DC Solar Attorney Sentenced to over 11 Years in Prison for His Involvement in the DC Solar Billion Dollar Ponzi Scheme

Ari J. Lauer, 61, of Lafayette, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Dale A. Drozd to 11 years and five months years in prison for his role in the biggest criminal fraud scheme in the history of the Eastern District of California, U.S. Attorney Eric Grant announced.

From approximately 2009 to January 2019, Lauer, an attorney licensed to practice law in California, was outside counsel to DC Solar and provided legal and business advice concerning DC Solar's operations. Lauer's role gave the scheme legitimacy and diminished any suspicion the investors might have had.

On Oct. 14, 2025, one week before trial, Lauer pleaded guilty to all counts with no written plea agreement. He pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire and bank fraud, 12 counts of bank fraud, and 10 counts of wire fraud affecting a financial institution.

"Without the participation of Lauer, the DC Solar fraud scheme would never have been operational. Lauer used his skill as a corporate lawyer to execute a sophisticated tax scheme to that enabled the largest criminal fraud in the history of the Eastern District of California," said U.S. Attorney Grant. "As the only attorney involved, he should have been the first person to recognize the fraud and stop it. Instead, he was the last person to accept responsibility, only doing so on the eve of trial. Today's sentence demonstrates that sophisticated fraud will be met with serious consequences."

"Ari Lauer intentionally used his position as an attorney to provide the illusion of legitimacy to DC Solar's fraudulent scheme. He hid uncomfortable truths behind claims of confidentiality while profiting from the arrangement and mistakenly assumed that law enforcement would not catch on," said FBI Sacramento Special Agent in Charge Sid Patel. "Today's sentence sends a clear message to fraudsters and their co-conspirators. The FBI and our law enforcement partners will unravel lies, seize ill-gotten gains, and dismantle Ponzi schemes like this one to deliver justice to the victims."

"Mr. Lauer's sentence reflects the extensive harm caused by DC Solar's long-running fraud scheme, which deceived investors, disrupted the clean-energy market, and left real victims in its wake," said Linda Nguyen, Special Agent in Charge of IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) Oakland Field Office. "White-collar crime is not victimless. IRS-CI used its unmatched financial-investigative expertise and worked closely with federal law enforcement partners to follow the money, uncover the truth, and help secure justice for those harmed."

"Mr. Lauer and his co-defendants abused the system and victimized investors to enrich themselves," noted FDIC OIG Special Agent in Charge Ryan Korner. "We are proud to have worked alongside our law enforcement partners to hold the defendants accountable and bring justice to victims. FDIC OIG will continue to work tirelessly to help victims, keep the system uncorrupted, and ultimately protect our Nation's Financial System."

According to court documents, between 2011 and 2018, DC Solar manufactured mobile solar generators that were mounted on trailers. The company touted the versatility and environmental sustainability of the generators and claimed that they were used to provide emergency power to cellphone towers and lighting at sporting and other events. A significant incentive for investors was generous federal tax credits due to the solar nature of the generators. Martinez residents Jeff Carpoff, 55, his wife Paulette Carpoff, 52, and their co-conspirators solicited investors to invest in the generators in large multimillion-dollar transactions using a variety of fraudulent techniques.

A key part of the fraud was that investors would never actually take possession of the generators. Instead, DC Solar typically leased those generators back from the investors and claimed to sublease them to third parties to generate revenue. In reality there was very little actual third-party rental demand for the generators, yet when Lauer and the other co-conspirators learned this, they continued to represent to investors that the rental market for the generators was robust.

In June 2012, Lauer, Jeff Carpoff, and others met to discuss the failure to generate third-party lease revenue sufficient to meet their financial obligations to the investors. The conspirators agreed to conceal that lack of third-party lease revenue from current and prospective investors, by, among other things, making periodic transfers of investor money from one account to another and misrepresent that the flow of funds was third-party lease revenue. Lauer and other members of the conspiracy created a circular payment system they referred to as "re-rent." In 2014, they created a "re-rent agreement," backdating the document to 2011, and used it to explain the large sums of money being transferred from one account to another. In fact, the real source of money was new investor money, which was being used to pay obligations to existing investors. Lauer and other members of the conspiracy prepared sublease agreements with "concealed addendums" that materially altered the terms of the contracts. They used the sublease agreements to defraud investors.

Between March 2011 and Dec. 18, 2018, investors invested approximately $759.4 million, and several financial institutions and other investors transferred $152.7 million to DC Solar as part of related transactions for the purchase and lease of generators. In total, DC Solar closed transactions with investors that contributed more than $912 million to purchase generators. Those transactions were purported to involve approximately 17,000 generators, at approximately $2.5 billion in value.

During the conspiracy, approximately 94% to 95% of the lease revenue on the books was actually intercompany transfers disguised as new investor money. In truth, third-party end-user demand for generators never exceeded 5% of the revenue that was claimed.

On Dec. 19, 2025, the California State bar put Lauer on "involuntary inactive status" due to his conviction in this case.

The FBI, IRS-CI, and the FDIC OIG conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Audrey B. Hemesath and Nicholas M. Fogg prosecuted the case.

The status of the other seven defendants is as follows:

• Jeff Carpoff was sentenced on Nov. 9, 2021, to 30 years in prison and ordered to pay $790.6 million in restitution.
• Paulette Carpoff was sentenced on June 28, 2022, to 11 years and three months in prison.
• Joseph W. Bayliss, 50, of Martinez, was sentenced on Nov. 16, 2021, to three years in prison and ordered to pay $481.3 million in restitution.
• DC Solar CFO Robert A. Karmann, 59, of Clayton, was sentenced on April 12, 2022, to six years in prison and ordered to pay $624 million.
• Alan Hansen, 54, was sentenced on May 31, 2022, to eight years in prison.
• Ryan Guidry, 49, of Pleasant Hill, was sentenced on Jan. 31, 2023, to six years and six months in prison and ordered to pay $619,415,950 in restitution.
• Ronald J. Roach, 57, of Walnut Creek, pleaded guilty to criminal offenses related to the fraud scheme and is scheduled to be sentenced on April 13, 2026. Roach faces a maximum statutory penalty of 10 years prison. The actual sentence, however, will be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables.