DC Solar executive sentenced to 8 years; Ordered to pay $619.4 million in restitution

SACRAMENTO (CBS SF) -- Alan Hansen was sentenced Tuesday to eight years in prison and ordered to pay $619,415,950  in restitution for participating in a billion-dollar Ponzi scheme involving DC Solar.

Tuesday's sentencing came after the 51-year-old Vacaville man pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States and aiding and abetting money laundering.

Between 2011 and 2018, DC Solar manufactured mobile solar generator units that the company claimed were being used to provide emergency power to cellphone towers and lighting at sporting and other events.

In reality, at least half of the approximately 17,000 solar generators the company claimed to have been manufactured did not exist.

Jeff and Paulette Carpoff, both of Martinez, and their co-conspirators solicited funds from investors using the inflated numbers. And in typical Ponzi scam fashion, they paid DC Solar's early investors with funds contributed by later investors.

Meanwhile, Carpoff was using the funds to finance luxury homes and automobiles, the purchase of a minor league baseball team and a sponsorship of a NASCAR team.  

"Mr. Carpoff lived a luxurious life as a successful businessman," said Special Agent in Charge Mark H. Pearson back in November. "In reality, he manipulated the system to his advantage by lying to investors, promising significant federal tax credits, and laundering his ill-gotten gains."  

The forfeiture associated with the case included seizing and auctioning 148 of the Carpoffs' luxury and collector vehicles, including the 1978 Firebird previously owned by actor Burt Reynolds. This historical auction resulted in recouping approximately $8.233 million.  

According to court documents, Hansen was an employee of a telecom company with which DC Solar had done some limited business. In that role, Hansen accepted $1 million from co-conspirators to fraudulently sign a false contract reflecting a much greater amount of supposed business leasing the solar power units.

After signing the contract, Hansen took a job at DC Solar at a significant pay increase. Then as a DC Solar executive, Hansen and a co-conspirator agreed to share $20,000 cash from Jeff Carpoff to sign a false agreement related to the earlier contract by forging the signature of a former telecom company employee.

Hansen's co-conspirators used the false contract and forged agreement to induce still further payments by victims. He was paid for signing the first false contract through a series of interstate wire transfers into an account he set up in the name of a consulting company.

Federal prosecutors said Hansen knew the money he received came from payments by DC Solar investors, and that DC Solar was deceiving them to induce those payments.

On Nov. 9, 2021, Jeff Carpoff was sentenced to 30 years in prison and ordered to pay $790.6 million in restitution for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering. His wife Paulette Carpoff has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States and money laundering, and is scheduled to be sentenced on June 28, 2022.

On Nov. 16, 2021, Joseph W. Bayliss, 46, of Martinez, was sentenced to three years in prison and ordered to pay $481.3 million in restitution for securities fraud and conspiracy in connection with the scheme. On April 12, 2022, DC Solar CFO Robert A. Karmann, 55, of Clayton, was sentenced to six years in prison and ordered to pay $624 million.

Other defendants have pleaded guilty to criminal offenses related to the fraud scheme and are scheduled for sentencing. Ronald J. Roach, 55, of Walnut Creek, is scheduled to be sentenced on June 28, 2022; and Ryan Guidry, 45, of Pleasant Hill, is scheduled to be sentenced on June 7, 2022.

Paulette Carpoff and Guidry face a maximum statutory penalty of 15 years in prison. Roach faces a maximum statutory penalty of 10 years prison.