's out there, don't

871
00:40:55,600 --> 00:40:58,440
Speaker 2: you worry. So sometimes he actually would have to deliver

872
00:40:58,560 --> 00:41:02,440
Speaker 2: solar generators for the prickly customers who would drive out

873
00:41:02,560 --> 00:41:05,239
Speaker 2: to the far out location and check for themselves or

874
00:41:05,400 --> 00:41:07,920
Speaker 2: actually show up and need and need it. They're oh,

875
00:41:07,920 --> 00:41:09,759
Speaker 2: I've got actual plans to use this I.

876
00:41:09,800 --> 00:41:12,720
Speaker 3: Thing that they have to be generating power for something.

877
00:41:12,840 --> 00:41:15,439
Speaker 2: Yeah. So actually, so in that case, then he would

878
00:41:15,480 --> 00:41:17,839
Speaker 2: have his team bust their butts. They'd have to actually work,

879
00:41:18,160 --> 00:41:20,359
Speaker 2: and then they would get the generators and then get

880
00:41:20,360 --> 00:41:24,759
Speaker 2: the trailers to the location. Whoo, problem solved now. Jeff, though,

881
00:41:25,120 --> 00:41:27,440
Speaker 2: even though he's taking these problems all one at the time,

882
00:41:27,760 --> 00:41:29,399
Speaker 2: he's got a much bigger problem he doesn't know about,

883
00:41:29,440 --> 00:41:30,920
Speaker 2: and it came in the form of three letters the

884
00:41:31,080 --> 00:41:34,879
Speaker 2: IRS twenty sixteen. The RS is now investigating DC Solar

885
00:41:34,960 --> 00:41:38,080
Speaker 2: for its Hainky accounting practices, its abuses of the tax

886
00:41:38,160 --> 00:41:40,800
Speaker 2: credit program. Then the IRS is they're good at what

887
00:41:40,880 --> 00:41:42,560
Speaker 2: they do, so they go and it doesn't take it

888
00:41:42,640 --> 00:41:44,759
Speaker 2: long to figure out the DC Solar is selling its

889
00:41:44,840 --> 00:41:47,439
Speaker 2: portable solar generators for about one hundred and fifty grand.

890
00:41:47,880 --> 00:41:49,920
Speaker 2: That's not hard. They put that out there right. Then

891
00:41:49,960 --> 00:41:52,360
Speaker 2: the IRS determines that if you were actually to go

892
00:41:52,520 --> 00:41:55,640
Speaker 2: by say market rate based on materials, manufacturing costs, a

893
00:41:55,680 --> 00:41:59,200
Speaker 2: reasonable up charge, the portable solar generator was more like

894
00:41:59,320 --> 00:42:02,200
Speaker 2: a thirteen brand. He's selling it for one hundred and

895
00:42:02,200 --> 00:42:06,080
Speaker 2: fifty thousand and taking a tax credit one hundred fifty

896
00:42:06,120 --> 00:42:08,799
Speaker 2: thousand as opposed to thirteen thousand, So that's one hundred

897
00:42:08,800 --> 00:42:10,960
Speaker 2: and twenty seven thousand dollars markup, right, But the IRS

898
00:42:11,400 --> 00:42:14,280
Speaker 2: is focused on the tax credit which is they're getting

899
00:42:14,440 --> 00:42:17,440
Speaker 2: forty five thousand dollars as a tax credit for each

900
00:42:17,600 --> 00:42:20,560
Speaker 2: generator that's purchased in or least in a long term

901
00:42:20,680 --> 00:42:24,319
Speaker 2: deal instead of the three thousand, nine hundred dollars tax

902
00:42:24,400 --> 00:42:27,080
Speaker 2: credit they should be getting. So for those not good

903
00:42:27,120 --> 00:42:29,719
Speaker 2: at math like me, that's eleven point five times more

904
00:42:29,840 --> 00:42:33,000
Speaker 2: valuable as a tax credit. Yeah, free money, free money.

905
00:42:33,239 --> 00:42:36,439
Speaker 2: So while the IRS does its due diligence and looks

906
00:42:36,440 --> 00:42:39,920
Speaker 2: after the American taxpayers money, the Obama administration wants to

907
00:42:39,960 --> 00:42:43,200
Speaker 2: announce they've got a new green energy revolution money the

908
00:42:43,200 --> 00:42:46,240
Speaker 2: an initiative, just like a Bush did. We're doing it bigger.

909
00:42:46,520 --> 00:42:48,640
Speaker 2: So they have what they call smart cities and they're

910
00:42:48,640 --> 00:42:50,880
Speaker 2: gonna make all these cities green. So in twenty sixteen,

911
00:42:50,920 --> 00:42:54,680
Speaker 2: the Obama administration has Jeff Karpoff's DC Solar be a

912
00:42:54,760 --> 00:42:58,000
Speaker 2: key partner in the smart city initiative. Oh no, yeah,

913
00:42:58,080 --> 00:43:01,200
Speaker 2: he is, the Obama administration partner with DC Solar to

914
00:43:01,960 --> 00:43:05,640
Speaker 2: take on the green energy revolution, elevating his company to

915
00:43:05,680 --> 00:43:10,120
Speaker 2: the level of Amazon Google parent company Alphabet. That's the

916
00:43:10,320 --> 00:43:13,399
Speaker 2: These are the foot soldiers, these corporations and Jeff, that's

917
00:43:13,440 --> 00:43:17,440
Speaker 2: the green tech revolution. So transportation Secretary Anthony Fox put

918
00:43:17,480 --> 00:43:20,040
Speaker 2: out a press lease at this time quote DC Solar

919
00:43:20,080 --> 00:43:23,239
Speaker 2: will assist all seven finalist cities and building strategies for

920
00:43:23,360 --> 00:43:27,520
Speaker 2: electric vehicle charging infrastructure to encourage and facilitate the adoption

921
00:43:27,880 --> 00:43:32,840
Speaker 2: of electric vehicles by individuals, businesses, and municipalities. Lawdie Dunk

922
00:43:33,360 --> 00:43:36,319
Speaker 2: so proud of this stamp of imprimature and approval. DC

923
00:43:36,440 --> 00:43:38,640
Speaker 2: Solar puts out their own press release because you know

924
00:43:38,719 --> 00:43:40,399
Speaker 2: they love a good This is great for the long

925
00:43:40,480 --> 00:43:43,520
Speaker 2: con We are now partners of the United States. We

926
00:43:43,600 --> 00:43:46,560
Speaker 2: are recognized by the top people in government as being

927
00:43:46,640 --> 00:43:50,040
Speaker 2: a go to operator to help them get things done.

928
00:43:50,560 --> 00:43:52,880
Speaker 2: A bunch of empty statements, So as long as you

929
00:43:52,920 --> 00:43:55,320
Speaker 2: don't ask the irs what they think about DC Solar,

930
00:43:55,400 --> 00:43:59,080
Speaker 2: the Feds love this company. Yeah. Meanwhile, Jeff celebrates his

931
00:43:59,160 --> 00:44:01,440
Speaker 2: new level of success as a gift to his hometown.

932
00:44:01,880 --> 00:44:05,360
Speaker 2: He buys Martinez its own minor league baseball team, and

933
00:44:05,520 --> 00:44:08,520
Speaker 2: not only that, he names it after Joe DiMaggio, who,

934
00:44:08,760 --> 00:44:11,680
Speaker 2: fun fact, was born on November twenty fifth, nineteen fourteen,

935
00:44:11,840 --> 00:44:15,160
Speaker 2: in Martinez, California. I know I didn't know that either,

936
00:44:15,360 --> 00:44:17,640
Speaker 2: learned that in this research. So in honor of the

937
00:44:17,719 --> 00:44:21,160
Speaker 2: Yankee Clipper. He names the new team the Martinez Clippers.

938
00:44:21,719 --> 00:44:24,120
Speaker 2: Don't go looking for the team. They are now defunct

939
00:44:24,320 --> 00:44:27,399
Speaker 2: because of Jeff. Anyway, he spent some of his ill

940
00:44:27,440 --> 00:44:30,840
Speaker 2: gotten gains on himself and his family. He bought himself houses,

941
00:44:31,200 --> 00:44:34,040
Speaker 2: one in Vegas, another one in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

942
00:44:34,440 --> 00:44:36,600
Speaker 2: He bought some new muscle cars because he gotta get

943
00:44:36,640 --> 00:44:39,400
Speaker 2: new muscle cars, some new trucks, new clothes for himself

944
00:44:39,440 --> 00:44:43,080
Speaker 2: and his wife. He bought a luxury box, some seats

945
00:44:43,120 --> 00:44:45,399
Speaker 2: at Allegiance Stadium. He's a Raiders fan. Of course, he's

946
00:44:45,440 --> 00:44:46,080
Speaker 2: a Raiders fan.

947
00:44:46,200 --> 00:44:46,359
Speaker 6: Yeah.

948
00:44:46,680 --> 00:44:48,399
Speaker 2: To make a little extra side money, he also starts

949
00:44:48,480 --> 00:44:51,240
Speaker 2: leasing out some of his warehouse space to pot growers

950
00:44:51,960 --> 00:44:54,319
Speaker 2: in return for a cut. Oh boy, so now he's

951
00:44:54,320 --> 00:44:57,760
Speaker 2: come full circle. He's back to medical marijuana. Twenty seventeen,

952
00:44:57,840 --> 00:45:00,920
Speaker 2: things start to get tight. The mood around the office shifts.

953
00:45:01,480 --> 00:45:04,120
Speaker 2: Jeff is known to swan through the office with literal

954
00:45:04,480 --> 00:45:07,759
Speaker 2: shopping bags of cash. That wasn't the weird part, per se,

955
00:45:08,239 --> 00:45:13,040
Speaker 2: but he and his wife Paulette installed surveillance cameras everywhere,

956
00:45:13,520 --> 00:45:16,600
Speaker 2: and his wife Paulette had a big ass TV installed

957
00:45:16,640 --> 00:45:18,400
Speaker 2: in her office, so she could watch the feed in

958
00:45:18,480 --> 00:45:21,440
Speaker 2: real time all the time. That was weird. But when

959
00:45:21,480 --> 00:45:25,040
Speaker 2: she started to pull employees aside for independent grilling about

960
00:45:25,120 --> 00:45:26,520
Speaker 2: why were you going to the bathroom so much? What

961
00:45:26,560 --> 00:45:28,399
Speaker 2: were you doing in there for so long? That made

962
00:45:28,480 --> 00:45:31,879
Speaker 2: things super weird. And then when Paulette started to march

963
00:45:31,960 --> 00:45:35,880
Speaker 2: around the office with these two huge dogs on leashes

964
00:45:36,480 --> 00:45:41,280
Speaker 2: Belgian malinoa was she named one Fu and the other Diesel. Diesel,

965
00:45:41,360 --> 00:45:44,080
Speaker 2: by the way, was a trained attack dog Diesel. And

966
00:45:44,239 --> 00:45:47,120
Speaker 2: so that's when things became cartoonishly evil and weird.

967
00:45:47,280 --> 00:45:49,279
Speaker 3: So she comes grills you and why did you go

968
00:45:49,320 --> 00:45:53,840
Speaker 3: to the bathroom? Why are you conning the government game system?

969
00:45:54,600 --> 00:45:57,640
Speaker 2: At this point, they also need more muscle than Diesel,

970
00:45:57,960 --> 00:46:00,839
Speaker 2: So they go and they hire a huge pole loan shark,

971
00:46:01,640 --> 00:46:05,680
Speaker 2: A huge a loan shark. He's Polish. Yeah, it's important

972
00:46:05,680 --> 00:46:07,799
Speaker 2: to him. So at different times he tells employees at

973
00:46:07,840 --> 00:46:11,440
Speaker 2: DC Solar that he was a prison camp survivor. He

974
00:46:11,520 --> 00:46:14,280
Speaker 2: tells other employees he is a well practiced professional killer.

975
00:46:14,680 --> 00:46:17,680
Speaker 2: He tells other ones, I'm a real life gangster. All right.

976
00:46:17,719 --> 00:46:21,000
Speaker 2: So one early investor who unfortunately had just experience what

977
00:46:21,200 --> 00:46:23,720
Speaker 2: his presence was like. Yeah, because he made some trouble

978
00:46:23,800 --> 00:46:25,960
Speaker 2: for Jeff and DC Solar because you know, he's like,

979
00:46:26,080 --> 00:46:27,520
Speaker 2: I want my money back. I'm gonna talk to the

980
00:46:27,680 --> 00:46:29,800
Speaker 2: sec or whatever. And this guy's like hey, So he

981
00:46:29,880 --> 00:46:33,560
Speaker 2: sends over this no neck persuader and professional attitude adjuster,

982
00:46:34,080 --> 00:46:36,319
Speaker 2: and the investor said, and I quote when I saw

983
00:46:36,440 --> 00:46:40,480
Speaker 2: his Polish mafia come in, that was it. After that, yeah,

984
00:46:40,640 --> 00:46:43,360
Speaker 2: the investor cuts his losses walks away, cutting off all contact.

985
00:46:43,400 --> 00:46:46,799
Speaker 2: He's like, keep my money. So twenty eighteen, the inevitable

986
00:46:46,880 --> 00:46:49,759
Speaker 2: finally occurs. An employee for DC Solders asked to do

987
00:46:49,920 --> 00:46:54,239
Speaker 2: something unethical instead, He's like no and quits. Yeah, then

988
00:46:54,320 --> 00:46:57,160
Speaker 2: he contacts the FETs because his name is Sebastian Johano

989
00:46:57,320 --> 00:46:59,759
Speaker 2: and he's an up and comer in the green energy space.

990
00:47:00,120 --> 00:47:02,480
Speaker 2: Kid is a solar energy specialist they've hired like this,

991
00:47:02,680 --> 00:47:05,120
Speaker 2: like whiz Kid. He's also somebody who has a law

992
00:47:05,200 --> 00:47:08,120
Speaker 2: degree and a business degree from Villanova, so he ain't

993
00:47:08,120 --> 00:47:10,879
Speaker 2: about to waste his life on some unethical business point

994
00:47:11,080 --> 00:47:13,600
Speaker 2: for Jeff. So he goes and he's like, no prison

995
00:47:13,680 --> 00:47:15,439
Speaker 2: time for me, bro, and he goes right to the fence.

996
00:47:15,480 --> 00:47:17,880
Speaker 2: And now the car poffs at this point they may

997
00:47:18,200 --> 00:47:20,799
Speaker 2: have some suspicious Remember they got the surveillance cameras. They're

998
00:47:20,800 --> 00:47:24,000
Speaker 2: getting suspicious. So they're now securing a future for themselves

999
00:47:24,080 --> 00:47:26,839
Speaker 2: outside of America in case, you know, they need to run.

1000
00:47:26,880 --> 00:47:28,719
Speaker 2: They need to like you know, cut tie, So they

1001
00:47:28,760 --> 00:47:30,840
Speaker 2: shift some of their millions to offs your accounts.

1002
00:47:31,080 --> 00:47:33,439
Speaker 3: This is a guy with the Constitution on this motor.

1003
00:47:33,719 --> 00:47:37,280
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, lady, liberty holding love America.

1004
00:47:37,880 --> 00:47:39,920
Speaker 2: Rips off the taxpayers and to go run away to

1005
00:47:40,760 --> 00:47:43,959
Speaker 2: Saint Kitts and Nevis because that's where he's bought a home.

1006
00:47:44,120 --> 00:47:47,239
Speaker 2: With the extra proviso that he buys a certain level

1007
00:47:47,320 --> 00:47:50,120
Speaker 2: of luxury home, he'll get citizenship and passports as a

1008
00:47:50,200 --> 00:47:53,040
Speaker 2: purpose of the purchase. So in the meantime, he's asking

1009
00:47:53,120 --> 00:47:55,279
Speaker 2: his business managers like take photos of Jeff and his

1010
00:47:55,360 --> 00:47:58,840
Speaker 2: wife Paulette for their new passports. And the business manager remembers,

1011
00:47:58,880 --> 00:48:00,600
Speaker 2: like they seem to to rush. The way they said

1012
00:48:00,600 --> 00:48:01,759
Speaker 2: it was like, we have this guy who's going to

1013
00:48:01,760 --> 00:48:04,399
Speaker 2: do it for us super quick. So the couple had

1014
00:48:04,520 --> 00:48:06,920
Speaker 2: I think a definite sense that the Feds were closing

1015
00:48:07,000 --> 00:48:09,439
Speaker 2: in because or maybe they'd heard about federal agents asking

1016
00:48:09,480 --> 00:48:12,160
Speaker 2: investors questions. Whatever it was, they knew it was time

1017
00:48:12,200 --> 00:48:16,200
Speaker 2: to flee, and yet they did not flee, Elizabeth, Yeah,

1018
00:48:16,200 --> 00:48:18,320
Speaker 2: I thought he'd appreciate this instead of fleeing. At the

1019
00:48:18,400 --> 00:48:20,720
Speaker 2: end of twenty eighteen, they decided to hold a Christmas

1020
00:48:20,800 --> 00:48:24,920
Speaker 2: party for DC Solar at the Fairmount Hotel in San Francisco.

1021
00:48:25,480 --> 00:48:28,040
Speaker 2: Jeffica threw this huge Christmas party for everybody. Right, he

1022
00:48:28,160 --> 00:48:30,600
Speaker 2: hires some music acts to play for everybody. You want

1023
00:48:30,640 --> 00:48:32,520
Speaker 2: to guess who he hired because you know you know

1024
00:48:32,640 --> 00:48:39,319
Speaker 2: these names, Power Power, No, the band, Sugar Ray. Oh no, wait,

1025
00:48:39,360 --> 00:48:39,759
Speaker 2: there's more.

1026
00:48:41,080 --> 00:48:42,399
Speaker 3: It's so perfect, there's more.

1027
00:48:43,719 --> 00:48:48,680
Speaker 2: Second, please wallho In eighteen Sugar Ray and the other

1028
00:48:48,719 --> 00:48:51,960
Speaker 2: big act was friend of the show mister Worldwide himself,

1029
00:48:52,400 --> 00:48:55,439
Speaker 2: pit Bull. They hired pit Bull and Sugar Ray. Yeah.

1030
00:48:56,280 --> 00:48:59,040
Speaker 2: And then three days later, on December eighteenth, twenty eighteen,

1031
00:48:59,200 --> 00:49:02,320
Speaker 2: one hundred and seventy five federal agents from the IRS,

1032
00:49:02,480 --> 00:49:05,880
Speaker 2: US Marshalls and the FBI, traveling in unmarked cars from

1033
00:49:05,920 --> 00:49:08,880
Speaker 2: the Sacramento Field Office. The FBI Field Office, took the

1034
00:49:08,920 --> 00:49:12,000
Speaker 2: trip down to Benetia and Martinez about nine thirty in

1035
00:49:12,000 --> 00:49:14,800
Speaker 2: the morning. Elizabeth, the one hundred and seventy five federal

1036
00:49:14,880 --> 00:49:18,840
Speaker 2: agents descended like locusts on DC Solar headquarters. At that

1037
00:49:19,080 --> 00:49:21,840
Speaker 2: same moment, a swat team kicked in the door of

1038
00:49:21,920 --> 00:49:25,600
Speaker 2: the carpaff family home searching for the couple. Then they

1039
00:49:25,640 --> 00:49:27,200
Speaker 2: were not there. With the one hundred and seventy five

1040
00:49:27,239 --> 00:49:30,359
Speaker 2: agents swarming around, Jeff phones into his office. He had

1041
00:49:30,480 --> 00:49:33,480
Speaker 2: just one question, Uh, do you see my passport in

1042
00:49:33,560 --> 00:49:40,240
Speaker 2: my wife's passport on my desk. No, they were not there, Elizabeth.

1043
00:49:40,280 --> 00:49:42,640
Speaker 2: The Feds had already sees the fence had seized them

1044
00:49:42,680 --> 00:49:45,239
Speaker 2: along with the million and a half dollars. He had

1045
00:49:45,280 --> 00:49:48,440
Speaker 2: his office safe. After hearing that his passports were nabbed

1046
00:49:48,480 --> 00:49:51,719
Speaker 2: by the Feds, Jeff just said, oh, then he hung up.

1047
00:49:52,239 --> 00:49:52,600
Speaker 6: That was it.

1048
00:49:53,680 --> 00:49:56,880
Speaker 2: I remember the DC Solar holiday party with the Sugar

1049
00:49:56,960 --> 00:49:59,160
Speaker 2: Ray and Pitbull at the Fairmount Hotel in San Francisco

1050
00:49:59,360 --> 00:50:04,080
Speaker 2: was just three days before he had a chance to run. Instead,

1051
00:50:04,120 --> 00:50:06,360
Speaker 2: he wanted to party with Sugar Aye and Pitbull.

1052
00:50:06,440 --> 00:50:07,040
Speaker 3: The hangover.

1053
00:50:07,280 --> 00:50:09,680
Speaker 2: Yeah, and so what an emotional swing this was. You know,

1054
00:50:09,760 --> 00:50:12,439
Speaker 2: you're king of the world partying with pitfull three days

1055
00:50:12,520 --> 00:50:14,880
Speaker 2: later you're a man on the run, wanted by the

1056
00:50:14,960 --> 00:50:17,840
Speaker 2: Feds to make their escape from America. The Carpoffs they

1057
00:50:17,920 --> 00:50:20,120
Speaker 2: call a friend in Las Vegas, this guy who uh

1058
00:50:20,239 --> 00:50:23,600
Speaker 2: who actually incidentally trained their attack dog Diesel. They're like, oh,

1059
00:50:23,680 --> 00:50:26,120
Speaker 2: he's probably criminally connected. So they offer their dog trainer

1060
00:50:26,200 --> 00:50:28,800
Speaker 2: six hundred and forty thousand dollars in cash and a

1061
00:50:28,880 --> 00:50:31,200
Speaker 2: Cartier men's watch if he'd arrange for them to get

1062
00:50:31,200 --> 00:50:33,480
Speaker 2: out of the country. Now, if this didn't work out,

1063
00:50:33,520 --> 00:50:36,040
Speaker 2: he had a backup plan, because Jeff got a backup plan, Elizabeth.

1064
00:50:36,320 --> 00:50:38,919
Speaker 2: Jeff told a friend, quote, I still have five hundred

1065
00:50:38,960 --> 00:50:42,239
Speaker 2: thousand dollars worth of meth buried in a cemetery in Martinez.

1066
00:50:42,360 --> 00:50:44,400
Speaker 2: What that's my emergency pership?

1067
00:50:44,520 --> 00:50:45,040
Speaker 3: Wait what.

1068
00:50:47,560 --> 00:50:51,319
Speaker 2: Doth buried in Martina? This is just like this is.

1069
00:50:54,560 --> 00:50:55,120
Speaker 4: So good.

1070
00:50:55,480 --> 00:51:00,359
Speaker 5: It's like, I know it's very this is hyperlocal were

1071
00:51:00,440 --> 00:51:04,040
Speaker 5: at this point, but like it's also superos a backup plan,

1072
00:51:04,200 --> 00:51:06,080
Speaker 5: a Las Vegas dog train.

1073
00:51:06,239 --> 00:51:08,680
Speaker 2: Yes, change your killer attack dog.

1074
00:51:09,719 --> 00:51:12,840
Speaker 3: It's like, I'm familiar. And then you have five hundred

1075
00:51:12,960 --> 00:51:18,319
Speaker 3: k meth in a graveyard in your.

1076
00:51:18,239 --> 00:51:21,680
Speaker 2: Hometown, and this is your quote emergency parachute. That's my

1077
00:51:21,840 --> 00:51:23,040
Speaker 2: old golden parachute.

1078
00:51:23,719 --> 00:51:25,360
Speaker 3: Just grab the math to get on the plane.

1079
00:51:25,440 --> 00:51:27,560
Speaker 2: Now, I's a keep in mind, you have to sell

1080
00:51:27,640 --> 00:51:30,640
Speaker 2: a half million dollars worth of myth without getting ripped

1081
00:51:30,640 --> 00:51:33,000
Speaker 2: off or busted. That's also part of your Yeah.

1082
00:51:33,080 --> 00:51:35,799
Speaker 3: And if he's street level, is gonna take him.

1083
00:51:35,680 --> 00:51:38,759
Speaker 2: A long long time. And if he does it in

1084
00:51:38,840 --> 00:51:41,840
Speaker 2: one day purchase, he's a right person to flip on

1085
00:51:42,120 --> 00:51:45,239
Speaker 2: or to just rip off. Why participate? He ain't got

1086
00:51:45,280 --> 00:51:48,719
Speaker 2: a future, He's a liability to even meet with.

1087
00:51:49,120 --> 00:51:51,839
Speaker 3: So he's he's coming in fresh like I'd roll him

1088
00:51:51,840 --> 00:51:52,480
Speaker 3: and take everything.

1089
00:51:52,600 --> 00:51:54,320
Speaker 2: So before he had a chance to bust out the

1090
00:51:54,400 --> 00:51:55,920
Speaker 2: myth from the cemetery.

1091
00:51:55,560 --> 00:51:58,200
Speaker 3: Carpoff worked on plan is it still in the seme?

1092
00:51:58,960 --> 00:52:01,800
Speaker 2: I doubt? He met his old high school buddy Bayliss

1093
00:52:01,880 --> 00:52:04,359
Speaker 2: at a Burger King parking lot, just like old times

1094
00:52:04,400 --> 00:52:06,640
Speaker 2: in high school. Yeah, right, So he asked his old

1095
00:52:06,640 --> 00:52:08,640
Speaker 2: buddy to get a burner phone for himself and take

1096
00:52:08,640 --> 00:52:10,920
Speaker 2: a trip down to Vegas. He needed his old high

1097
00:52:10,920 --> 00:52:13,360
Speaker 2: school buddy to do one more favorite man, so he

1098
00:52:13,440 --> 00:52:16,160
Speaker 2: needed him to go and destroy all the evidence. No,

1099
00:52:16,880 --> 00:52:18,800
Speaker 2: he wanted him to go down because he left a

1100
00:52:18,840 --> 00:52:21,000
Speaker 2: ton of damning evidence in a warehouse in Las Vegas.

1101
00:52:21,080 --> 00:52:22,920
Speaker 2: It's only a matter of time before the Feds figured

1102
00:52:22,920 --> 00:52:25,000
Speaker 2: it out. There's the address is written all over the office.

1103
00:52:25,400 --> 00:52:28,480
Speaker 2: So there were hundreds of faked vin plates for all

1104
00:52:28,520 --> 00:52:30,879
Speaker 2: the generator trailers, and that would connect the whole thing.

1105
00:52:31,280 --> 00:52:34,360
Speaker 2: So he's like, hey, man, the buddy, the high school buddy,

1106
00:52:34,440 --> 00:52:37,319
Speaker 2: did he do it or not? Elizabeth, I don't think

1107
00:52:37,400 --> 00:52:37,759
Speaker 2: he did it.

1108
00:52:37,920 --> 00:52:38,320
Speaker 6: He did it.

1109
00:52:38,440 --> 00:52:41,080
Speaker 2: He did the one last favorite man and then he

1110
00:52:41,160 --> 00:52:42,920
Speaker 2: flipped immediately.

1111
00:52:43,000 --> 00:52:46,160
Speaker 3: For I would I would have been like, hey, irs, FBI,

1112
00:52:46,200 --> 00:52:48,120
Speaker 3: you want to come with me running there and to

1113
00:52:49,000 --> 00:52:49,360
Speaker 3: love it.

1114
00:52:49,960 --> 00:52:52,600
Speaker 2: Just bring some bags on, some gloves. So he becomes

1115
00:52:52,640 --> 00:52:55,880
Speaker 2: a cooperating wedness for the FEDS against his high school buddy. Now,

1116
00:52:55,920 --> 00:52:58,760
Speaker 2: in July twenty nineteen, he met with the US attorneys

1117
00:52:58,800 --> 00:53:00,640
Speaker 2: and he agrees to a plea deal and that was it.

1118
00:53:01,000 --> 00:53:02,880
Speaker 2: That was pretty much all the FEDS needed because Jeff's

1119
00:53:02,920 --> 00:53:06,440
Speaker 2: old high school buddy knew everything and everyone involved because

1120
00:53:06,480 --> 00:53:08,480
Speaker 2: he was so close to Jeff, and Jeff needed his

1121
00:53:08,640 --> 00:53:11,120
Speaker 2: him to help with all the illegal stuff. So anyone

1122
00:53:11,200 --> 00:53:14,360
Speaker 2: he dealt with was also doing the illegal stuff. So

1123
00:53:14,480 --> 00:53:16,600
Speaker 2: all he was was just a list of illegal people

1124
00:53:16,719 --> 00:53:18,840
Speaker 2: in himself. He told them everything, and then they just

1125
00:53:18,880 --> 00:53:21,640
Speaker 2: built a case against everybody, the General Counsel, the VP

1126
00:53:21,760 --> 00:53:25,400
Speaker 2: of Operations, everybody, the Fed's accused DC Sular defrauding their

1127
00:53:25,440 --> 00:53:28,080
Speaker 2: customers out of a sum of nearly a billion dollars.

1128
00:53:28,440 --> 00:53:30,640
Speaker 2: The Fed's had plenty of charges to go around. Sure,

1129
00:53:30,760 --> 00:53:33,400
Speaker 2: so it was like a guilty party at the federal courthouse, right,

1130
00:53:33,520 --> 00:53:36,160
Speaker 2: the General Council was there, the accountant, the VIP of operations.

1131
00:53:36,200 --> 00:53:38,839
Speaker 2: They all plead guilty. Then it's Jeff and Paulette's turn.

1132
00:53:39,160 --> 00:53:42,200
Speaker 2: They plead guilty. In January twenty twenty, Jeff gets charged

1133
00:53:42,200 --> 00:53:45,440
Speaker 2: with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering. His

1134
00:53:45,560 --> 00:53:48,720
Speaker 2: wife Paulette also caught a charge of money laundering.

1135
00:53:48,920 --> 00:53:49,120
Speaker 3: Yeah.

1136
00:53:49,280 --> 00:53:52,960
Speaker 2: So the companies, though, who had effectively conspired with DC

1137
00:53:53,160 --> 00:53:56,480
Speaker 2: solig to take advantage of this lucrative tax credit, were

1138
00:53:56,600 --> 00:54:00,600
Speaker 2: ordered to return the tax break money to the US Treasury,

1139
00:54:00,840 --> 00:54:03,920
Speaker 2: otherwise it could essensibly be seen as robbing the US taxpayer.

1140
00:54:04,560 --> 00:54:06,480
Speaker 2: We're particularly sensitive about that.

1141
00:54:06,800 --> 00:54:07,000
Speaker 3: Yeah.

1142
00:54:07,320 --> 00:54:10,040
Speaker 2: So for his high crimes against the American people, Jeff

1143
00:54:10,120 --> 00:54:14,520
Speaker 2: was convicted and sentenced two thirty years in federal Oh wow,

1144
00:54:14,840 --> 00:54:18,040
Speaker 2: sent to a medium security facility at Victorville. That's fun,

1145
00:54:18,160 --> 00:54:22,680
Speaker 2: oh the desert, yeah, victor So meanwhile, his wife, Paulette,

1146
00:54:22,680 --> 00:54:25,680
Speaker 2: she caught eleven year sentence, So see you again. Laid

1147
00:54:25,760 --> 00:54:29,320
Speaker 2: up Paulette, and so ends the sordid saga of DC Solar,

1148
00:54:29,440 --> 00:54:34,160
Speaker 2: the once proud green energy billion dollar business out of Martinez, California.

1149
00:54:34,719 --> 00:54:36,240
Speaker 2: What's a ridiculous takeaway here, Elizabeth?

1150
00:54:36,280 --> 00:54:39,279
Speaker 3: Oh, the takeaway there's so many. There's so many. I

1151
00:54:40,239 --> 00:54:45,120
Speaker 3: think that it's so frustrating when you have these great ideas,

1152
00:54:45,800 --> 00:54:50,080
Speaker 3: great intentions, totally and the crime just seeps in like

1153
00:54:50,520 --> 00:54:51,719
Speaker 3: water through a crack.

1154
00:54:51,719 --> 00:54:54,080
Speaker 2: And the lack of due diligence. And then you have

1155
00:54:54,200 --> 00:54:56,160
Speaker 2: the people who are everyone's taking advantage because I didn't

1156
00:54:56,160 --> 00:54:57,680
Speaker 2: bring in. There was tax lawyers, there was a bunch

1157
00:54:57,719 --> 00:54:59,600
Speaker 2: of other people who are also involved in the machinery

1158
00:54:59,600 --> 00:54:59,960
Speaker 2: of this crime.

1159
00:55:00,160 --> 00:55:03,600
Speaker 3: Well you saw it with the PPP loans exactly, just

1160
00:55:03,719 --> 00:55:05,680
Speaker 3: like everybody looking money.

1161
00:55:06,239 --> 00:55:08,239
Speaker 2: Yeah. The lack of ethics, I mean it galls me.

1162
00:55:08,320 --> 00:55:10,120
Speaker 2: I don't take part in this kind of crime. I

1163
00:55:10,239 --> 00:55:12,160
Speaker 2: find this like I don't like to steal from the

1164
00:55:12,160 --> 00:55:15,239
Speaker 2: American taxpayers. I think that's just the laziest way to

1165
00:55:15,360 --> 00:55:17,400
Speaker 2: do it. I don't mind some co corporation though. So

1166
00:55:17,800 --> 00:55:19,120
Speaker 2: I'm not the most ethicult person.

1167
00:55:19,160 --> 00:55:22,040
Speaker 3: I pay way more taxes than all the billionaires.

1168
00:55:22,160 --> 00:55:22,920
Speaker 2: Yeah, oh yeah you do.

1169
00:55:23,080 --> 00:55:26,480
Speaker 3: I'll pay my taxes and be grudgingly and get mad

1170
00:55:26,560 --> 00:55:28,640
Speaker 3: about it. But at the same time, it's like, that's

1171
00:55:28,680 --> 00:55:30,440
Speaker 3: what keeps this exactly.

1172
00:55:30,600 --> 00:55:32,360
Speaker 2: I want us to spend our money wisely, and I

1173
00:55:32,400 --> 00:55:34,840
Speaker 2: want us to do stuff intentionally and with the intention

1174
00:55:35,000 --> 00:55:36,000
Speaker 2: of looking up for the people.

1175
00:55:36,480 --> 00:55:38,960
Speaker 3: Well, and everyone likes to act like it's little things

1176
00:55:39,040 --> 00:55:42,239
Speaker 3: here and there where people are getting over on the government.

1177
00:55:42,040 --> 00:55:42,480
Speaker 2: Things like this.

1178
00:55:42,719 --> 00:55:45,759
Speaker 3: It's Huge's so many of these right under everyone's nose.

1179
00:55:45,800 --> 00:55:48,200
Speaker 3: It's not like, oh, I'm getting extra food stamps and.

1180
00:55:48,600 --> 00:55:50,600
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm just noticing one that there's criminal. There's some

1181
00:55:50,719 --> 00:55:53,360
Speaker 2: that are like gray area where it's not really criminal,

1182
00:55:53,400 --> 00:55:57,200
Speaker 2: but it's like the product of inside relationships and so forth. Anyway,

1183
00:55:57,239 --> 00:56:01,320
Speaker 2: my ridiculous takeaway, Lizbeth. Folks who wrap themselves up in

1184
00:56:01,360 --> 00:56:03,719
Speaker 2: the flag you mentioned this earlier. The folks who have

1185
00:56:03,840 --> 00:56:06,080
Speaker 2: a truck that plays a star spangled banner and a

1186
00:56:06,160 --> 00:56:10,520
Speaker 2: motorcycle with the what do you call it the Constitution.

1187
00:56:10,160 --> 00:56:13,719
Speaker 3: On it, right, the Constitution.

1188
00:56:14,000 --> 00:56:17,359
Speaker 2: You can't trust that person, that's my read, because they

1189
00:56:17,400 --> 00:56:19,759
Speaker 2: don't They clearly don't mean it, like they are using

1190
00:56:19,960 --> 00:56:22,440
Speaker 2: MRICA as a signal to others. It's a code, it's

1191
00:56:22,480 --> 00:56:24,480
Speaker 2: a symbol, but it is not to them. A nation

1192
00:56:24,560 --> 00:56:27,640
Speaker 2: of three hundred million people striving together to make sense

1193
00:56:27,680 --> 00:56:28,799
Speaker 2: of this, all right, and.

1194
00:56:29,000 --> 00:56:32,480
Speaker 3: What have they done for the country's.

1195
00:56:32,239 --> 00:56:34,759
Speaker 2: He's disregarding the abundance and the beauty of this land

1196
00:56:34,800 --> 00:56:36,680
Speaker 2: and the people is everything I love about America. He's

1197
00:56:37,280 --> 00:56:39,520
Speaker 2: he's abusing that stuff, right, And I don't mean anyone

1198
00:56:39,560 --> 00:56:42,560
Speaker 2: who like loves flags is bs. That's not what I'm saying. No, No,

1199
00:56:42,800 --> 00:56:45,080
Speaker 2: I mean those folks who you see out there who

1200
00:56:45,160 --> 00:56:47,480
Speaker 2: wrap themselves up in symbols are often the same ones

1201
00:56:47,520 --> 00:56:51,440
Speaker 2: who will rob everyday American people because that's their extent,

1202
00:56:51,640 --> 00:56:55,560
Speaker 2: is a symbol. They're not they are not committed anyway.

1203
00:56:55,640 --> 00:56:57,239
Speaker 2: I agree. There you go. That's it. I don't know

1204
00:56:57,239 --> 00:56:58,040
Speaker 2: how ridiculous that is.

1205
00:56:58,160 --> 00:57:00,799
Speaker 3: That's it's ridiculous to talk Breakfast World.

1206
00:57:01,160 --> 00:57:09,440
Speaker 2: Yes, please, could you favor us with one? Oh my god,

1207
00:57:13,200 --> 00:57:13,600
Speaker 2: I love you.

1208
00:57:17,920 --> 00:57:21,760
Speaker 6: What's up you guys, longtime listener, You've had me at

1209
00:57:21,960 --> 00:57:25,880
Speaker 6: the very first episode with Guy Fieri's stolen car and

1210
00:57:26,040 --> 00:57:30,040
Speaker 6: Regina Cornflower I believe her name was. I just wanted

1211
00:57:30,080 --> 00:57:35,200
Speaker 6: to give you a proposal, Zaren. My husband is an

1212
00:57:35,240 --> 00:57:38,120
Speaker 6: engineer for the VNSF. How about you get in that

1213
00:57:38,320 --> 00:57:43,520
Speaker 6: way and you can steal all of the nikes you want.

1214
00:57:45,120 --> 00:57:46,920
Speaker 6: Love you guys, and love the show.

1215
00:57:50,360 --> 00:57:51,080
Speaker 2: Is amazing.

1216
00:57:52,520 --> 00:57:56,160
Speaker 3: This never happened, just hypothetically. It's just kidding.

1217
00:57:57,880 --> 00:58:00,040
Speaker 2: Thanks for that. And always you guys can find and

1218
00:58:00,160 --> 00:58:03,720
Speaker 2: it's online Ridiculous Crime on the social medias mostly it's

1219
00:58:03,760 --> 00:58:06,000
Speaker 2: I think, blue Sky and Instagram at this point, no

1220
00:58:06,240 --> 00:58:08,640
Speaker 2: new ones. We're not on like frack hole or anything.

1221
00:58:09,120 --> 00:58:11,920
Speaker 2: So we have a website, Ridiculous Crime dot com. It

1222
00:58:12,160 --> 00:58:17,400
Speaker 2: is once again From's actually website of the year in

1223
00:58:17,480 --> 00:58:19,920
Speaker 2: a map related category. So we're very excited about that.

1224
00:58:20,200 --> 00:58:21,720
Speaker 3: We have amazing maps.

1225
00:58:22,000 --> 00:58:25,040
Speaker 2: Yeah. So we also love your talkbacks obviously, so please

1226
00:58:25,440 --> 00:58:28,640
Speaker 2: download the iHeart app. Get in there, download it, record

1227
00:58:28,680 --> 00:58:31,919
Speaker 2: yourself a talkback and maybe hear your voice here we'd

1228
00:58:32,000 --> 00:58:33,640
Speaker 2: like to hear it. And also you can email us

1229
00:58:33,640 --> 00:58:35,400
Speaker 2: if you like a Ridiculous Crime at gmail dot com.

1230
00:58:35,520 --> 00:58:38,320
Speaker 2: As always, please start the email Dear producer d thanks

1231
00:58:38,360 --> 00:58:46,600
Speaker 2: for listening. We will catch you next crime. Ridiculous Crime

1232
00:58:46,720 --> 00:58:49,760
Speaker 2: is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton and Zaron Burnett, produced and

1233
00:58:49,920 --> 00:58:54,480
Speaker 2: edited by Obama's favorite green energy powered producer Dave Kutstin,

1234
00:58:54,720 --> 00:58:57,760
Speaker 2: and starring and at least ructor as Judith. Research is

1235
00:58:57,800 --> 00:59:01,040
Speaker 2: by George W. Bush's Environmental Think Hank, Marissa Brown, and

1236
00:59:01,240 --> 00:59:04,480
Speaker 2: Alex French. Our theme song is by twenty twenty five

1237
00:59:04,680 --> 00:59:08,640
Speaker 2: pol Earth Festival headliners Green Tech and The Scammers aka

1238
00:59:08,760 --> 00:59:11,800
Speaker 2: Thomas Lee and Travis Duttony. The host wardrobe provided by

1239
00:59:11,800 --> 00:59:14,959
Speaker 2: Botany five hundred guest hair and makeup by Spartakle Shot

1240
00:59:15,280 --> 00:59:19,280
Speaker 2: and mister Andre. Executive producers are Joe Demaggio's Ghost Hunters,

1241
00:59:19,400 --> 00:59:30,080
Speaker 2: Ben Bolin and Noel Brown. Red Crime Say It One

1242
00:59:30,120 --> 00:59:32,520
Speaker 2: More Time, Geeks Crime.

1243
00:59:33,320 --> 00:59:36,680
Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio four more podcasts.

1244
00:59:36,800 --> 00:59:39,960
Speaker 1: My heart Radio visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or

1245
00:59:40,000 --> 00:59:41,760
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.