Federal authorities are investigating a husband and wife in the East Bay who own a solar-energy company that officials believe was used in an elaborate $800 million Ponzi and tax fraud scheme that generated enough proceeds to buy 90 vehicles and other luxury items, according to court documents.

Jeff and Paulette Carpoff own DC Solar Inc., a Benicia company that sells solar panels to supply emergency power to cell towers and provide lights at sporting events, among other things. The FBI raided the couple’s Martinez home and businesses in December, seizing funds from scores of bank accounts associated with the Carpoffs.

The company filed for bankruptcy in a Nevada court this month, and the FBI intervened in the case, filing a 60-page affidavit in which FBI agent Christopher Phillips lays out what investigators say is evidence of wire fraud, conspiracy to commit tax fraud and monetary transactions involving criminally derived funds.

The filing said that DC Solar sold “mobile solar generators” — solar panels on wheeled trailers — to investors who paid only $45,000 of the $150,000 price tag for each of the units up front. The Carpoffs structured these deals so that investors could claim a dollar-for-dollar tax credit on the $45,000 investment, the affidavit said.

The investors would then lease the devices back to the Carpoffs via another company the couple owned. The lease proceeds would cover the rest of the $150,000 sales price — plus make a profit for the investor, federal officials said in the affidavit.

But an FBI investigation found that more than 90 percent of the money claimed as lease revenue was actually other investors’ money. It also showed that as of a year ago, DC Solar and its subcontractors had only built 3,000 to 5,000 mobile solar generators — far fewer than the 12,000 the Carpoffs said were in use.

Many of the gadgets that the company had sold to investors were in fact sitting in lots throughout California, gathering dust instead of supplying power for telecom companies.

More than a dozen of the generators were parked alongside the company’s headquarters at 4901 Park Road in Benicia, the affidavit said.

Phillips said that he and other investigators had driven by the building several times and obtained aerial surveillance footage of warehouses and storage yards the company used. Some were cluttered with trailers that bore no solar panels.

“In my training and experience, the use of investor money to lull investors into believing the transaction is legitimate and profit-making is evidence of a Ponzi-type investment fraud scheme,” Phillips wrote.

In addition to their renewable energy enterprise, the Carpoffs sponsor Chip Ganassi Racing in the NASCAR Xfinity series, and they own the Martinez Clippers minor-league baseball team. The couple set up a separate bank account for the Clippers — one of several that became a repository for criminally derived funds, the affidavit said.

An FBI review of bank records and company documents as well as interviews with former employees and bank officials showed that the scheme worked for several years, generating enormous profits. Between 2011 and 2018, the Carpoffs used investor funds to purchase at least 90 vehicles, ranging from classic Plymouths and Chevrolets to luxury European cars.

Attempts to reach Jeff and Paulette Carpoff were unsuccessful Monday, and their lawyers were not immediately available for comment. Meanwhile, the effects of the investigation continue to ripple out.

Theo Fightmaster, the commissioner of the Pacific Association of Professional Baseball Clubs, which includes the Clippers and five other professional teams, said he hasn’t communicated with the Carpoffs since taking his post in November.

A lawyer for the U.S. trustee declined to comment Monday.

Seth Freeman, the chief restructuring officer in DC Solar’s federal bankruptcy case, said in court filings that the company was left without any operating funds after the government seized its assets. As a result, DC Solar is unable to market the mobile solar generators or satisfy its obligations to investors or lessees.

Chronicle staff writer

Matthias Gafni contributed

to this report.

Rachel Swan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rswan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @rachelswan