Jeff Carpoff, a former auto mechanic from California, founded DC Solar in 2008, promoting it as a manufacturer of mobile solar generators (MSGs) designed to provide emergency power for applications like cellphone towers and sporting events. Between 2011 and 2018, Carpoff and his associates solicited approximately millions from investors, enticing them with promises of federal solar tax credits and lease revenues from the MSGs. However, the company produced fewer than half of the 17,000 units it claimed, and the purported lease revenues were largely fabricated. Instead, DC Solar operated as a Ponzi scheme, using funds from new investors to pay returns to earlier ones.