So basically, if he had actually found someone to design the systems properly he would be a billionaire legitimately.

I find it pretty amazing how he was willing to hire employees and make million-dollar deals to perpetuate the scam, but hiring an actual engineer to re-design his trailers so he could actually sell them and go legit has apparently never occurred to him.

Jeff was the biggest sucker of them all. The companies that invested in his fraud and received staggering tax breaks can pin it all on him, and it's his word against their word. Jeff goes to jail, and those companies are basically scouting the land for the next Jeff that can help them in a similar way.

That line about Tax Credits... probably the most true thing he stated in the whole thing: How many companies refused to look closely because the tax-payer was footing a large chunk of the bill?

Scams rich people, gets 30 years. Rich people screw poor people - get rewarded with billions.

Is it me, or is rigging a trailer for solar energy not too difficult to begin with

It's almost as if handing out tax dollars with little to no oversight and no market pressure requiring a return on investment leads to wide scale fraud...

I live in Arizona, which is a state with a HUGE solar market due to being a desert. I have seen the DC commercials and ads and thought to myself "yeah, that makes sense. A solar panel you can move". It was a simple idea. Had no clue it didn't even work. Just kinda assume if they're spending that much on marketing, they would have a working product. Especially if it;s a literal product you can see and not like a digital crypto currency or something non-tangible. Crazy I didn't know it was a scam until this video. great stuff, as always!

The "i'm not so smart to be able to run such a scam!" defense was the funniest part of the whole story lol

The whole time I thought this story was wild, but nothing could have prepared me for the phrase "500k worth of meth buried in a cemetery"

And I'm guessing that none of the companies "tricked" into buying this scam ever had to pay back the tax cuts they profited from?

"...He was gonna squeeze the f**k out of those lemons."😆

People's ability to scam the shit out of others never ceases to amaze me

All they had to do was be legitimate. Just make a product that works. It wouldn't have even been that hard. I don't understand how you can just let this runaway and instead of panicking, you buy 129 cars and live like a multimillionaire until you're caught then put into prison for 30 years. He could've had a profitable business and retired somewhere a lot nicer than prison.

I can guarantee you the major companies knew it was a scam. They didn't care though, because they were getting their tax breaks anyway, and they knew when it all blew up in their face, he would get butt fucked with the charges and they would wash their hands of the whole situation immediately. There's no way in hell he got away with a nonexistent product for that long, people had to know. There are apparently 17000 of them and literally no one ever sees them out in the open world because none of them are actually being rented and no one asks questions? Yeah, nah, they knew.

We actually bought out some of his trailer’s from auctions. Gutted them and used the inverters for off grid battery storage. The stuff was junk and half of the trailers didn’t even have wires in them. He would put a small battery in there to power a gps token and make it look like they had them up and running on sites when they just sat in a field doing nothing.

why do these million or even billion dollar scammers never have an exit plan? they know it will eventually end and should make plans for that, slowly funnel money into an offshore account and have a private jet ready at an airport, once you're getting towards the end point of the scam or when people start sniffing around you just bail, you should have been able to funnel several million maybe even tens of millions so you're set for life in a nonextradition country.

Reminded me of my grandfather, the lead accountant/vice president equivalent of a small local bank decades ago. One of their appointed presidents squandered bank money on dining rich people and bad investments, ran when he got caught, the next president made even worse investments that led to the employees buying out the bank. My grandfather had to settle the books, which took two years trying to track everything down, and when he was done two hot shot lawyers showed up with the IRS and forced the bank to shut down. There were no appeals, they didn't even bother looking at the books, just walked in and everyone was fired. I think Chase bought it up for something like a penny for every hundred dollars and then sued the former employees for the difference. All six of them lost everything and my grandfather spent the rest of his life trying to build up enough money to keep my grandmother afloat after he died.

It's not a KiraTV video unless he uses the phrase "robbing Peter to pay Paul"

1st year EE students could put together a basic solar panel array, inverter, and battery. How was this so difficult that they had to turn to a Ponzi scheme?

Was initially surprised I’ve never heard of this, but considering how bad it makes these large companies and the US government look, I’m not so surprised. Plus I guess COVID kinda knocked the wind out of its sails

I have no idea how such big companies manage to develop nothing and still people believe they developed something without even trying it once.

The minute investors accepted that DC Solar had used their own auditor to verify their inventory, that should have been the huge red flag for everyone. I've never seen a legit deal where collateral was involved where the company was allowed to use their own auditor. It's always an independent 3rd party that is approved by the investor/lender.

Interesting. There was a case that was very similar in germany. The company FlowTex has produced horizontal drills. Over 3000 drills were sold while only 120 existed. Via sell and lease back they always had enough money to pay the leasing rates as more and more non-existing drills could be sold.

Another certified neighborhood classic!

Never heard of this scumbag before this was really interesting .The car collection he had was ridiculous and impressive .Thanks Kira !

How could all of these companies not care if they had a working product, or any product at all?

At any point they could of hired engineers and actually make this legitimate and nobody would of known. Greed is a scary thing. Also i 100% believe the corporations knew but ignored for the tax returns. Especially since even if everything came out no blame would be on them

I read this title, and thought, "Is this about the "SOLAR FREAKIN' ROADWAYS" thing?" I guess not, but hey, still cool. Anyway, hope you're doing well mate. Here's a comment for the old KZfaq Algorithm.

He could have hired a PE, particularly an EE to design a system for him for the cost of like $3-5k at MOST, that's for a first-of-its-kind design. Components, trailer, labor, etc. would have cost around maybe $20k, => someone that is in the position to know. $150k I would have actually started laughing, like deliriously laughing, even back then that was exorbitant, when he did his scam the total cost to customer should have been less than ~$50k / unit. Including good profit margins, overhead, equipment, and labor (the Solar Modules themselves back then were more expensive than now, but not to the level of $100k or $150k retail price).

Those major companies turned a blind eye for sure. The tax breaks were too delicious for them to do any actual due diligence in investigating the situation.

He had some smaller opportunity to look for a solar engineer and put that person as the lead engineer to produce the products for his company. He blew it on partying. Guess he knows how to manage money. Probably one of the people who can blow away a half a billion dollar lottery in 5 years.

Before Solar City became Tesla we got a lot of calls to go to houses and fix some DC systems. Always thought something was sketchy about them.

A perfect example of the Dunning-Kruger effect. Those companies knew exactly what the deal was and were more than happy to let it continue as long as they kept seeing the benefits.

"But Bayless sensed the Feds weren't that stupid". Always a good assumption. If FBI agents are already showing up, its a safe bet that they've already got the rope, tied the noose, and placed it around your neck. Now they just need to tighten it.

There was one parked in the Martinez, Ca, Ace Hardware parking lot next to the roach coach. I saw the Kubota Low Boy generator on it. Solar, inverters, and lithium batteries were of interest to me so I had a look. I thought it had a lot of wasted space and was poorly designed. Somebody told me that it was for rent but nobody was interested. I figured that someday I would build one for my own personal use as lithium batteries, inverters, MPPT units were getting much better and cheaper seemingly every 6 months. Maybe.....

I'm in stitches watching KZfaq play ads for companies advertising solar panels while watching this lmao

The idea was sound even if the only thing they were marketed as were rentals with the occasional full purchase at double the production cost. They would have been reasonably priced to build. The man was sitting on a gold mine idea but it just wasn't fast enough for him. He wanted it all now. Imagine where he would be now if he had gone it legitimately. Most likely he would have sold off the company for billions and been set for the rest of his life.

I just wanted to say, this video has the best overall production, pacing, and writing of anything you've put out, man.

If he had built a aluminum 52’ trailer to pull behind a semi. He could have actually made something with enough room to generate real power

I work in solar, and was offered some of those trailers in an auction. I didn't know the story behind them had so much intrigue. I didn't participate in the auction. I needed trailer-mounted solar modules, but I was building the modules, not buying them. The diesel generator was just dead weight I'd need to get rid of. I ended up building my own trailers, and they are in my backyard to this day.

Gubment subsidies are the real scam, forcing the taxpayer to foot the bill for an industry that has no viability. Not to mention all the corruption that eventually follows. If it was actually profitable, it wouldn't need subsidies.

The saddest thing about this is it was a decent idea with a lot of uses. Portable, non-fuel-sourced power is great... it's too bad he sucked at business and apparently didn't know enough about solar to put it together correctly.

"Im not smart enough to run a scam like this!" Yes dude, thats why you got caught and are in court rn!

As soon as you said "connections with silicon valley" this pissed me off. Shocker the scam bank was involved.

Thanks for making another one of these Kira, always enjoy these longer form, documentary style videos. Fingers crossed this one doesn't require further edits.

100% those first companies knew, they just turned a blind eye knowing they were getting tax credits.

I count 10 solar panels on the trailer. That is about half of what a house would have. I am not an engineer, but even simple me can figure out that it is not going to generate a lot of electricity and $150,000 is wildly over priced.

Love when I see an upload here, I know it's gonna be a good one. The quality of these is always amazing, they seem so well researched and high enough quality I could see it being a series on TV and I'd believe it.

My guess would be that these investors wanted in on it because it would help hike up their ESG score, which is why it took so long for anything to be discovered.

You're a great story teller. Very informative and enjoyable, albeit sometimes with disturbing content.

Excellent video! I had not heard of this before, and you do a phenomenal job presenting everything!

I actually own one of the DC Solar trailers. It used to be a solar generator but that was removed and now I use the trailer (manufactured by Carson trailer) for moving my equipment. It's a 10k trailer, wich is decently rated for something supposed to have very little weight on it.

Dude there is a dutch company in The Netherlands that is doing exactly this! The company is called Volta Energy and they are growing fast with huge number of investments. How did this guy not turn this into an actual legitimate company is beyond me.

It's like this guy was just determined to take something legitimate and turn it into a scam. Everything started off extremely legitimate and could have been great if he just wasn't trying to scam people. 🤦🏿

I love the energy and the work you put in, the research and time to make this documentaries.. Keep it up. Watching you

How the hell were solar panels on a trailer with a battery revolutionary?

That's weird. So companies bought those trailers to get tax benefits, but then left them to warehouses to rot because simply owning them was the beneficial part? All the customers should be investigated and it should be made absolutely sure that if trailer was not in use, no tax benefir for you then. Also I got exited about that trailer in the beginning. That's a great idea. If it would work..

This is insane in this day and age. Great video, thank you

Internet sure helps show you how many people are really out there trying to scam you, it's ridiculous.

Great doc. Love your work Kira.

My takeaway from this, as if I did not know this already, is that so-called "investors" of all types are not nearly as smart as they would like you to believe, and that includes WB. In fact, having spent years working as an investment analyst I can of course confirm from personal experience that the majority of people in the financial industry, people with several degrees and a long record of experience, are more often wrong than they are right, and the majority of them are two-bit hacks that often neglect due diligence, oversight and proper financial control. Moreover, the entire financial industry is incestuous in the extreme, where deals are made in return for what amounts to overt kickbacks in the form of luxury goods, fully paid for holidays and everything else under the sun you can imagine, legal or not. I would blow your mind if I were to actually mention things I have seen, but YT would not look favourably on me even mentioning the words. So when you rightfully ask yourself, how did so many people in high placed positions not see this sooner, trust me on this, you give them way more credit than they deserve. Lastly, large scale investors make money essentially via what amounts to little more than "gambling" but since there really is no upper limit to the upside when they make a correct call, it cancels out the other 9 times out of 10 they make incorrect calls.

This was a great video, bud! Loved it! We have a solar panel fraud where I live too (near Nashville TN). Very similar guy!

What hurts to watch is how he had so many opportunities to be legitimate

The crazy part about this to me is hoe long he took to get reported considering he had to ask many many people to break the law with him, it only takes one person getting the offer from him and reporting him to ruin the company, and yet everybody was down to be criminals with him and not report, really makes you question the American business landscape.

Whole green thing is a scam

What a top tier video, editing on-point, our man sounding as good as ever, great script

I love these stories. Keep em coming. They are one of the most enjoyable things I watch.

So if someone had hired a real electrical engineer, and Jeff had maybe not blown assloads of money on pretending to be rich, they might have had a real product to rent out.

he got such an insane golden ticket and flubbed it by not choosing to just make a few goddamn solar panel trailers that worked correctly like he could still have lived the same life and whatnot if he had gone and did it straight

Fascinating story. Well documented. You make the best mini documentaries I've ever seen.

Great! Subscribed immediately. Excited to see what else you have

The wife getting 1/3 the jail time is hilarious when she was clearly as involved as him.

In the words of an Aussie legend.. "The rich get richer the poor get the picture"

That was a much higher quality than your usual videos. Good job.

Kira, I like this format; this story telling style. I like you content in general but this is nice to listen to.

I wonder how many of these huge scam companies are out there now, still undetected?

At this point it would’ve just been easier for him to run his business legitimately than go through all the hoops of holding up this facade

Love your content man. I remember when you had 50k followers. Keep it up!

I admire the energy these scammers have. I don't even have the energy to be a criminal.

It is insane how easy it was for Jeff to manipulate the free market. The fact that he was able to do all that while having THAT for his resume.... American capitalism needs some help, man. Great reporting by the way. This channel is getting better and better!

How tf do you not get more views on these?! Consistency and qaulity.

Probably my favorite video from you. Great job Kira! Commenting for the algorithm

always be here for you kiratv 🙌

These things happen a lot in China: people make barely functional product to meet policy requirement to get tax break or subsidy. It's not fraud, it's a coordinated system of corruption that involves Jeff, the companies, and maybe even some government officials. If I guess correctly, many of the parties involved know the nature of this product and bought it anyway. As stated in the video, the solar panels may as well be paper models, the tax break is all that matters.

Why didn't he just start a podcast?! With his history and liking to tell about it, it would be perfect.

Love when you do these videos. Fascinating story.

Thanks for the episode. Never even heard about this one before.

I always wandered the story behind DC Solar, I ran across the liquidation auction and almost all of them didn't work. I was shocked that they had 100 of these trailers and only a handful did much.

“So he decided to stop lying to himself” Oh so he actually came clean and told people abou “So he doubled down on the crime” ….ah of course….

The absolute crazy thing about this is: Firstly, not a single investor enlisted anyone with semi tiny bits of solar knowledge to understand that there is no way the solar panels could have kept up with the power demand. Secondly, since they had a generator on each unit they could have used it to charge the batteries faster than the panels. Maybe they could have gotten some percentage of green energy. As the generator may not have to run 100% of the time. They probably would have gotten a very low green percentage but it would have been something along the lines of what they promised. Finally, the companies really 9nly wanted to buy the tax credit. He should jabe never offered a return. Meanwhile the market wonders why smart people don't trust the exchange.

Appreciate this new format of yours (at least new to me). Hope you're doing fine, wishing you all the best!

Imagine if he'd invested as much effort into making a product that works as he did into lying. He'd be one of the richest people in the country by now most likely.

I remember John Oliver doing a special on the issue with the government investment into green energy. It was summed up as a good idea that was poorly executed. And things like DC Solar that made it such a bad execution. It was pointed out on his show that there were a lot of bad actors involved and were clearly taking advantage of the government and the money they were giving away. This whole thing really damaged the public perception of green energy and has destroyed pretty much all trust into it. Now you see nothing but negative reactions to it.

The DC Solar Panel story is always one of my favorites. So happy to see you cover it.

Imagine being a 100% made man because you had some basic shit in your garage and by pure chance knew a guy then you fumble the bag like this. This man was forced into being a billionaire and just wouldn't stand for it.

How could they not figure out the solar? Its relatively simple.. I'm a mediocre mechanic and crappy welder I'm telling you I could have put one of those trailers together. There's premade parts for all the controllers. I don't get it.

So Jeff's wife benefitted equally (or more) from the scam, yet she only got 11 years, as opposed to his 30?

What??? Companies will pretend to care about real issues to only save money? Wild.

What a fantastic video! One of your best yet.