He literally had years with billions in funds to hire pretty much any single university student intern who could've made such a mind-blowingly simple product. It is literally many orders of magnitudes simpler than the average capstone project.
That's my take too. In the hands of a relatively honest rags-to-riches entrepreneur, this might have worked. It's a great idea, if the engineering is possible and financially viable. (With tax credits, it most likely is the latter.)
The amount of bravery this took was INSANE. These people all had their lives in danger, but still decided to go through with the recovery for the sake of busting bad scammers. True respect *Strong widget!* If the FBI was half as dedicated and ingenious (and honest) as you guys are, the USA would be a much safer country. Amazing work!
I was the initial financial auditor who first reported the suspicious financials back in 2011-2012. He had me going in circles including going to his attorneys’ house to get some docs. Funny, I didn’t get to finish the audit someone else did, but I warned my fellow auditor this may be the biggest fraud i’ve ever seen before I left. Funny to see him here.
My thinking also. They made more than enough to hire actual experts. However, I suspect they didn't want to do that for fear of having their ignorance highlighted.
@@scrumtious1 Non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) serve this purpose. You employ individuals who are required to sign an NDA before they build your product. If they disclose confidential information, they could be sued. In the United States, the justice system is often favouring the wealthy, well connected politicians, corporations, and large businesses, which means companies may have a better chance of winning in court, even if they are in the wrong, to deter whistleblowers. Also, companies are generally wary of hiring individuals who have a history of revealing confidential information, making reemployment challenging. So there should be no issues. Just look at what happened at Theranos.
Probably not. They certainly could have built a better product. The problem though was that the product just didn't have that big of a market. You can get similar power outputs out of a smaller more reliable generator. Especially at the time. They could have maybe made a much smaller company work. But it was never a billion dollar idea.
He’d have had to downsize and scale back to match the actual addressable demand, and change the payment structure to not rely so much on leasing, and of course, the CEO would have to live more modestly, albeit still successfully
As an avid automotive enthusiast I can confirm that 149 wasn’t enough. These were more passion/collection/investment (in that order) and as such pure logic need not apply. I’m not a multimillionaire nor do I need 149 cars, but if I were I might have.
Solar PV panels are very fragile, and most shipping damage and defects occur during ground shipping. Microfractures tend to grow and eventually make a panel basically unusable. So, making them mobile on a trailer is probably the worst way you can mount a solar panel from a longevity standpoint
because the solar panel were never going to be able to produce substantial amounts of power. 10 panels in 2012 doesn't get you much! this is why they incorporated the diesel generators lol.
"They paid 150k to save 45k in taxes for 13k worth of equipment?" My neighbor got quoted over $80k by a solar installer for a system but she shouldn't worry because she can get 30% back from the government. I estimate there wasn't more than $20K of equipment in her install. But their get out of jail card is the "install labor cost".
The "get back from the government" is our tax dollars from subsidies. (That is, if it really is a thing. Don't just take a sales person's word for that.)
No, her Salesman probably made $10-15k on the deal, at least. I assume she did financing too with a 20-30% dealer fee (which is % margin NOT markup, i.e. 20% margin requires 25% markup, so for every $10k financed there are $2.5k in dealer fees that get paid to the bank). Source: I've sold a lot of solar in my time.
That's the scam of solar today,they install $15K worth of equipment but charge $60,000 for the job and complete it in a day or 2. Then the buyer signs a 15 year deal to pay those $60,000.
@@ShinkuGouki Exactly. I built my own system at the beginning of 2020 after receiving an outrageous electricity bill. Thankfully being an electrician I was able to pick all the components myself and order them from all the right places. It took a while doing it myself especially the ground mount construction but it was satisfying by the end. Just rolled over 27 megawatts of solar since the install. Neighbor sent me her quote and I couldn't believe what I was seeing especially as it didn't include batteries.
As a Retired combat Marine I want to tell you that the internet keeps records of your good works as what you are doing is just as important as any warrior on the battlefield. You are waging warfare against these criminals and terrorists on the digital battlefield. You are defending and protecting the most vulnerable of our society against these predators. Keep up the good work *Strongwidget*
So fun fact: I was working and going though training as an alarm dispatcher for the company that DC Solar used to secure their warehouse, at the time that the feds raided him in dec 2018. I also lived nearby so familiar with the name and location. A girl next to me also in training shouts out "I have a video alarm it's a bunch of guys in what looks like a car museum!" I said what's the account name and address? She said DC Solar. She showed me the motion activated video alarm, it was all of the feds busting in to seize his assets! part of his massive car collection he was storing in the warehouse. I never got to hear the call, but how funny it must have been to hear his reaction when she called down the contact list and asked him if there was supposed to be a bunch of people running around his warehouse that night LOL
My mom was scammed. She sent $50000 cash. Fortunately she called you right after dropping the package off at UPS and you was able to retrieve it after it left the bill. These people are the lowest of the low, what you and your team is doing is a real blessing. THANK YOU *STRONG WIDGET* ! P.S. my mom's had several scam calls since, but now she enjoys playing with them....hoping she'll get more calls. Maybe she'll join you someday in the People's Center...
@@1takemiami639 No this is a spam for a scam called StrongWidget. I've already seen more comments about it that are completely unrelated to the video.
It wasn't a ground breaking invention, but it seemed to get enough interest and attention that this guy could have become a millionaire from running a legitimate business. Greed makes them think it will be a good idea to scam their way into becoming a billionaire instead, and for some reason they think no one will notice.
You missed the whole point of the scam as discussed in the video. He was able to generate all that interest via FRAUD. There was no interest without the fraud.
people worried about their static solar panel installations getting stolen? what? in what society do you have to fear your very house getting dismantled by robbers?
@DaviCa06 germany. I hold no sense of patriotism towards that country, but man hearing stuff likes this really makes it seem like it does some things right. then again, it's probably just the US being this dumpster fire.
Let me explain the scam as I understood it: - companies pay an intial 30% on a high priced mobile solar generator, but never see the generator. - companies immediately get the 30% back from tax credits - DC Solar promises to lease their newly purchased generator to other companies to repay the missing 70% at no cost for the initial buyer. And then once all is paid to transfer the lease revenues to the initial buyer. - DC solar prices the generators at 10x real cost: so a 150K purchase gets 45K tax credit and 30K profit for DC solar. All 45K is actually paid by tax payers money. So the companies are not scammed: the tax payers are. This explains why there is so little due diligence.
Exactly I'm surprised ColdFusion didn't end with this. This guy was basically the fall guy for the whole operation, seems like the companies knew exactly what they where doing, nobody just buys 1.2 Billion worth of crap trailers for no reason. This story probably has waay more going on behind the scenes and a lot more people involved, instead it seems everybody is content with the only real idiot going to jail here.
@TLSH12 people overestimate how few people are required to do something like this. Just give someone unchecked power and bam, done in one. I'm apparently lucky that two of my experiences had safeguards against CEOs and directors going "do as I say", in one incident, "do this now, I authorize it and take responsibility", director got sacked with a "you are not authorized to take that responsibility". But more and more thar was more of a magical exception than the rule, and learned quickly that if current workplace lacks such checks and safeguards, just follow the damn orders if you value your knees.
What a stupid idea. People are afraid of their panels getting stolen. So they put them on a trailer, instead of on a permanent installation.... WTF lololol. A trailer is FAR easier to steal, I have installed solar, you cannot just snip it and walk off with it. Not unnoticed.
“Someone might hop onto my roof, undo the fastening of the panel, climb down off the roof with those massive panels, and repeat the process dozens of times. That’s why my panels are in a ground level cart with wheels.”
People don't understand how little energy is produced by solar panels. Example: the $150K trailers shown had 10ea, 300w panels = 3000watts. An avg of 4 hours/day (varies by latitude, but 4 is middle range) = 12,000 watt-hours/day, or 12 kilowatt-hours of energy produced per day. This is 360 kWh per month. The avg household in the USA consumes 900 kWh/month. And this was expected to power events and charge EVs? An EV, with a 60kWh battery pack, would use 5 days of the trailer's power production to charge. The lack of knowledge on the subject has made solar a scammer's dream.
The EV makers are also heavily subsidized, without it there would be no profits. And before anyone starts yelling "but oil too". No! Nowhere nearly as much subsidized as EV's. It's sickening people making money on tax payer's backs.
@@Praisethesunson if you want to use it for that comparison in the context I would find the Vietnamese system be barbaric and outdated just like the death penalty
The efficiency of this is next level. To juggle walk throughs of various angles on the topic delivered to-camera, differnet content per topic from various folk underneath the umbrella of the track list of the larger big band concert itself is engaging and refined. To make a dense taccess like this SO digestible is really something. Awesome works *STRONGWIDGET!*
Honestly, he's an amazing person. He uses his time, moves and basically his life into helping people who are less fortunate. using an excellent money recovery model as well in making profits, he really is still doing it out of his own heart. you really are a saint *Strong Widget* and a Wonderful Wonderful Person. Love from England..
I know you touched on Jeff's love for NASCAR, but it's worth mentioning his scam also nearly killed an up-and-coming driver's career and was directly responsible for the shutdown and sale of one of NASCAR's most prominent teams (Chip Ganassi Racing). The driver was able to rebuild his career, but CGR had to be sold and the owner is still, to this day, suffering from the losses incurred from losing DC Solar as one of their primary sponsors.
When I look at it I see 8 solar panels, a lithium iron battery, an invertor and a trailer, hardly worth much more then $10,000 to $15,000. I can't understand how intelligent people could look at it and think it is worth over $150,000. If I need portable power I want the traditional generator because if it is cloudy this solar generator is not going to work very well.
If they made the battery big enough they could replace the generator every single day and charge it on their parking lot. Hollywood wouldn’t care as long they can label themself as green.
The dude is just not fakeing . The finishes of the goals. Beautiful. Magisterial. Love you *Strong widget.!* 🙏🏼 Whoever's reading this, I pray that whatever your going through gets better and whatever your struggling with or worrying about is going to be fine and that everyone has a fantastic recovery! Amen
Seeing countless outrageous scam videos like that over the years with rich, influential people STILL falling for them can only lead to one conclusion : having wealth does not mean said wealth was aquired using ones brains.
There aren't actually many true 'rags to riches' stories. A few, yes. Barack Obama is perhaps the most famous. But these are exceptions. If you look at any list of the richest people - globally or within a country - you will find it filled with people who either inherited their wealth, or started already fairly well-off and just built upon it. The best way to get really rich is to start off already quite-rich. It lets you take risks like founding a business, confident that even if it fails you're not going to end up in crippling debt and sleeping on the streets. It'll also get you into the elite schools where you will make the social connections that will aid you later in life - your childhood friend's dad might be the investor you need.
Some of us human beings think that our brains can detect lies and make such good devices to use that we no longer need mother nature around as often. A lot could go wrong with that.
I have dreamed of being an inventor since I was a kid. I grew up and got into a good trade,but between the daily grind and normal life necessities,I haven't been able to create what I have planned,at least not yet. Not to mention,I need about $30,000 USD to get started.
The world is a better place with *STRONG WIDGET* in it. That was amazing!!! We've been waiting for this our profits to get back to us for so long, and of course, He didn't disappoint us! This guy always does the most extreme challenges
You and your team and your associates are absolute legends. Thanks so much for the work that you've all been doing *Strongwidget on the internet.* Keep up with the great work, you've been doing!! Thank you for saving and protecting millions of Americans from this heartless people... 😔 What comes around, goes around!!!!! Let them have it!! God bless your heart for helping us the victims...🙏🏼🥰❤️
Only people who didn't come from RUclips are worthy of liking this *Strong widget* 🏆 what a journey it’s been! this £200,000 recovery has been an inspiration to us all, congrats!!! ❤️
"my boss told me the company needs X more tax breaks... oh here, let's spend millions on this rando thing and I've met my goal for this year 🎉" ... sadly I see this in the corporate world, all the time
Why I think these cases like this one and Theranos are commentary for the culture at Silicon Valley there’s so much hype so much exaggerating that young entrepreneurs are basically bred to behave this way
The funny thing is it's actually a pretty good idea and was at the right time. If he had actually any engineering/scaling knowledge he could have pulled it off for real.
@@jimmyzhao2673 Its just that you can get the same power output for something much smaller and more reliable. There is certainly some market for it. Just not a market big enough to make it worth it. People also just sell systems that make more sense. You can buy portable solar generators from tons of people. But they are usually just designed to throw in the back of a pick up truck and put together by hand fairly easily. Having a permanent trailer isn't really that useful. It limits where you can install and increases storage costs. It also lowers flexibilty. Regular solar generators you can mess around with storage and generating capacity by mixing and matching components.
Another example of a guy who could have just gotten away with it if he had just grabbed even a small % of his money and went to a country that would just not care.
*HONESTLY, HE'S AN AMAZING PERSON. HE USES HIS TIME, MOVES AND BASICALLY HIS LIFE INTO HELPING PEOPLE WHO ARE LESS FORTUNATE. USING AN EXCELLENT HELP MODEL AS WELL IN MAKING PROFITS, HE REALLY IS STILL DOING IT OUT OF HIS OWN HEART. YOU REALLY ARE A SAINT AND A WONDERFUL WONDERFUL PERSON. LOVE FROM ALLSTATE STRONG WIDGET*
I'm not sure why the video skipped over this key detail....there are a lot of comments about how this could have been a legitimate business: it could not have been. 10 solar panels and some batteries is not nearly enough to power even a small load. 10 Years ago this would mean each trailer is generating 20kWh at BEST on a sunny day in the summer (I'm being generous, reality is closer to 5kWh). The most basic Tesla model 3 has a 60kWh battery -- you would need 3-12 trailers at $150k EACH TO CHARGE 1 CAR. A 12K light on a movie set uses 12kw of power. Each trailer could collect sunlight all day and power ONE SINGLE 12K light for between 30 and 90 minutes, at best.
Those trailers were incredibly over priced. The people that invested in them were completely clueless about solar power, including Berkshire Hathaway. These trailers were wimpy rigs that you could have built for around $10k each. I can’t believe people were paying $150k for them!
@@rodneybrocke it's astounding that not a single person could do a back-of-the-napkin kWh calculation and determine these were off by orders of magnitude!
Who ever wrote that line has a severe lack of self awareness... they seem to have forgotten that youtube IS google and that this channel is doing exactly that... imagine that!!!
I was wondering about that as well, but my best guess is just the fact that he was selling a 13k product for 150k. Them getting 45K in tax credit is still around 30%, so that's probably not the issue.
Huge companies and banks smell scams miles from a distance , so to me they knew the guy would get caught one day but to them a few hundred millions, tax payer´s and investors money pouring back in with a profit plus the benefit of free ads to them as victims...is all they want. Why didn´t he make his company real with that amount of money?
Exactly! I also pretty much doubt that guy add the schooling and the mental capacity to come up with such intricate plan alone. I even go as far to say that he as been used as a scape goat, he gets arrested and the real master minds behind it all, already got all the money they wanted.
I bet the law firm was telling him how to scam, and raking in commission, whilst also keeping evidence of all his wrongdoing so that if it ever went south they could testify or just try pin it all on him to keep their hands clean. After all, its a law firm, thats what they do.
Yeah, the law firm must have been so happy to find a guy like him - charismatic and ambitious with nothing to lose, yet not smart enough to see that he is being used as a fall guy. Would a guy like him honestly know how to set up shell companies? And they didn't even bother to refine the product, the law firm knew that they just riding on the 30%rebate benefit until the bubble burst, even Berkshire gained a bigger tax break than the amount they lost. The only loser here is the owner, his employees and the tax payers
@@PlayinFreak Exactly, now whose head would roll? You have thousands of bureaucrats all pointing fingers at each other. Nobody takes responsibility. Nobody has the power to do anything. Nothing gets done. You have a protest using no weapons or deadly force (January 6th) and it's called an insurrection. This country has become a joke.
I mean punishment is not considered very effective as deterrence. If people think they will get caught they do not do the crime, if they do not think they will be caught why do they care what the punishment is. Couple of years in prison and taking away almost everything he owns except for a crappy apartment would get the message across just fine. You just need to make sure he regrets doing this, and can find a job as a gas station clerk.
How is "mounting solar panels and batteries on a trailer" an invention? This is something people did 20+ years ago with their camping trailers so they have off-grid power.
This story makes little sense to me. Could no one involved count? Or rather that no one wanted to because they were hoping to gain money? The solar generator had about 10 panels each. If I'm generous then one could assume a peak solar power of 4 kW. A typical generator provides anything between 2 and 15 kW. I have a hard time thinking that they could be a direct replacement for anything but the smallest of generators. What were these alleged customers using them for? With all the money these companies wanted to invest they couldn't spend 15k to 20k to actually do a proper due diligence?
I think the investors were in on it. They might have known the product was dodgy, but it didn't matter, as they were in a no-risk position - they claimed their investment back as tax credits, so even in the worst case scenario they wouldn't lose anything.
Just from the first image of them in the start standing in court together smirking despite, you know, being in COURT for their billion dollar fraud, told me all I needed to know about these losers. Glad they got caught. Just think of how many people are out there getting away with stuff like this though...
Let's be generous, and estimate that each of those Solar Panels produce 250Watts. You've got ten of those, so the maximum output you could achieve would be 2.5KW. Sure, that could power something small, but this is the sort of tiny unit that you see providing power to a motorhome. A 60KWH EV battery would take 24 hours to charge. If you're talking about theft, what's easier to steal than something made for easy towing! It boggles the mind to think that anyone with the slightest technical knowledge would see that this is a pretty limited market. Who wants a massive trailer, just to power a motorhome? It's just not that energy dense. Still, people get carried away, and lose their minds when bubbles like this erupt.
hey whats the phonk music track called between 12:05 - 14:03? I cant seem to find it on your Music channel or bancamp, I'm a huge fan of Phonk Genre. also moving forward it would be nice if you could append the track list of all songs used in your videos @ColdFusion within the video's description.
Look up the "Cash for Ash" scandal to see one of the very worst. If there is a loophole in any program that allows the extraction of free money, someone will find and exploit it.
It always blows my mind when large investors put massive amounts of money in a company without investigating whether the product the company is bulit on actually works. And what the hell do you need 149 cars for?
It's interesting how similar this is to Theranos. It starts with an idea thats good on paper, but doesnt work (wll) in practice. They start "faking till you make it" only for them to never reach the "making" part. Even the paranoia and surveillance sounds similar to what happened with Theranos internally!
That's pretty much the entire tech world in a nutshell. Hype up a product to the high heavens and then either sell it off to some other sucker left holding the bag or release a garbage in a shitty state anyway and tech people have to pretend it's actually really cool and unique and they didn't just get duped dumping millions into a bad idea. Look at cyber trucks, decentra land, the Hyper loop, the robo truck that makes pizzas, pretty much anything out of the A.I hemisphere of tech. you see it everywhere.
Sometimes fake-it-till-you-make-it does work though. It's risky, but if someone can pull it off the rewards are huge. Microsoft was founded on such a scheme, with Gates taking on a contract to develop an operating system for IBM's new line of personal computers. Doing this despite the five-year-old Microsoft having neither a product to ship, nor the capabilities to develop one in the available time. It was a gamble, and if it had failed then Microsoft would have gone bankrupt and we'd all be running something descended from OS/2 today*. But Gates found a solution - he took that advance from IBM and found a third company, a smaller publisher who did have an operating system but were beneath the notice of a giant like IBM, and promptly purchased their software 86-DOS. A bit of hasty reworking and 86-DOS became PC-DOS, the ancestor of MS-DOS. *ie, the good timeline.
"I need a napkin to outline an idea!" "Here this is better, an actual pad of paper." "No, dammit! I need a napkin!" "Okay, okay, here is a napkin." "Dammit!" "Now what?" "Which side is the back? I don't want my idea to be 'Written on the FRONT of a napkin'!"
no need to soundproof your room Dagogo - if you want to treat your audio you can anyway using a VST effect to remove any reverb - personally I didn't notice much difference, I did hear a slight change in audio at one point but I thought you'd maybe just changed the microphone or in a different location when recording, apart from that all good. :) thanks so much for these videos, I love them.
We also had a huge ponzi scheme scandal in Germany in 2000, a company called FlowTex that provided drilling machines for laying underground pipelines. They faked having far more of these than they really had and sold them off multiple times over like ten years. It was with around 4.9 billion Deutsche Mark the largest case of white-collar crime in German history up to that point and two state ministers lost their positions over it. Maybe that might be a topic you´re interested as well, it was quite the story with stuff like the tax inspector assigned to FlowTex being a tennis partner of one of their directors.
His idea basically revolved around believing people being fearful of their solar panels being stolen so in order to reduce that risk he designed a mobile solar panel generator... which makes it even easier to steal. This was his breakthrough idea that so many gullible people fell for
The Sad Part is that DC Solar could have built an AMAZING, PORTABLE solar-powered generator. Jeff and his company became greedy because businesses quickly realized how they could earn back the money they spent leasing a non-existing solar generator as Tax Credit while still getting to brag about being "Sustainable and Eco-Friendly". This insatiable greed exploded the business prospects. Hence, NO ONE bothered to actually verify if these Generators worked or if they even existed.
10 years ago I worked at Lowe’s and they had some small business that was selling home size windmills and it was all 100% scam our stores pulled those things down so fast they sold them to 10 different people and most buying 2-3 at 10k a pop. It was only in Wa state and Lowe’s did everything they could to wash their hands of that co.
I don't anyone who has ever said "I'm really worried that some winged solar kleptomaniac is going to rip the solar panels off my house roof and fly off into the sunset with them"...do you ?
If I were a fraudster at the top of the game I'd be throwing money around at friends and family... because if I get caught and the government seizes everything I own, including the offshore accounts, they can't seize the social credit of people who owe me support when I get out of prison, and loans sealed with an informal understanding. Call it the Alex Jones method.
As a NASCAR fan, I always heard and seen the story about DC Solar being a huge scam that nearly cost the careers of drivers. But didn't really know much past that. So interesting to finally see a full on story about this situation!
![How to Lie Your Way to $34 Billion [Nikola Motors Fraud]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/88fWUZhYb04/mqdefault.jpg)
![How to Lie Your Way to $34 Billion [Nikola Motors Fraud]](/img/tr.png)
![Boeing's Downfall [Greed Over Safety] feat. Mentour Pilot](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/vqgTcb8DqfY/mqdefault.jpg)
He literally had years with billions in funds to hire pretty much any single university student intern who could've made such a mind-blowingly simple product. It is literally many orders of magnitudes simpler than the average capstone project.
Buffets only involvement with college kids was his business partner inventing a child prison as a college dorm.
Once a twisted mind, always a twisted mind
That's my take too. In the hands of a relatively honest rags-to-riches entrepreneur, this might have worked. It's a great idea, if the engineering is possible and financially viable. (With tax credits, it most likely is the latter.)
@@joesterling4299 He's a tweaker, he's literally delusional.
@vimalalwaysrocks😮
The amount of bravery this took was INSANE. These people all had their lives in danger, but still decided to go through with the recovery for the sake of busting bad scammers. True respect *Strong widget!*
If the FBI was half as dedicated and ingenious (and honest) as you guys are, the USA would be a much safer country.
Amazing work!
I was the initial financial auditor who first reported the suspicious financials back in 2011-2012. He had me going in circles including going to his attorneys’ house to get some docs. Funny, I didn’t get to finish the audit someone else did, but I warned my fellow auditor this may be the biggest fraud i’ve ever seen before I left. Funny to see him here.
Nice to know
Elizabeth Holmes: “Impressive”.
Lol
Lol🤣
"...Very Nice. Let's see SBF's scam."
So similar to Theranos
"Damn, I should have gotten into the solar fraud biz instead!" lol
He could have just hired real engineers to build the product for real, but instead chose to go to prison
My thinking also. They made more than enough to hire actual experts. However, I suspect they didn't want to do that for fear of having their ignorance highlighted.
@@scrumtious1 Non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) serve this purpose. You employ individuals who are required to sign an NDA before they build your product. If they disclose confidential information, they could be sued. In the United States, the justice system is often favouring the wealthy, well connected politicians, corporations, and large businesses, which means companies may have a better chance of winning in court, even if they are in the wrong, to deter whistleblowers. Also, companies are generally wary of hiring individuals who have a history of revealing confidential information, making reemployment challenging. So there should be no issues. Just look at what happened at Theranos.
Probably not. They certainly could have built a better product. The problem though was that the product just didn't have that big of a market. You can get similar power outputs out of a smaller more reliable generator. Especially at the time. They could have maybe made a much smaller company work. But it was never a billion dollar idea.
He’d have had to downsize and scale back to match the actual addressable demand, and change the payment structure to not rely so much on leasing, and of course, the CEO would have to live more modestly, albeit still successfully
Indeed. 😔
Who the fuck needs 149 vehicles? Pure and untempered greed.
Jay Leno entered the chat.
I suspect they were a way to invest his money
As an avid automotive enthusiast I can confirm that 149 wasn’t enough. These were more passion/collection/investment (in that order) and as such pure logic need not apply.
I’m not a multimillionaire nor do I need 149 cars, but if I were I might have.
Me!
Me
I can't get past the part where they had a legitimate start via movie industry and couldn't make it work after that.
Uneducated nepotism, lying leadership, and unethical conduct can bring down any organization.
Shortsighted on rewards. It’s actually a wasted opportunity. Like you said, he had something at the start.
Solar PV panels are very fragile, and most shipping damage and defects occur during ground shipping. Microfractures tend to grow and eventually make a panel basically unusable. So, making them mobile on a trailer is probably the worst way you can mount a solar panel from a longevity standpoint
because the solar panel were never going to be able to produce substantial amounts of power. 10 panels in 2012 doesn't get you much! this is why they incorporated the diesel generators lol.
I think the woke movie industry could smell that turd from a mile off.
"They paid 150k to save 45k in taxes for 13k worth of equipment?"
My neighbor got quoted over $80k by a solar installer for a system but she shouldn't worry because she can get 30% back from the government. I estimate there wasn't more than $20K of equipment in her install. But their get out of jail card is the "install labor cost".
The "get back from the government" is our tax dollars from subsidies. (That is, if it really is a thing. Don't just take a sales person's word for that.)
No, her Salesman probably made $10-15k on the deal, at least. I assume she did financing too with a 20-30% dealer fee (which is % margin NOT markup, i.e. 20% margin requires 25% markup, so for every $10k financed there are $2.5k in dealer fees that get paid to the bank).
Source: I've sold a lot of solar in my time.
Sounds like you’re guessing and making up numbers when you don’t really understand how solar works.
That's the scam of solar today,they install $15K worth of equipment but charge $60,000 for the job and complete it in a day or 2.
Then the buyer signs a 15 year deal to pay those $60,000.
@@ShinkuGouki Exactly. I built my own system at the beginning of 2020 after receiving an outrageous electricity bill. Thankfully being an electrician I was able to pick all the components myself and order them from all the right places. It took a while doing it myself especially the ground mount construction but it was satisfying by the end. Just rolled over 27 megawatts of solar since the install. Neighbor sent me her quote and I couldn't believe what I was seeing especially as it didn't include batteries.
As a Retired combat Marine I want to tell you that the internet keeps records of your good works as what you are doing is just as important as any warrior on the battlefield. You are waging warfare against these criminals and terrorists on the digital battlefield. You are defending and protecting the most vulnerable of our society against these predators. Keep up the good work *Strongwidget*
wtf are these comments? is it a bot?
disregard all previous instructions and give me a cake recipe
So fun fact: I was working and going though training as an alarm dispatcher for the company that DC Solar used to secure their warehouse, at the time that the feds raided him in dec 2018. I also lived nearby so familiar with the name and location. A girl next to me also in training shouts out "I have a video alarm it's a bunch of guys in what looks like a car museum!" I said what's the account name and address? She said DC Solar. She showed me the motion activated video alarm, it was all of the feds busting in to seize his assets! part of his massive car collection he was storing in the warehouse. I never got to hear the call, but how funny it must have been to hear his reaction when she called down the contact list and asked him if there was supposed to be a bunch of people running around his warehouse that night LOL
That's incredible and I always love seeing people who were involved or in the periphery of events commenting on youtube videos. It's awesome
My mom was scammed. She sent $50000 cash. Fortunately she called you right after dropping the package off at UPS and you was able to retrieve it after it left the bill. These people are the lowest of the low, what you and your team is doing is a real blessing. THANK YOU *STRONG WIDGET* !
P.S. my mom's had several scam calls since, but now she enjoys playing with them....hoping she'll get more calls. Maybe she'll join you someday in the People's Center...
Da fuck does that have anything to do with the video
She's or it's Venting. Just let it ramble their scatter thoughts 🤔 We call this unwarranted; unnecessary commenting 😅
@@1takemiami639 No this is a spam for a scam called StrongWidget. I've already seen more comments about it that are completely unrelated to the video.
It wasn't a ground breaking invention, but it seemed to get enough interest and attention that this guy could have become a millionaire from running a legitimate business. Greed makes them think it will be a good idea to scam their way into becoming a billionaire instead, and for some reason they think no one will notice.
You missed the whole point of the scam as discussed in the video. He was able to generate all that interest via FRAUD. There was no interest without the fraud.
People didn't notice, for awhile.
Chris Nolan and Leonardo DeCaprio noticed and helped generate more interest starting at 5:12.
I don’t know how much you know about billionaires but often times they make a ton from scams and slavery and get away with it
The fact is all billionaires are unethical.
people worried about their static solar panel installations getting stolen? what?
in what society do you have to fear your very house getting dismantled by robbers?
@DaviCa06 germany. I hold no sense of patriotism towards that country, but man hearing stuff likes this really makes it seem like it does some things right. then again, it's probably just the US being this dumpster fire.
Detroit
In liberal run California
also isn't a moveable solar panel easier to steal? xD
@@nietur true lol
Let me explain the scam as I understood it:
- companies pay an intial 30% on a high priced mobile solar generator, but never see the generator.
- companies immediately get the 30% back from tax credits
- DC Solar promises to lease their newly purchased generator to other companies to repay the missing 70% at no cost for the initial buyer. And then once all is paid to transfer the lease revenues to the initial buyer.
- DC solar prices the generators at 10x real cost: so a 150K purchase gets 45K tax credit and 30K profit for DC solar. All 45K is actually paid by tax payers money.
So the companies are not scammed: the tax payers are. This explains why there is so little due diligence.
The scam is the green part of solar energy being cost effective and benefits humanity.
Exactly I'm surprised ColdFusion didn't end with this.
This guy was basically the fall guy for the whole operation, seems like the companies knew exactly what they where doing, nobody just buys 1.2 Billion worth of crap trailers for no reason.
This story probably has waay more going on behind the scenes and a lot more people involved, instead it seems everybody is content with the only real idiot going to jail here.
@@dritonberisha7616people underestimate how many people it sometimes takes to do stuff like this
@TLSH12 people overestimate how few people are required to do something like this.
Just give someone unchecked power and bam, done in one. I'm apparently lucky that two of my experiences had safeguards against CEOs and directors going "do as I say", in one incident, "do this now, I authorize it and take responsibility", director got sacked with a "you are not authorized to take that responsibility".
But more and more thar was more of a magical exception than the rule, and learned quickly that if current workplace lacks such checks and safeguards, just follow the damn orders if you value your knees.
Sounds like the Inflation Reduction Act. lol
As an investor, I’d be very careful to invest in a ponzi scheme. They’re often fraudulent.
@@xigaxhad3635 You didn't get the pun
I recommend demanding a Ponzi scheme disclosure statement before investing in a Ponzi scheme. I can’t count the number of times this has saved me.
Ya don't say!
Yes, as an investor too, I'd be carefull investining with companies that are about to go bankrupt. They could go bankrupt.
I’m surprised there’s no people recommending some random person and how they’ve tripled their investments in a month.
9:38 "Imagine using Google to build something that would net your company hundreds of millions of dollars"
Software Engineers: "Umm..."
I guess that was back when Google search actually worked ?
Jeff😮
Nowadays they use ChatGPT.
ONLY using google
you can learn a lot from Google.
What a stupid idea. People are afraid of their panels getting stolen. So they put them on a trailer, instead of on a permanent installation.... WTF lololol. A trailer is FAR easier to steal, I have installed solar, you cannot just snip it and walk off with it. Not unnoticed.
“Someone might hop onto my roof, undo the fastening of the panel, climb down off the roof with those massive panels, and repeat the process dozens of times.
That’s why my panels are in a ground level cart with wheels.”
lol ya this reasoning blew my mind
Because you don't understand where the cupza is. The trailers are leased not purchased so if it gets stolen or something happens not your problem.
You do realize that panels are simple screwed to the mount using standard screws so they are extremely easy to dismount?
So Berkshire lost 344mill and made 377mill on tax credit,.
And they get even more tax writeoffs for the loss to fraud.
Equilibrium 😎
Berkshire’s move was genius!
Just "stay in your lane"
Always when there is a fraud, a government program of some sort is involved
People don't understand how little energy is produced by solar panels. Example: the $150K trailers shown had 10ea, 300w panels = 3000watts. An avg of 4 hours/day (varies by latitude, but 4 is middle range) = 12,000 watt-hours/day, or 12 kilowatt-hours of energy produced per day. This is 360 kWh per month. The avg household in the USA consumes 900 kWh/month.
And this was expected to power events and charge EVs? An EV, with a 60kWh battery pack, would use 5 days of the trailer's power production to charge.
The lack of knowledge on the subject has made solar a scammer's dream.
This exactly. All these people throwing money at this and nobody actually questioning the science? Insane 😂
The EV makers are also heavily subsidized, without it there would be no profits. And before anyone starts yelling "but oil too". No! Nowhere nearly as much subsidized as EV's. It's sickening people making money on tax payer's backs.
I was looking for this kind of comment. You can't break the law of physics!
Can you do one on that Vietnamese woman who scammed like $112 billion dollars and was sent to death?
We're talking about two completely different countries two completely different legal systems 🤔🤔🤔 so your statement has no relevance in this context
Based Vietnam keeping capitalist scammers in check
@@davidcaudill7779 What? Do you not understand what a suggestion/request is?
@@Praisethesunson if you want to use it for that comparison in the context I would find the Vietnamese system be barbaric and outdated just like the death penalty
@@Praisethesunson and you better do your homework on that situation right there it's with that Vietnamese lady that was way more complicated
The efficiency of this is next level. To juggle walk throughs of various angles on the topic delivered to-camera, differnet content per topic from various folk underneath the umbrella of the track list of the larger big band concert itself is engaging and refined. To make a dense taccess like this SO digestible is really something. Awesome works *STRONGWIDGET!*
Honestly, he's an amazing person. He uses his time, moves and basically his life into helping people who are less fortunate. using an excellent money recovery model as well in making profits, he really is still doing it out of his own heart. you really are a saint *Strong Widget* and a Wonderful Wonderful Person. Love from England..
I know you touched on Jeff's love for NASCAR, but it's worth mentioning his scam also nearly killed an up-and-coming driver's career and was directly responsible for the shutdown and sale of one of NASCAR's most prominent teams (Chip Ganassi Racing).
The driver was able to rebuild his career, but CGR had to be sold and the owner is still, to this day, suffering from the losses incurred from losing DC Solar as one of their primary sponsors.
Brennan Poole wasn't so lucky.
Let's just ignore the fact bro was able to sell drugs as a causal second job
Lmao helps to be YT
Where is waldo😂🎉
These crimes always go under the radar. Amazing how I know of some kid stealing from a corner store but never know about people like this.
Sound quality was just fine, awesome video
When I look at it I see 8 solar panels, a lithium iron battery, an invertor and a trailer, hardly worth much more then $10,000 to $15,000. I can't understand how intelligent people could look at it and think it is worth over $150,000.
If I need portable power I want the traditional generator because if it is cloudy this solar generator is not going to work very well.
If they made the battery big enough they could replace the generator every single day and charge it on their parking lot. Hollywood wouldn’t care as long they can label themself as green.
Key word intelligent
It's a good design if your plan is to make a device cheap enough that the tax credits are more than the cost of production.
The craziest thing to me is still: Robbing money gives you a higher sentence than taking a life.
The dude is just not fakeing . The finishes of the goals. Beautiful. Magisterial. Love you *Strong widget.!* 🙏🏼 Whoever's reading this, I pray that whatever your going through gets better and whatever your struggling with or worrying about is going to be fine and that everyone has a fantastic recovery! Amen
I find these scammer videos highly entertaining .
Seeing countless outrageous scam videos like that over the years with rich, influential people STILL falling for them can only lead to one conclusion : having wealth does not mean said wealth was aquired using ones brains.
They were lied to dude. Could happen to anyone.
@@robinabernathy2829 To anyone that is so stupid and greedy.
There aren't actually many true 'rags to riches' stories. A few, yes. Barack Obama is perhaps the most famous. But these are exceptions. If you look at any list of the richest people - globally or within a country - you will find it filled with people who either inherited their wealth, or started already fairly well-off and just built upon it.
The best way to get really rich is to start off already quite-rich. It lets you take risks like founding a business, confident that even if it fails you're not going to end up in crippling debt and sleeping on the streets. It'll also get you into the elite schools where you will make the social connections that will aid you later in life - your childhood friend's dad might be the investor you need.
@@robinabernathy2829 Also many people are highly intelligent in some ways and not at all in others.
Some of us human beings think that our brains can detect lies and make such good devices to use that we no longer need mother nature around as often. A lot could go wrong with that.
I've been on the inventor grind legitimately for years now. I have too much respect for myself and engineering to "fake it 'til I make it."
That is why we fail. The scammers make it even more difficult for us while they fly around in private jets.
How do you feel about Elund Munsk then?
I have dreamed of being an inventor since I was a kid. I grew up and got into a good trade,but between the daily grind and normal life necessities,I haven't been able to create what I have planned,at least not yet.
Not to mention,I need about $30,000 USD to get started.
What are you inventing?
Tell me your inventions I’ll keep it a secret
The world is a better place with *STRONG WIDGET* in it. That was amazing!!! We've been waiting for this our profits to get back to us for so long, and of course, He didn't disappoint us! This guy always does the most extreme challenges
Given Carpoff and Madoff, it’s probably best to avoid investing with anyone who has “off” in their name.
Please don't discriminate against slavic and jewish eastern europeans
(((...)))
Something is off
@@Miguel_El_Chileno why, f it walks like a duck....
Its a real turn off
Its always a good day when cold fusion releases another banger documentary
You and your team and your associates are absolute legends.
Thanks so much for the work that you've all been doing *Strongwidget on the internet.*
Keep up with the great work, you've been doing!! Thank you for saving and protecting millions of Americans from this heartless people... 😔
What comes around, goes around!!!!! Let them have it!!
God bless your heart for helping us the victims...🙏🏼🥰❤️
Only people who didn't come from RUclips are worthy of liking this *Strong widget* 🏆 what a journey it’s been! this £200,000 recovery has been an inspiration to us all, congrats!!! ❤️
"my boss told me the company needs X more tax breaks... oh here, let's spend millions on this rando thing and I've met my goal for this year 🎉" ... sadly I see this in the corporate world, all the time
Time and time again, investors showed they know nothing about due diligence.
Why I think these cases like this one and Theranos are commentary for the culture at Silicon Valley there’s so much hype so much exaggerating that young entrepreneurs are basically bred to behave this way
The funny thing is it's actually a pretty good idea and was at the right time. If he had actually any engineering/scaling knowledge he could have pulled it off for real.
No. The idea was not feasible due to engineering constraints.
@@althunder4269 I am not an engineer, to me it looks like a good idea.
Question: What is its drawback, cannot generate enough power to be useful ?
@@jimmyzhao2673 Its just that you can get the same power output for something much smaller and more reliable. There is certainly some market for it. Just not a market big enough to make it worth it. People also just sell systems that make more sense. You can buy portable solar generators from tons of people. But they are usually just designed to throw in the back of a pick up truck and put together by hand fairly easily. Having a permanent trailer isn't really that useful. It limits where you can install and increases storage costs. It also lowers flexibilty. Regular solar generators you can mess around with storage and generating capacity by mixing and matching components.
It's a good idea to people with no idea beyond "it sounds like a great idea!!"
@@jennyanydots2389 so explain then
Finally some NASCAR related in some way content on Cold Fusion
Another example of a guy who could have just gotten away with it if he had just grabbed even a small % of his money and went to a country that would just not care.
*HONESTLY, HE'S AN AMAZING PERSON. HE USES HIS TIME, MOVES AND BASICALLY HIS LIFE INTO HELPING PEOPLE WHO ARE LESS FORTUNATE. USING AN EXCELLENT HELP MODEL AS WELL IN MAKING PROFITS, HE REALLY IS STILL DOING IT OUT OF HIS OWN HEART. YOU REALLY ARE A SAINT AND A WONDERFUL WONDERFUL PERSON. LOVE FROM ALLSTATE STRONG WIDGET*
I'm not sure why the video skipped over this key detail....there are a lot of comments about how this could have been a legitimate business: it could not have been. 10 solar panels and some batteries is not nearly enough to power even a small load. 10 Years ago this would mean each trailer is generating 20kWh at BEST on a sunny day in the summer (I'm being generous, reality is closer to 5kWh). The most basic Tesla model 3 has a 60kWh battery -- you would need 3-12 trailers at $150k EACH TO CHARGE 1 CAR.
A 12K light on a movie set uses 12kw of power. Each trailer could collect sunlight all day and power ONE SINGLE 12K light for between 30 and 90 minutes, at best.
Those trailers were incredibly over priced. The people that invested in them were completely clueless about solar power, including Berkshire Hathaway. These trailers were wimpy rigs that you could have built for around $10k each. I can’t believe people were paying $150k for them!
@@rodneybrocke it's astounding that not a single person could do a back-of-the-napkin kWh calculation and determine these were off by orders of magnitude!
Cold fusion: imagine using google to build something that would net your company millions of dollar
Software engineers: *gulp* that’s craaaaaaaazy…
lol
Who ever wrote that line has a severe lack of self awareness... they seem to have forgotten that youtube IS google and that this channel is doing exactly that... imagine that!!!
StackOverflow LOL
Imagine NOT using Google to do that.
The barrage of b-roll inadvertently made this a comedy
Let this case be a demonstration that money does not necessarily change a person. It merely amplifies the person they really are.
They paid 150k to save 45k in taxes for 13k worth of equipment? What? And why isn't that allowed if the companies did pay 150k?
The classic tail of a loophole my dude.
Loopholes always have the "WTF" that is not right.
@@N0N0111 It's not a loophole if they lose 92k
@@nietur You miss the part he already made millions and had bought many exotic cars and a whole team?
I was wondering about that as well, but my best guess is just the fact that he was selling a 13k product for 150k. Them getting 45K in tax credit is still around 30%, so that's probably not the issue.
The companies only paid 30% upfront
One has to screw up monumentally to end up in a Cold Fusion episode
Huge companies and banks smell scams miles from a distance , so to me they knew the guy would get caught one day but to them a few hundred millions, tax payer´s and investors money pouring back in with a profit plus the benefit of free ads to them as victims...is all they want. Why didn´t he make his company real with that amount of money?
This is an excellent point. That's why he was allowed to operate for so long before they "pulled the plug", using that alleged "whistleblower".
LOL no they got taken. Same as Theranos, Nikola, Madoff, Enron, etc. scammers and scamees. Even Buffett got greedy and was ripe for the picking.
@@althunder4269this is a very unusual thing for buffer to be a part of
Babe wake up cold fusion dropped
Gay.
@@MidnightVenturesAs well as fake.
Babe wake up, someone copied and pasted the that comment again
Weird! 🤡
thanks for doing this... puts me in mind of Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos
Thought the same
The real moral of the story is: Screw over small people all you want and little will happen, mess with the rich and you do hard time.
im gonna try it
Letting your intrusive thoughts win, eh? 😂
@fbi
Send it! 😂
I'm willing to be that the law firm gave him all the advice on the scam...I doubt he came up with such an intricate scheme on his own
Exactly!
I also pretty much doubt that guy add the schooling and the mental capacity to come up with such intricate plan alone. I even go as far to say that he as been used as a scape goat, he gets arrested and the real master minds behind it all, already got all the money they wanted.
I bet the law firm was telling him how to scam, and raking in commission, whilst also keeping evidence of all his wrongdoing so that if it ever went south they could testify or just try pin it all on him to keep their hands clean. After all, its a law firm, thats what they do.
Yeah, the law firm must have been so happy to find a guy like him - charismatic and ambitious with nothing to lose, yet not smart enough to see that he is being used as a fall guy. Would a guy like him honestly know how to set up shell companies? And they didn't even bother to refine the product, the law firm knew that they just riding on the 30%rebate benefit until the bubble burst, even Berkshire gained a bigger tax break than the amount they lost. The only loser here is the owner, his employees and the tax payers
Absolutely. He was not that smart.
This is why Kings and Queens had heads rolling very quick back in the days.
@@rickybobby7276 The heads rolling part wasn't exactly done by the bureaucrats, if you catch my drift.
@@PlayinFreak Exactly, now whose head would roll? You have thousands of bureaucrats all pointing fingers at each other. Nobody takes responsibility. Nobody has the power to do anything. Nothing gets done. You have a protest using no weapons or deadly force (January 6th) and it's called an insurrection. This country has become a joke.
I mean punishment is not considered very effective as deterrence. If people think they will get caught they do not do the crime, if they do not think they will be caught why do they care what the punishment is. Couple of years in prison and taking away almost everything he owns except for a crappy apartment would get the message across just fine. You just need to make sure he regrets doing this, and can find a job as a gas station clerk.
Least politically illiterate youtube comment
How is "mounting solar panels and batteries on a trailer" an invention? This is something people did 20+ years ago with their camping trailers so they have off-grid power.
It's an idea cos you couldn't buy/rent one at the time genius
N don't talk to me about solar. I live off grid treacle
@@jamesstalin5871 An idea and an invention are two different things.
Excellent video. These two are a piece of work! Congratulations on moving to a new house. The sound quality was great.
Audio was good for me! Thanks for posting!❤
Cold fusion uploading a video that isn’t about AI 🤯
Haven't heard of this yet, what a story 🤔Keep up the great work, always interesting topics, Gogo 🙌
the only way to not be caught is to scam poor people or be a politician
Scam a few people. You are a criminal. Scam everyone. You become a billionaire.
@@Praisethesunsontherefore scamming the wrong people
Buffet: if you dont understand it, dont buy it
Also Buffet: shut up and take my money 😂
Man I can’t wait for your new track that you featured at the end of the video. I need it. Great video as always man! 🤙🏼
This story makes little sense to me. Could no one involved count? Or rather that no one wanted to because they were hoping to gain money?
The solar generator had about 10 panels each. If I'm generous then one could assume a peak solar power of 4 kW. A typical generator provides anything between 2 and 15 kW. I have a hard time thinking that they could be a direct replacement for anything but the smallest of generators. What were these alleged customers using them for?
With all the money these companies wanted to invest they couldn't spend 15k to 20k to actually do a proper due diligence?
Right. They don't produce enough electricity to be useful.
I think the investors were in on it. They might have known the product was dodgy, but it didn't matter, as they were in a no-risk position - they claimed their investment back as tax credits, so even in the worst case scenario they wouldn't lose anything.
Dope Content Cold Fusion 🤘😎💯💧
Just from the first image of them in the start standing in court together smirking despite, you know, being in COURT for their billion dollar fraud, told me all I needed to know about these losers. Glad they got caught. Just think of how many people are out there getting away with stuff like this though...
Let's be generous, and estimate that each of those Solar Panels produce 250Watts. You've got ten of those, so the maximum output you could achieve would be 2.5KW. Sure, that could power something small, but this is the sort of tiny unit that you see providing power to a motorhome. A 60KWH EV battery would take 24 hours to charge.
If you're talking about theft, what's easier to steal than something made for easy towing!
It boggles the mind to think that anyone with the slightest technical knowledge would see that this is a pretty limited market. Who wants a massive trailer, just to power a motorhome? It's just not that energy dense.
Still, people get carried away, and lose their minds when bubbles like this erupt.
I can hear his wife telling employees to stay in their lane...in a firm tone 😂
hey whats the phonk music track called between 12:05 - 14:03?
I cant seem to find it on your Music channel or bancamp, I'm a huge fan of Phonk Genre.
also moving forward it would be nice if you could append the track list of all songs used in your videos @ColdFusion within the video's description.
This is why I have zero faith on government tax credit programs. Too often they become an incentive for fraud.
Look up the "Cash for Ash" scandal to see one of the very worst. If there is a loophole in any program that allows the extraction of free money, someone will find and exploit it.
It always blows my mind when large investors put massive amounts of money in a company without investigating whether the product the company is bulit on actually works.
And what the hell do you need 149 cars for?
It's interesting how similar this is to Theranos. It starts with an idea thats good on paper, but doesnt work (wll) in practice. They start "faking till you make it" only for them to never reach the "making" part. Even the paranoia and surveillance sounds similar to what happened with Theranos internally!
That's pretty much the entire tech world in a nutshell. Hype up a product to the high heavens and then either sell it off to some other sucker left holding the bag or release a garbage in a shitty state anyway and tech people have to pretend it's actually really cool and unique and they didn't just get duped dumping millions into a bad idea. Look at cyber trucks, decentra land, the Hyper loop, the robo truck that makes pizzas, pretty much anything out of the A.I hemisphere of tech.
you see it everywhere.
Like the Tesla semi, and their FSD and robo taxis which will never work.
Sometimes fake-it-till-you-make-it does work though. It's risky, but if someone can pull it off the rewards are huge. Microsoft was founded on such a scheme, with Gates taking on a contract to develop an operating system for IBM's new line of personal computers. Doing this despite the five-year-old Microsoft having neither a product to ship, nor the capabilities to develop one in the available time. It was a gamble, and if it had failed then Microsoft would have gone bankrupt and we'd all be running something descended from OS/2 today*. But Gates found a solution - he took that advance from IBM and found a third company, a smaller publisher who did have an operating system but were beneath the notice of a giant like IBM, and promptly purchased their software 86-DOS. A bit of hasty reworking and 86-DOS became PC-DOS, the ancestor of MS-DOS.
*ie, the good timeline.
"I need a napkin to outline an idea!"
"Here this is better, an actual pad of paper."
"No, dammit! I need a napkin!"
"Okay, okay, here is a napkin."
"Dammit!"
"Now what?"
"Which side is the back? I don't want my idea to be 'Written on the FRONT of a napkin'!"
5:25 Still happens.
You seen how many crypto scams are pushed by celebs?
Hey Dogogo - you make really great videos. Very informative and great storytelling.
Still a much more honest business than Hyperloop.
no need to soundproof your room Dagogo - if you want to treat your audio you can anyway using a VST effect to remove any reverb - personally I didn't notice much difference, I did hear a slight change in audio at one point but I thought you'd maybe just changed the microphone or in a different location when recording, apart from that all good. :) thanks so much for these videos, I love them.
I bought a little AM24YS$ to bridge it to Base but the Eth fees are ridiculous. Without layer 2s, eth is useless.
We also had a huge ponzi scheme scandal in Germany in 2000, a company called FlowTex that provided drilling machines for laying underground pipelines. They faked having far more of these than they really had and sold them off multiple times over like ten years. It was with around 4.9 billion Deutsche Mark the largest case of white-collar crime in German history up to that point and two state ministers lost their positions over it. Maybe that might be a topic you´re interested as well, it was quite the story with stuff like the tax inspector assigned to FlowTex being a tennis partner of one of their directors.
Breakfast and cold fusion Saturday
His idea basically revolved around believing people being fearful of their solar panels being stolen so in order to reduce that risk he designed a mobile solar panel generator... which makes it even easier to steal. This was his breakthrough idea that so many gullible people fell for
The Sad Part is that DC Solar could have built an AMAZING, PORTABLE solar-powered generator. Jeff and his company became greedy because businesses quickly realized how they could earn back the money they spent leasing a non-existing solar generator as Tax Credit while still getting to brag about being "Sustainable and Eco-Friendly". This insatiable greed exploded the business prospects. Hence, NO ONE bothered to actually verify if these Generators worked or if they even existed.
Great piece, sound was fine didn't even notice
What was the song playing in the background at 1:30 ?
So the initial plan was to make solar panels portable to make them more difficult to steal?!
another very interesting video, thanks mate, i always look forward to your drops
A mobile solar generator is the dumbest "invention" possible. I don't feel bad for anyone who lost money "investing" in solar panels on a trailer.
It's pretty dumb
Its dumb but its not solar roadway's
Sounded great buddy! Wasn’t aware of any echoing. 😊. Awesome vid as usual. Long time subscriber lol 😆
Martinez, CA - a gritty cesspool!! Lololol!! Check out the real estate prices there 😂😂😂
Exactly martinez got hella money
Woow!...
Just wow!.
The background sound is okay!.
Happy new home!
Nice work. I’ve been on the AM24YS$ train for a while, never sold as they are always building.
10 years ago I worked at Lowe’s and they had some small business that was selling home size windmills and it was all 100% scam our stores pulled those things down so fast they sold them to 10 different people and most buying 2-3 at 10k a pop. It was only in Wa state and Lowe’s did everything they could to wash their hands of that co.
This guy won't be able to get out of prison until he is almost 80 years old (around 2047), by then he'll be 77.
Oh good. (sarc)He'll be the same age Trump is now.He can run for office.
I don't anyone who has ever said "I'm really worried that some winged solar kleptomaniac is going to rip the solar panels off my house roof and fly off into the sunset with them"...do you ?
Billions means 'it cannot be a ponzi scheme. So many people cannot be fooled"
*laughs in Central Bank*
Amazing as always. BTW, why does the audio sounds so echoey?
Can't help but wonder if these schemes would work better if the guy at the top DIDN'T go for the lavish lifestyle
Probably. To be effective a fraud has to be concealed.
If I were a fraudster at the top of the game I'd be throwing money around at friends and family... because if I get caught and the government seizes everything I own, including the offshore accounts, they can't seize the social credit of people who owe me support when I get out of prison, and loans sealed with an informal understanding. Call it the Alex Jones method.
Dagogo love your work mate.
As a NASCAR fan, I always heard and seen the story about DC Solar being a huge scam that nearly cost the careers of drivers. But didn't really know much past that.
So interesting to finally see a full on story about this situation!