00:00The mechanic who repaired the cars put the world's richest investors on a 1 billion U.S. dollar stake, which amounts to about 8,500 crore rupees.
00:10He dared to do this openly by living in a country like America.
00:15Neither did he run away with a loan, nor did he invest in a bank, but he earned all this money by selling solar panels.
00:24His planning was so dangerous that even the world's biggest industrialists fell for his trap.
00:30But what did he do?
00:33Who was the person who trapped investors like Warren Buffett and how did his plot break?
00:42Welcome to ZemTV's videos again.
00:45Jeff Karpov, a 36-year-old citizen of California, started a car repairing business with his wife.
00:52In which both of them used to earn daily bread for their children as mechanics.
00:56But after a while, their business became tough and it became difficult for them to feed their children.
01:03Jeff had a wealth of ghosts in his mind, so he kept doing something to fulfill his dream.
01:11But failure has always been his fate.
01:14When his financial condition became very bad, he started selling drugs so that he could feed his children.
01:21Gradually, he started getting loans, it became difficult to pay home rent and other bills.
01:28And selling drugs did not seem like a good option to him.
01:32That's why he started trying to find a job.
01:36Finally, he got a job as a solar panel salesman.
01:40He used to meet people all day to sell solar panels, and that's why he kept getting feedback from people.
01:48After a while, he realized that people are interested in buying solar panels, but they are afraid that their solar panels may be stolen.
01:58Jeff Karpov could have made a lot of money by eliminating this fear.
02:03Because now he had a solid idea.
02:06He thought that why not do something to keep people's solar panels safe.
02:12If these panels are fixed on a truck or trailer and parked safely at night after using it all day, it can be a good option.
02:24The plan was very good, but there was one problem that Jeff Karpov was not educated.
02:30That is, he did not have the technical knowledge of how to make this plan successful.
02:35So he contacted his brother-in-law, who was a mechanic.
02:40After a while, they made a mobile solar generator.
02:45It consisted of a frame with tires under it, and solar panels were fixed on this frame.
02:52After using the solar panels, they could be locked again and parked in a safe place.
02:59On the other hand, portable diesel generators were also available in the market, and they also worked like Jeff Karpov's idea.
03:07The only difference was that Jeff was using solar energy.
03:11The market for portable generators was 3 billion US dollars.
03:15Neither Jeff nor his brother-in-law had any idea about how to compete with this market or how to attract people from diesel generators to solar generators.
03:28But fate was kind to him.
03:30A customer named Watson used to come to his car repair shop, who was a software professional himself.
03:37When he found out about Jeff's invention, he offered him to make a company.
03:42The company's name was DC Solar, and in this, Watson and his team also joined, who started managing the marketing department.
03:51First of all, instead of targeting the general public, they thought of doing a big job.
03:55They targeted Hollywood first, because at that time, diesel generators were used on movie sets, which created a lot of noise.
04:04And in this condition, DC Solar's mobile solar generators could have been a good option.
04:11Their plan was succeeding, and their solar panels started being used on the sets of many big films.
04:17In 2009, the famous American actor and film producer shared pictures of these solar panels on his Facebook account, and it was a big promotion for the company.
04:28On the other hand, Jeff started meeting different businessmen and started building his own network.
04:33He didn't stay without telling about his company even in public gatherings.
04:38And as soon as he saw, Jeff joined hands with the world-famous law firm, Nixon Peabody.
04:44During this time, the American Congress passed a law in which the tax credit on the value of investment was tripled.
04:52Which meant that whatever business will buy solar panels for itself, it will be returned 30% of the money.
04:59Which meant that whatever business will buy solar panels for itself, it will be returned 30% of the money.
05:08This was a double profit for the companies.
05:11They could save electricity costs from solar panels and also take 30% from the government.
05:17With this explosive government offer, Jeff's company DC Solar also brought in a new package market.
05:24In which it was said that now any company can buy solar panels only by giving 30% advance.
05:30And the remaining 70% they can pay in installments.
05:34The offer of DC Solar was so explosive that no one could have refused it.
05:39Because suppose there are solar panels worth Rs. 1 lakh, which can be booked from DC Solar by paying 30% i.e. Rs. 30,000.
05:49And the same 30% the government will return in the form of cashback.
05:54That is, people could install mobile solar panels without spending any money.
05:59And the remaining 70% they had to give in installments to DC Solar.
06:04Which they could save electricity bills and deposit easily.
06:07This was a win-win situation.
06:10Because of this, the network of DC Solar began to grow rapidly.
06:13In 2011, Jeff was in the stadium to watch a baseball match.
06:18When he suddenly got a message that the famous paint company Sherwin-Williams has ordered 192 mobile solar generators.
06:26This was Jeff's biggest order, which totaled $ 29 million.
06:32Apart from this, an American bank was working on tax reduction and job creation.
06:37And he wanted to work with DC Solar.
06:41Jeff got fake documents ready and through fake statistics,
06:46made the American bank believe that the demand for solar generators is increasing.
06:51With this, he succeeded in convincing the American bank.
06:55And that American bank became the first financial partner of DC Solar.
07:00The American bank's plan was that in the next few years,
07:03they would buy solar generators from DC Solar and lease them to people.
07:07This would reduce the pressure on people on taxes and electricity bills.
07:11Everything was going well so far and nothing was abnormal in it.
07:16But from here on, things started to get worse.
07:19The solar generators that were installed on movie sets,
07:22they started having problems.
07:24And they would shut down again and again and this was bound to happen.
07:28Because Jeff and his brother-in-law had prepared them without any knowledge.
07:33And surprisingly, they often used Google for information.
07:38Gradually, complaints started coming from all the solar generator owners.
07:43And when the solar generators shut down,
07:45they had to rely on diesel generators again.
07:49Jeff, who was actually an ordinary man,
07:51when he started having so much money, he fell into a trance.
07:56He lost his focus and started relying on lies.
08:01The paint company Sherwin-Williams was also preparing the panels.
08:04But due to slow speed, only the first row panels were ready
08:08and the deadline had passed.
08:11To cheat, the rear panels were only connected with nut bolts,
08:15while in reality, the rear row panels were not working.
08:19But Jeff was busy with his entertainment.
08:21He bought a new house and a new car.
08:25When people started not getting orders on time,
08:27no company was ready to take these generators on lease for 5 to 10 years.
08:33And without long leases, DC Solar could not pay its old investors
08:38returns and lease payments.
08:41But Jeff and his team made another plan.
08:45They secretly made a new scheme
08:47that the lease payment of new buyers would be used to pay back the old investors.
08:53In addition to this, while declaring himself a solar company,
08:57he was also taking millions of dollars in tax credit from the government treasury.
09:02That is, through fake documents and data,
09:05the tax money of the American people was also being taken by DC Solar.
09:09Now it was time to make this scheme practical.
09:13For this, Jeff was looking for new investors
09:15so that new investors could be paid back to the old ones.
09:20He would show every investor fake data and show that
09:23generators are being sold in large numbers.
09:27And for this work, he would send the generators from one place to another for no reason
09:32so that investors feel that the demand for generators is very high
09:36and there is some or the other delivery going on at all times.
09:39In this way, investors would be ready to invest in this work considering it profitable.
09:45By doing such things, Jeff also deceived the Shell company
09:49and took $76 million from them.
09:52In 2014, when the IRS Internal Revenue Service tried to investigate the company,
09:58the legal representative of DC Solar satisfied the IRS in every way and saved DC Solar.
10:05The whole company had become a scammer to satisfy the investors.
10:10In fact, the generators were not being sold and cash was not coming to the company from the public.
10:16But money was being taken from the investors continuously.
10:20Jeff was looking for more big investors.
10:23He was lucky that Valley National Bank wanted to buy solar equipment worth $76 million.
10:29And they had ordered a list of such companies that provide solar generators on lease or rent.
10:36That list also had the name of DC Solar Company
10:39about which it was written that they rent out their 80% generators.
10:43While in reality, this number was only 5%.
10:47Valley National Bank also became a victim of this fraud.
10:51In the same way, Jeff Karpoff also trapped the famous insurance company Geico in his web.
10:57This company is a branch of Berkshire Hathaway,
11:00whose owners are among the richest people in the world.
11:05Warren Buffett
11:06But the question arises here that how did such a big company fall into fraud?
11:11For this too, Jeff worked very cleverly.
11:15He bribed a big telecommunications company in America, T-Mobile,
11:20and got a fake document signed from him.
11:23In which it was said that T-Mobile is taking 1000 generators on lease from DC Solar for the next 10 years.
11:31And when there are companies like T-Mobile in your portfolio,
11:35it becomes easier to trust other companies.
11:38Geico also signed a 3-year agreement
11:41in which 8000 generators were to be purchased.
11:44And its cost was $1.2 billion.
11:48Geico also benefited from this deal
11:50because it was saving 30% i.e. $377 million tax.
11:56But in reality, their money was being used to give return and lease payments to old investors.
12:03While at this time, Jeff's life was on its peak.
12:06He had bought countless villas, more than 100 cars, and even a private jet.
12:12Now DC Solar's name had also reached NASCAR.
12:15DC Solar's sponsorship was also visible on cars,
12:18meaning no one was able to stop Jeff.
12:22But now nature started tightening Jeff's rope.
12:26An employee of DC Solar opened the company's poll,
12:29which started an investigation by the Security Exchange Commission and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
12:36And when the frauds were proven, Jeff was arrested.
12:40The investigation found that Jeff Karpoff was running a Ponzi scheme to sell solar generators.
12:47That is, he was taking money from new investors and giving it to old investors.
12:51And such Ponzi schemes only last for a few years,
12:55but as soon as new investors start coming, the real problem begins.
13:01In this condition, the company runs away at night or the company's owners are caught.
13:07Jeff Karpoff, while living in a country like America,
13:10ran a Ponzi scheme of billions of dollars with big companies.
13:14He had made a total of 17,000 solar generators, but only on paper.
13:19And the investors were shown a fake GPS tracker
13:23Look, so many of our solar generators are running in the market.
13:27However, the investigation found that those GPS trackers were actually buried in the ground at different locations, not on the generators.
13:35On November 9, 2021, Jeff Karpoff was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
13:42In addition, his wife and five other people were also sentenced to being associated with this scheme.
13:49I hope you will like and share this video of ZemTV.
13:54Thank you very much for your loving comments.
13:57See you in the next great video.
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