Court upholds solar tax scheme conviction

June 3, 2020

The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver has upheld a lower court judge's criminal finding against a Salt Lake City solar company named RaPower-3,LLC and two other firms and two individuals who bilked investors out of tens of millions of dollars.

RaPower along with International Automated Systems, Inc, LTB1.LLC and individuals Neldon Johnson and R. Gregory Shepard were convicted of promoting an unlawful tax scheme based on the conversion of solar radiation into electricity.

The defendants contended they had a new commercially viable way of converting solar energy into electrical power. But after a bench trial in Utah, the federal judge ruled there was never any record the system had ever produced energy nor were there any witnesses to the alleged production.

The developer, according to the Federal Appeals court ruling did his testing on weekends "when no one was around because he didn't want people to see what he was doing." The project generated tens of millions of dollars between 2005 and 2018.

The original article is here.