Solar firm's lawyer pleads guilty to Ponzi scheme charges

By David Thomas

Oct 14 (Reuters) - A California attorney on Tuesday pleaded guilty a week before he was set to face trial on criminal charges stemming from his role in an estimated $912 million Ponzi scheme involving California solar power supply company DC Solar.

Ari Lauer pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Dale Drozd in Sacramento to 23 counts, including bank fraud and wire fraud affecting a financial institution.

His sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 26. Lauer's jury trial was set to start Oct. 21.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of California had no immediate comment. Attorneys for Lauer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

From 2011 to 2018, DC Solar entered into $2.5 billion of transactions to sell mobile solar generators meant to provide emergency power to cellphone towers and lighting at sports events, attracting investors with associated federal tax credits, according to federal prosecutors.

But about half of the 17,000 generators did not exist, and the Benicia, California-based company used false financial statements and lease contracts to conceal the fraud, prosecutors said.

DC Solar's husband-and-wife owners, Jeff and Paulette Carpoff, pleaded guilty to federal charges in 2020. Jeff Carpoff was sentenced to 30 years in prison and ordered to pay more than $790 million in restitution. Paulette Carpoff was sentenced to 11 years in prison.

The scheme caused Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway to take a $377 million charge in 2019.

Prosecutors accused Lauer, as outside counsel to DC Solar, of transferring investor funds from one account to another to hide the lack of money DC Solar was making off rentals to third parties. He also took part in creating documents to hide those transfers, prosecutors said.

Lauer, whose law office is located in Walnut Creek, California, initially pleaded not guilty.