KPBS Article 

Twice 1972, Issa was arrested. In the first incident, a grand jury indicted him for theft of a Maserati, in a complicated scheme with his brother William, but prosecutors dropped the charge.[24][19] In the second incident, he was stopped for driving the wrong way on a one-way street, and a police officer noticed a firearm in his car's glove compartment; Issa was charged with carrying a concealed weapon. He pleaded guilty to possession of an unregistered firearm and was sentenced to six months' probation and a small fine.[24] Issa has said he believes the record has since been expunged.[19] 

Shortly before his discharge from the Army in 1980, Issa was again indicted for grand theft auto. The prosecution dropped the case in August 1980. In 1981, Issa was in a car crash. The other motorist sued him for $20,000; they eventually settled out of court for an undisclosed amount. 

Quantum/Steal Stopper

After leaving the military, Issa and his second wife, Kathy Stanton, returned to the Cleveland area. According to Issa, he and his wife pooled their savings, sold their cars (a 1976 Mercedes and a 1967 VW Beetle) and a BMW motorcycle, and borrowed $50,000 from family members to invest in Quantum Enterprises, an electronics manufacturer run by a friend from Cleveland Heights. It assembled bug zappers, CB radio parts, and other consumer products for other companies. One of those clients, car alarm manufacturer Steal Stopper, became the path to Issa's fortune. It was struggling badly, and he took control of it by foreclosing a $60,000 loan he had made to it when its founder, Joey Adkins, missed a payment. Adkins remained as an employee.[19]

Issa soon turned Steal Stopper around, to the point that it was supplying Ford with thousands of car alarms and negotiating a similar deal with Toyota. Early in the morning of September 7, 1982, Quantum and Steal Stopper's offices and factory in the Cleveland suburb of Maple Heights caught fire. The fire took three hours to put out. The buildings and almost all the inventory within were destroyed. An investigation of the fire noted "suspicious burn patterns" with fires starting in two places aided by an accelerant such as gasoline.[19]

Adkins said Issa had appeared to prepare for a fire by increasing the fire insurance policy by 462% three weeks earlier, and by removing computer equipment containing accounting and customer information. St. Paul Insurance, suspicious of arson and insurance fraud, initially paid only $25,000, according to Issa.[19][30]

Directed Electronics

Steal Stopper soon returned a profit again. As car theft rose in the U.S. during the 1980s, so did the demand for security devices. Rolls-Royce, BMW, and General Motors joined Ford and Toyota as customers of Steal Stopper. In 1985, Issa sold the company to a California-based maker of home alarms, and moved to the San Diego suburb of Vista, to work for the company.[19]

Shortly afterward, Issa left to start Directed Electronics, Inc. (DEI). He has continued to live in Vista.[19] Issa used his knowledge of the weaknesses in automotive security to develop effective theft deterrents. Using sensors that, when armed, would detect motion and pressure on the car's body, his device made loud noise to draw attention to a would-be car thief, such as the car's horn honking or a speaker playing a recording with Issa's voice saying: "Protected by Viper. Stand back" and "Please step away from the car", warnings for DEI's signature product, the Viper car alarm.[31] Sales grew from $1 million in the company's first year to $14 million by 1989.[19]

Greene Properties & Covid-19 PPP Loans

Issa is partner in 17 limited partnerships and limited liability companies (LLCs) that own commercial properties across North San Diego County.[32] He is CEO of Greene Properties, Inc., a privately held real estate investment company with commercial real estate holdings in San Diego North County. Headquartered in Vista, it manages three commercial office buildings in Carlsbad with a total of 26,354 square feet. Employees include his wife and son William "Will" Issa as assistant property manager.[33] The office is in the same building as Issa's former congressional office, near their house of the last 20 years.

Issa loaned $150,000 to his own campaign in May, soon after his company Green Properties, Inc. obtained a Paycheck Protection Program loan worth between $150,000 and $350,000, as first reported by La Prensa San Diego. Issa would contribute another $950,000 to his campaign in September. In response to an attack ad citing the PPP loan, Issa said at a news conference in October that “No funds were transferred from Green Properties to any of the accounts of Darrel and Kathy Issa in May, June, July or August” and that any allegations to the contrary are “outright lies.” 

Asked by CNNMoney whether he feels personally responsible to address income inequality in the United States, the Republican Congressman from California said "absolutely." But he noted that America is the richest country on earth and implied that those in poverty here are better off than the poor in other nations. "If you go to India or you go to any number of other Third World countries, you have two problems: You have greater inequality of income and wealth. You also have less opportunity for people to rise from the have not to the have," said Issa. 

The California Republican added that the United States has made "our poor somewhat the envy of the world."