The SEC barred former Securities America broker Ronald James Roach of the firm's Walnut Creek, California branch for his role in a massive Ponzi scheme that purportedly defrauded investors out of $1 billion and resulted in Roach's felony convictions in Sacramento's United States District Court for the Eastern District of California for securities fraud and conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States.
In its order barring Ron Roach (CRD #3216784), SEC investigators claimed that Roach aka Ronald James Saunders conspired with others to deceive and defraud investors through an investment scheme that solicited victims by claiming that there were favorable tax benefits associated with investments in alternative energy, including DC Solar, a since-liquidated alt energy company whose downfall has already resulted in the criminal conviction of two California DC Solar associates: contractor Joseph Bayliss and accountant/registered representative Ronald Roach.
Documents from Roach's October 2019 guilty plea on various securities fraud counts indicate that the San Francisco, CA-based DC Solar firm, led by Jeff Carpoff and wife Paulette Carpoff, marketed itself as a company that produced mobile solar panels to generate alternative forms of electricity, that could be moved from event-to-event to provide clean power on-the-go.
Instead of spending customer investments on solar panel development and related activities, however, the Carpoffs and/or their firm diverted investor funds to yet another company created to fund personal expenses, including luxury purchases and shopping sprees from vacation homes and high-end cars to $19 million-worth of not-alt energy-friendly private jet trips, and sporting event tickets for the soon-to-be Las Vegas Raiders football team.
Roach purportedly created fake financial, sales, and inventory reports, and presented these false documents to investors (which, the SEC makes clear, Roach knew were materially false and misleading).
Securities America terminated Roach the day after he pleaded guilty to the two felonies in October, including a count of securities fraud and a second count of conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States.
If you have invested with ex-Securities America broker Ronald J Roach or with any financial adviser or representative in the fraudulent Northern California-based DC Solar Ponzi scheme or another fraudulent enterprise that has proven harmful to your interests when your investments were misused, misappropriated, acquired through misrepresentation/fake statements, or improperly diverted for nefarious purposes, please call an experienced FINRA arbitration attorney at The Law Offices of Jonathan W. Evans & Associates at (800) 699-1881 for an investigation and consultation.