The government cracked down on a tax scheme.

The Justice Department filed a civil suit asking for an injunction against three firms accused of running a tax-shelter scheme that resulted in a potential tax revenue loss of at least $77.9 million. The defendants were the Foster City, Calif., firms of United Energy, Renewable Power and United Financial, and four individuals, Ernest and Delphine Lampert and John P. Thorne of Foster City and Robert J. Burns of Clayton, Calif. The potential loss resulted from the sale by the firms of 2,500 questionable tax shelters, mostly to California investors, in 1982 and 1983. The tax shelter involved the sale of “solar power modules.”