A California electrician was ordered to pay
$481.3 million in restitution as part of his
sentence for participating in a $1 billion
Ponzi schemed that suckered Warren Buffett’s
Berkshire Hathaway Inc., among many others.
Joseph W. Bayliss, 46, of Martinez, was sentenced
to three years in federal prison on top of
the restitution.
He was an electrician who prosecutors say was
hired by Benicia-based DC Solar to pose as a
licensed engineer to inspect new mobile solar
generator units that were mounted on trailers.
The company marketed the generators between
2011 and 2018 as being able to provide
emergency power for cellphone companies or
to provide lighting at sporting and other events.
But the owners started telling investors they
could benefit from federal tax credits by leasing
the generators back to DC Solar, which would
then provide them to other companies for their
use, prosecutors say.
The generators never provided much income,
and prosecutors say early investors were paid
with funds from later investors.
The company eventually stopped building the
mobile generators altogether, and prosecutors
say a least half the company’s claimed 17,000
generators didn’t really exist.
They say Bayliss played a key role in covering
up the fact that no new generators were being
built. He signed thousands of reports from 2016
to 2018 saying that new generators had been
inspected and tested, when he knew that was
false and would be used to defraud investors.