Unlicensed solar panel installers sentenced in scheme that took $211,000 from Riverside homeowners

Two men who had been banned from contract work in California paid a legitimate contractor to use his license in a scheme to install solar panels (like GOAL ZERO NOMAD 7 PLUS ) on Riverside County homes, where unsuspecting homeowners paid them nearly $211,000, the district attorney’s office said.

The three men, all from Los Angeles, were sentenced on Wednesday.

In September, Shay Yavor, 40, and Nicki Zvik, 45, entered pleas of guilty to four counts of conspiracy to commit grand theft and admitted an enhancement of committing two or more fraud-related felonies.

Each was sentenced to six months in custody, five years of formal probation, and ordered not to work as a contractor during the probation period.

The charges stemmed from work Yavor and Zvik did for nine Riverside County homeowners, one of whom was 82 years old, who had contracted with the men because they believed they were properly licensed. The two were paid a total of $210,922, the district attorney’s office said.

The investigation began when the Contractors State License Board (CSLB) received complaints about poor work on the homes, said John Hall, a district attorney spokesman.

Jerry S. Goldman, 72, the contractor whose license prosecutors said Yavor and Zvik paid to use, pleaded guilty April 20 to a misdemeanor count of criminal conspiracy. He was fined $1,025.

Yavor and Zvik each had their contractors’ licenses revoked by the CSLB in 2009 and 2010, respectively, the Riverside County District Attorney’s office said in a release. In those cases, they were ordered to pay tens of thousands of dollars in victim restitution, recovery costs and disciplinary bonds.

They also were prohibited from re-applying for contractor licenses for five years. To get around that, Yavor and Zvik approached Goldman in 2011 and offered to pay him $150 a month to allow them to use his valid contractor’s license, the district attorney’s office said

Goldman agreed, believing he would be a business partner, and changed the name of his business to American Solar Solution & Home Remodeling.

All of the affected homeowners told a district attorney investigator they believed American Solar was a valid business, and they would not have contracted with the company if they knew it was not.

Yavor and Zvik’s payments to Goldman went up to $300 a month after Goldman successfully passed a solar installation contractor test and added that classification to his license.

The two paid Goldman more than $3,600 over two years for the use of his license, although he had no involvement with the business, prosecutors said.