Jasjit “Jay” Gotra said he hasn’t worked full-time since his solar sales company closed in late 2024 amid allegations of predatory and deceptive sales tactics by the R.I. Attorney General’s office.
The state’s case against Gotra and his business, Smart Green Solar, is ongoing nearly three years after it was first opened. But Gotra has set his sights on a new job opportunity: Rhode Island governor.
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The East Greenwich Democrat, 44, filed paperwork declaring his candidacy with the state elections board May 8, though he said in an interview he has been working on his campaign since the beginning of the year.
“I am looking at all the candidates running, and I see them focused on a lot of good things that, sure, are good for Rhode Island, but that doesn’t solve our core problem,” Gotra said Monday.
That problem, in Gotra’s eyes, is the increasing gap between state spending and revenue. Initial projections put the state in a $237 million deficit for fiscal 2027, which begins July 1, though revised analysis as of Friday shows a $233 million surplus driven by higher-than-expected income tax revenue, among other sources.
But the problem of a lopsided ledger persists, with state budget officials eyeing a $537 million deficit by 2031 due largely to federal funding cuts under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. That wouldn’t fly in the business world, and Gotra doesn’t think it should in the state government either.
His campaign website touts a philosophy of governance by “profit and loss, not politics,” with a pledge to publish a “plain English” state financial report each year.
“Show every taxpayer exactly where their money goes and what it returns,” the website states.
A first-time candidate and lifelong Democrat, Gotra said he didn’t vote in the state’s 2022 gubernatorial election. In 2024, he voted for President Donald Trump.
Gotra admits he doesn’t know much about state politics, including the fact that the state already shares detailed financial reporting and regularly published audits. But, he sees his lack of political experience as a plus.
“My campaign is about education, listening to people, offering a different element,” Gotra said. “I am a person that doesn’t know anything about politics, but I’ve served thousands of hours in this community, took on the attorney general.”
He’s still battling the AG’s office in Providence County Superior Court, now representing himself after his lawyers withdrew, against allegations that his solar sales company took advantage of vulnerable residents, including seniors and blind people, duping them into signing contracts for home solar panels that they didn’t understand and in some cases, were never installed.
Nearly 200 complaints have been filed with the AG’s office against Gotra and his business since the lawsuit was filed in June 2023, Tim Rondeau, a spokesperson for the AG’s office said. Half of them involve money owed to customers.
The AG’s office has asked a state judge to rule in its favor because Gotra failed to comply with multiple requests for evidence in time. The court initially agreed, ruling in January that Gotra had defaulted on the case by failing to submit legal responses and hand over company documents requested by the state prosecutor.
But Gotra is now trying to toss the order, arguing that he has complied to the best of his ability with information and questions about the business amid a “sudden financial collapse” brought on by the lawsuit. By October 2024, the company ceased operations, losing its 280 employees including IT and software personnel able to retrieve some of the data requested, according to Gotra’s April 1 affidavit.
Gotra still maintains he is innocent of violating state trade laws by deceiving customers.
“A lot of people have accused me of a lot of things,” he said Monday. “They’ve never been able to prove anything.”
He continued, “It’s optics. People can look at my record, or they can look at the optics.”
The AG’s office declined to comment on the case outside of court filings. Its legal submissions paint a damning picture of Gotra as a man with a history of deceptive and fraudulent business practices.
“Mr. Gotra has an impressive and telling history as a defendant and as a litigant in this and other Courts across the country,” special assistant attorney general Dorothea Calvano Young wrote in an April 28 court filing.
His first company, Alliance Security Inc., was sued by the Federal Trade Commission in 2014 and 2018 over alleged illegal telemarketing and accessing of consumer credit reports. The home security alarm business reached a $9.85 million settlement with the FTC in 2020, the same year its business registration was revoked by the Rhode Island Department of State. He started Smart Green Solar in 2021.
Gotra has been a defendant in at least 26 federal court complaints, according to the AG’s office. Still pending in Providence County Superior Court is a second complaint by American Express National Bank, which sued Gotra in April 2024 for more than $766,000 in unpaid credit card bills, according to the AG’s office.
“Only Mr. Gotra knows what plans he has for his next iteration of Smart Green Solar, LLC, but if his next venture is anything like every single one that has preceded it, as discussed, it will be designed in a way to extract profits at the expense of consumers and workers in a deceptive and misleading manner,” Calvano Young wrote.
A status conference in the case is scheduled for 2 p.m. on Thursday, according to the public court docket.
Gotra, who moved from India to Agawam, Massachusetts, as a teenager, offers a more flattering take on his resume as a hard-working immigrant who launched several successful companies that address home safety and climate change. He touts accolades from state and federal lawmakers and business groups, including a 2010 recognition from Inc. Magazine that listed Alliance Security as one of the 5,000 fastest growing companies in the U.S. In 2015, Gotra, then 33, was recognized by Providence Business News in its annual “Forty under 40” awards.
“I want people to vote for me on my merits,” said Gotra.
He continued, “I know people are going to try to go back and crucify me on my record. To that, I say, ‘God bless them.’”
Gotra declined to share details on his campaign operations, including whether he has any paid staff or seasoned political advisers. His campaign finance account lists his treasurer as Warwick resident Joseph Kean, a life coach and certified numerologist who helps people “discover their true path and achieve their goals through numbers,” according to Kean’s business website. Gotra said Kean is a close friend.
Gotra had little to say about his Democratic competitors, Gov. Daniel J. McKee, Helena Buonanno Foulkes, and Greg Stevens, criticizing their campaigns for not having “much online” about their specific plans. McKee and Foulkes have each released detailed policy proposals on infrastructure investments, energy affordability, education, and healthcare, among other topics.
Gotra’s campaign website does not yet feature policy plans, but Gotra promised they will appear soon.
McKee and Foulkes, widely viewed as the Sept. 9 primary frontrunners, did not immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday.
The gubernatorial race also features moderate candidate Ken Block and Republicans Aaron Guckian, Elaine Pelino, and Robert Raimondo.
Nancy Lavin is a senior reporter for the Rhode Island Current.
