ObamaGate: Solyndra Files Bnkrtcy after getting $535 Million WH Fast Track Loan

[Soul Crusher]

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Solyndra CEO questioned by FBI
news.cnet.com ^ | Sept 9 2011 | Martin LaMonica
Posted on September 9, 2011 4:24:00 PM EDT by NoLibZone

The CEO of government-backed solar company Solyndra was visited by the FBI yesterday but agents did not search his house, according to a Solyndra representative.

The Washington Post reported yesterday that the home of Solyndra CEO Brian Harrison was searched after the FBI conducted a surprise raid at Solyndra's Fremont, Calif., solar panel plant. ABC News reported today the FBI also searched the homes of former CEO Chris Gronet and another executive, who is said to be co-founder Kelly Truman.

Solyndra made solar collectors by covering glass tubes with thin-film solar cells. (Credit: Martin LaMonica/CNET)

Solyndra spokesperson David Miller confirmed that agents came to Harrison's home but no search occurred. "FBI agents spoke to Brian Harrison at his house, they did not search it," Miller said.

An FBI representative today could not confirm or deny whether agents visited or searched anyplace other than Solyndra's headquarters, saying it is a sealed investigation. The FBI and the Department of Energy's Office of Inspector General spent the better part of yesterday in a joint search of Solyndra's offices where agents were seen taking documents.

It's still not clear what information the FBI and Energy Department are seeking, but it is expected to be related to the company's $535 million loan guarantee it secured from the Department of Energy in 2010 to build the Fremont factory. The Energy Department's Office of Inspector General conducts audits and investigations around the agency's programs.

The House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations next week is scheduled to hold a hearing seeking to find out more about the loan guarantee Solyndra received. Invited guests include the executive director of the loan guarantee program and Solyndra's CEO and CFO.

Solyndra abruptly shut down its operations last week, laying off more than 1,000 people and on Tuesday declared bankruptcy. Through bankruptcy, the company indicated that it may have buyers for its technology and its operations.

The loan guarantee for Solyndra has opened the Obama administration to criticism and raised questions over the effectiveness of backing specific companies, rather than setting broader policies aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions or encouraging green-technology businesses.

The case of Solyndra specifically, though, has drawn so much attention because of the size of its loan guarantee and because there had been signs for months that the company could not keep pace with rapidly falling solar costs from Asian manufacturers.

"Their cost structure was not competitive, that piece was a widely held assumption in the industry. The question was whether they could get it down fast enough to get to cash-flow positive," said Rob DeLine, the vice president of marketing at Miasole, another Silicon Valley solar startup.

In a letter yesterday to the chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, members of the Committee on Energy and Commerce wrote to request that Solyndra CEO Harrison testify at the hearing. "Less than two months ago, Mr. Harrison met with us and other Committee members to assure us that Solyndra was in no danger of failing," wrote Energy and Commerce Committee member Henry Waxman.

Solyndra, which had raised over $1 billion from private sources, had reportedly tried to gain more financing to continue operations but was unable to, leading to the shutdown.

One worker who was at Solyndra's office yesterday during the FBI raid told the San Jose Mercury News that the company's manufacturing process regularly yielded flawed components, which meant it had to throw away some of the equipment it was making.

Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-20103991-54/solyndra-ceo-questioned-by-fbi/#ixzz1XUMLqIEp

[Fury]

With such financial successes like Solyndra it only makes sense to give President Downgrade another $500+ billion to blow.

Rock on, Obamanomics!

[Soul Crusher]

With such financial successes like Solyndra it only makes sense to give President Downgrade another $500+ billion to blow.

Rock on, Obamanomics!

Team dildo refuses to discuss this.

[garebear]

Team dildo refuses to discuss this.

I know, right? All that you do is call people dildo and they don't wanna have a civil conversation with you.

Some people!

[Soul Crusher]

I know, right? All that you do is call people dildo and they don't wanna have a civil conversation with you.

Some people!

humor everyone, defend this. 

[OzmO]

"Team tool attack this"


We are a sensitive nation. 

[Fury]

Team dildo refuses to discuss this.

What can they say? They cried and cried about Halliburton and now it turns out their God-King is just as bad. Hahahaha.

How many more loans like this do you think there are? There is no way this is the only one.

Obama = crony capitalist Chicago thug. They can't live with that.

[garebear]

Can't chat right now.

Hanging out with my dildo friends from team kneepad.

Us assholes will be back for a serious discussion later.

[Fury]

Can't chat right now.

Hanging out with my dildo friends from team kneepad.

Us assholes will be back for a serious discussion later.

This troll consistently tries so hard and still fails. I feel for you.

You're like the Little Engine who couldn't.

[Soul Crusher]

Obama's Pet Billionaire at Solyndra Make Take White House Down
Townhall.com ^ | September 11, 2011 | Bob Beauprez



A high profile, politically well-connected California solar energy company that had won a $535 million loan guarantee from the Obama Administration declared bankruptcy earlier this month and closed its doors sending 1100 workers to the unemployment line.   The demise of Solyndra has already sparked an FBI investigation, congressional hearings, and raised numerous questions of political cronyism and corruption connected to the highest levels of the Obama Administration.   

While the White House and Congressional Democrats feign surprise at the collapse of what was described as "the most hyped startup in the crowded Solar Energy field," it appears Obama Administration representatives were either easily duped or willingly blind to the facts.  ABC News reports that Department of Energy officials have been regularly attending Solyndra board meetings for months as the company "careened towards bankruptcy" after blowing through the more than half a billion taxpayer dollars. 


Early press reports following Solyndra's bankruptcy announcement disclosed that hundreds of thousands of dollars were contributed by shareholders and executives of Solyndra to the Obama 2008 campaign.  One of the company's largest investors, George B. Kaiser of Tulsa, reportedly contributed $53,500 personally and bundled large amounts more for Obama in 2008.  Kaiser is a billionaire with banking and oil and gas interests that rank him among the wealthiest people in the world.  Kaiser also visited the White House 16 times between 2009 and 2011.  The White House public records indicate that three of Kaiser's visits were on March 12, 2009 and one the following day in which he met with "a Senior Advisor, the former Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors, the Deputy Director of the Domestic Policy Council, and the Deputy Director of the National Economic Council."  The $535 million loan was officially approved one week later.   


That loan guarantee agreement negotiated on behalf of Solyndra was fast-tracked through approval by  Obama Administration officials at the Department of Energy and "included the lowest interest of all the green projects" benefitting from DoE funding, according to ABC News.  The guarantee also subordinated the taxpayer's credit position to private investors, like George Kaiser, should the company go bust.  Republicans warned that the deal "put taxpayers at unnecessary risk" but their warning went unheeded.   This means Kaiser will be at the front of the distribution line when Solyndra assets are liquidated.  Chances of any recovery for the taxpayers is somewhere between slim and none.

The startup company also spent over a million dollars lobbying Washington politicians in the last three years; $550,000 in 2010 alone.   


At the invitation of company execs, Barack Obama made a highly publicized visit to the Solyndra facility in Fremont, California in 2010.  Just weeks before his visit to Solyndra, PricewaterhouseCoopers issued the results of an audit of the company filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 16, 2010 that should have given the President and the White House considerable pause.   Noting that in the first five years of operation the company had sustained $558 million in losses, the audit report said Solyndra "has suffered recurring losses from operations, negative cash flows since inception and has a net stockholders' deficit that, among other factors, raise substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern." 

Undaunted, Obama arrived amid great fanfare on May 26 and highlighted the solar energy company as the poster child of the $25 billion green energy grants and subsidies doled out through his ill-fated Economic Stimulus.  Obama confidently proclaimed that companies "like Solyndra are leading the way toward a brighter and more prosperous future." 

The same week, solar energy investment analysts were already warning that Solyndra's business model was seriously flawed and that the hundreds of millions of dollars invested in the company "are going to be a huge waste."   The same analysts criticized the Obama Administration's green energy policy as "misguided" for throwing vast sums at "a fledgling startup" (Solyndra) while the established solar companies like Evergreen Solar in Massachusetts were already struggling for market share and economic survival.  A few months later, Evergreen closed US operations, laid off 800 workers, and moved their company to China. 


Less than two months ago, Solyndra CEO Brian Harrison visited Capitol Hill "trumpeting the company's successes and praising the [government] loan."  According to Henry Waxman (CA) and Diana DeGette (CO), Harrison assured them that Solyndra was in a "strong financial position."  Apparently, Harrison's verbal reassurance was enough due diligence oversight on behalf of the taxpayers to satisfy the two leading Democrat green energy evangelists.   They now express surprise that Harrison "did not convey to us the perilous condition of the company." 

The Solyndra debacle is rapidly becoming a White House scandal.  It is far too symptomatic of an Administration that is founded not on principle, but on Chicago-style cronyism and political corruption in the worst sense of the term.  With the passage of his Stimulus, Obama professed great pride that it was free of "earmarks and pet projects" that he said are fraught with "abuse."   Apparently, it's only pork, a pet project, and abusive if somebody other than Obama does it.   


Completely oblivious to scandalous failures like Solyndra and other claims of cronyism from the first Stimulus hanging over the White House, Obama summoned the theater of a joint session of Congress this week to press for another half trillion dollars for Son-of-Stimulus – he prefers to call it the American Jobs Act.  He offered a weak, glancing one line reassurance to Congress that the White House could be trusted to be good stewards of the money; "And to make sure the money is properly spent, we're building on reforms we've already put in place.  No more earmarks.  No more boondoggles." 

What?  At least this time he didn't say he was putting Joe Biden in charge of the checkbook.

________________________ ________________________ ____________



HECK OF A JOB OBAMA!   

[MCWAY]

Obama's Pet Billionaire at Solyndra Make Take White House Down
Townhall.com ^ | September 11, 2011 | Bob Beauprez



A high profile, politically well-connected California solar energy company that had won a $535 million loan guarantee from the Obama Administration declared bankruptcy earlier this month and closed its doors sending 1100 workers to the unemployment line.   The demise of Solyndra has already sparked an FBI investigation, congressional hearings, and raised numerous questions of political cronyism and corruption connected to the highest levels of the Obama Administration.   

While the White House and Congressional Democrats feign surprise at the collapse of what was described as "the most hyped startup in the crowded Solar Energy field," it appears Obama Administration representatives were either easily duped or willingly blind to the facts.  ABC News reports that Department of Energy officials have been regularly attending Solyndra board meetings for months as the company "careened towards bankruptcy" after blowing through the more than half a billion taxpayer dollars. 


Early press reports following Solyndra's bankruptcy announcement disclosed that hundreds of thousands of dollars were contributed by shareholders and executives of Solyndra to the Obama 2008 campaign.  One of the company's largest investors, George B. Kaiser of Tulsa, reportedly contributed $53,500 personally and bundled large amounts more for Obama in 2008.  Kaiser is a billionaire with banking and oil and gas interests that rank him among the wealthiest people in the world.  Kaiser also visited the White House 16 times between 2009 and 2011.  The White House public records indicate that three of Kaiser's visits were on March 12, 2009 and one the following day in which he met with "a Senior Advisor, the former Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors, the Deputy Director of the Domestic Policy Council, and the Deputy Director of the National Economic Council."  The $535 million loan was officially approved one week later.   


That loan guarantee agreement negotiated on behalf of Solyndra was fast-tracked through approval by  Obama Administration officials at the Department of Energy and "included the lowest interest of all the green projects" benefitting from DoE funding, according to ABC News.  The guarantee also subordinated the taxpayer's credit position to private investors, like George Kaiser, should the company go bust.  Republicans warned that the deal "put taxpayers at unnecessary risk" but their warning went unheeded.   This means Kaiser will be at the front of the distribution line when Solyndra assets are liquidated.  Chances of any recovery for the taxpayers is somewhere between slim and none.

The startup company also spent over a million dollars lobbying Washington politicians in the last three years; $550,000 in 2010 alone.   


At the invitation of company execs, Barack Obama made a highly publicized visit to the Solyndra facility in Fremont, California in 2010.  Just weeks before his visit to Solyndra, PricewaterhouseCoopers issued the results of an audit of the company filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 16, 2010 that should have given the President and the White House considerable pause.   Noting that in the first five years of operation the company had sustained $558 million in losses, the audit report said Solyndra "has suffered recurring losses from operations, negative cash flows since inception and has a net stockholders' deficit that, among other factors, raise substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern." 

Undaunted, Obama arrived amid great fanfare on May 26 and highlighted the solar energy company as the poster child of the $25 billion green energy grants and subsidies doled out through his ill-fated Economic Stimulus.  Obama confidently proclaimed that companies "like Solyndra are leading the way toward a brighter and more prosperous future." 

The same week, solar energy investment analysts were already warning that Solyndra's business model was seriously flawed and that the hundreds of millions of dollars invested in the company "are going to be a huge waste."   The same analysts criticized the Obama Administration's green energy policy as "misguided" for throwing vast sums at "a fledgling startup" (Solyndra) while the established solar companies like Evergreen Solar in Massachusetts were already struggling for market share and economic survival.  A few months later, Evergreen closed US operations, laid off 800 workers, and moved their company to China. 


Less than two months ago, Solyndra CEO Brian Harrison visited Capitol Hill "trumpeting the company's successes and praising the [government] loan."  According to Henry Waxman (CA) and Diana DeGette (CO), Harrison assured them that Solyndra was in a "strong financial position."  Apparently, Harrison's verbal reassurance was enough due diligence oversight on behalf of the taxpayers to satisfy the two leading Democrat green energy evangelists.   They now express surprise that Harrison "did not convey to us the perilous condition of the company." 

The Solyndra debacle is rapidly becoming a White House scandal.  It is far too symptomatic of an Administration that is founded not on principle, but on Chicago-style cronyism and political corruption in the worst sense of the term.  With the passage of his Stimulus, Obama professed great pride that it was free of "earmarks and pet projects" that he said are fraught with "abuse."   Apparently, it's only pork, a pet project, and abusive if somebody other than Obama does it.   


Completely oblivious to scandalous failures like Solyndra and other claims of cronyism from the first Stimulus hanging over the White House, Obama summoned the theater of a joint session of Congress this week to press for another half trillion dollars for Son-of-Stimulus – he prefers to call it the American Jobs Act.  He offered a weak, glancing one line reassurance to Congress that the White House could be trusted to be good stewards of the money; "And to make sure the money is properly spent, we're building on reforms we've already put in place.  No more earmarks.  No more boondoggles." 

What?  At least this time he didn't say he was putting Joe Biden in charge of the checkbook.

________________________ ________________________ ____________



HECK OF A JOB OBAMA!   

What investigation? With Holder as AG, this just gets added to the long list of mess that he's swept under the rug. Why that guy isn't in an orange jumpsuit, making little rocks out of big rocks, is beyond me.

[Soul Crusher]

  11
PrintComments2
Obama abused the public trust to fund pet solar firm
By: Examiner Editorial | 09/11/11 8:05 PM
President Obama called for a second stimulus package during his Thursday night address to a joint session of Congress. That sounds like a dog-bites-man story -- an unremarkable request from a president wedded to liberal theories that encourage government intervention in the economy. But in context, this request was truly extraordinary. The very morning of Obama's speech, FBI agents raided the corporate offices of Solyndra, a California solar panel manufacturer that had announced earlier in the week that it is filing for bankruptcy. The FBI also searched the private residences of the company's executives.
According to news reports, the raid was sparked by allegations of misuse of the $535 million loan guarantee Solyndra received from the Department of Energy in 2009 under the Obama economic stimulus program. Solyndra was the first company to benefit from this particular federal loan program, despite being on extremely shaky financial ground at the time Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced the award.

As The Washington Examiner and others have chronicled, Solyndra wasn't just any stimulus beneficiary. It was special. It was a company in whose board meetings Obama officials had been sitting for months. It was a company that Vice President Biden said was "exactly what the Recovery Act is all about." Obama himself had traveled to Solyndra's California headquarters in May 2010 to deliver a glowing speech about the company as exemplifying the success of his clean-energy stimulus programs. Meanwhile, Solyndra was so shaky that even a $535 million dose of cash, recklessly awarded on behalf of taxpayers, was not enough to stave off bankruptcy.

That context makes Obama's request to Congress last week an incredible act of chutzpah. He stood before the nation and asked for hundreds of billions of dollars in further stimulus, even as Americans learned one of the many ways in which the first batch of $859 billion was squandered.

Taxpayers deserve to know how and why Obama wasted their money on Solyndra. They deserve to know whether it has anything to do with the fact that George Kaiser, a major Obama bundler, was the company's largest corporate investor. They need to know whether that has anything to do with the extraordinary agreement the Energy Department made, allowing private investors like Kaiser to be made whole before the government in the event of bankruptcy.

For that reason, we look forward to Wednesday's hearing by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, in which Solyndra's sweetheart deal will be scrutinized. Obama abused the public's trust with subsidies for Solyndra. The only question now is just how badly that trust has been abused.

http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/2011/09/obama-abused-public-trust-fund-pet-solar-firm

[Soul Crusher]

SOLYNDRA SCANDAL WIDENS: Auditors Raised Red Flags About Obama's Favorite Green Company
Business Insider ^ | 9/12/2011 | Zeke Miller
Posted on September 12, 2011 11:00:11 PM EDT by icanhasbailout

Two months before the federal government provided a $535 million federal loan to the company, auditors found that Solyndra, the bankrupt solar company, had significant financial difficulties, Bloomberg reports.

In a deepening scandal that threatens to ensnare members of the Obama administration, PricewaterhouseCoopers found that the company's finances “raise substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern.” Two months later the company was awarded the loan under a green jobs program.

...

House Republicans have been investigating terms of the loan since earlier this year — and will hold a hearing on it on Wednesday. Republicans assert that the Obama administration fast-tracked the loan without following proper procedures.

...

Bloomberg reported that the administration rejected the company's request to renegotiate the terms of the loan the day before the company went under.

(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...

[Soul Crusher]

Feds probe Solyndra's upbeat July report
San Francisco Chronicle ^ | September 13, 2011 | by David R. Baker




Six weeks before closing their solar-panel factory and laying off most of their 1,179 employees, Solyndra executives assured members of Congress that the Fremont company was in no danger of shutting down.

At the same time, Solyndra, which received $528 million in federal stimulus loans, was telling investors and the U.S. Department of Energy that it would have to cut its revenue forecasts. Soon, the company was scrambling to find more funding.

The committee has asked Harrison and Solyndra's chief financial officer, W.G. Stover, to attend Wednesday's hearing. Committee members say they want Harrison to explain his earlier, upbeat comments about the company's fiscal health.

"These assurances appear to contrast starkly with his company's decision to file for bankruptcy last week," wrote Reps. Henry Waxman of Los Angeles and Diana DeGette of Colorado, the committee's ranking Democrats, in a letter to one of their Republican colleagues. "He did not convey to us the perilous condition of the company and the Committee should know why."


(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...

[Soul Crusher]

Solyndra execs likely to testify on Hill next week
washington examiner ^ | washington examiner



Executives from solar panel manufacturer Solyndra, which received over a half a billion dollars in loan guarantees from the Obama administration before filing for bankruptcy last week, are in negotations with the House Energy and Commerce Committee to openly testify before Congress next week, according to Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., the chairman of the panel's subcomittee on oversight and investigations.

The company's president and chief executive, Brian Harrison, and W.G. Stover, Jr., its chief financial officer, were asked to testify as part of tomorrow's committee hearing on the questionable loans, which have embroiled the Obama administration in what Stearns deemed a "full-blown scandal." The company's offices were raided by the FBI last week.

Stearns, speaking to bloggers at the Heritage Foundation, said the executives called the committee staff yesterday and asked whether they would be allowed to delay their testimony until next week. If they were granted the additional time, they said they'd agree not to exercise their Fifth Amendment right not to answer questions.

“We’re a little flexible if they’ll come next week and testify freely and openly and transparently," Stearns said. “I can’t say for sure, but most likely they’ll come next week and I think it would be very worthwhile for them to speak transparently and without taking the Fifth.”

Stearns said that the committee has a subpeona and could still force them to appear tomorrow, but he said it would be a "positive step" if they would actually answer questions.

Witnesses for tomorrow's hearing currently include Jeffrey Zients, deputy director of the White House Office of Management and Budget and Jonathan Silver, executive director of the Department of Energy's loans office.


(Excerpt) Read more at campaign2012.washingtone xaminer.com ...

[Fury]

If you only needed one reason to see why it would be completely asinine to gift President Downgrade with another $500 billion then look no further. Crony capitalism thuggery at its finest.

Just think, if President Downgrade had spent more time actually worrying about the economy and less time rewarding his union thugs and crony capitalist allies then this country might actually be in a better position than it is today. Oh well, 2 years of Democrats controlling everything shot to shit because they were too busy blowing money on their constituents.

[Soul Crusher]

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WH Pressured OMB on Solyndra Decision
National Review Online ^ | 9/13/11 | Andrew Stiles
Posted on September 13, 2011 11:17:02 PM EDT by Nachum

The Washington Post uncovers more White House e-mails regarding the Solyndra loan scandal, and it’s not pretty: The Obama White House tried to rush federal reviewers for a decision on a nearly half-billion-dollar loan to the solar panel manufacturer Solyndra so Vice President Biden could announce the approval at a September 2009 groundbreaking for the company’s new factory, newly obtained e-mails show… The August 2009 e-mails, released toThe Washington Post, show White House officials repeatedly asking OMB reviewers when they would be able to decide on the federal loan

(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...

[Soul Crusher]

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Bleeding us with ‘green jobs’
NY Post ^ | September 13, 2011 | Michelle Malkin
Posted on September 14, 2011 6:50:24 AM EDT by lowbridge

With the scandalous bankruptcy of Solyndra (which received $535 million in stimulus funds and is now under investigation by the FBI) hanging overhead, President Obama wisely whitewashed any mention of “green jobs” out of his latest address to Congress.

But buried in the details of his latest “jobs” bill are yet more big green boondoggles that will reward cronies, waste taxpayer dollars and make no dent in the jobless rate.

Solyndra, filed for Chapter 11 last month and laid off 1,110 employees. Obama officials had met with Solyndra execs at least 20 times; the green cheerleader-in-chief personally visited and promoted the company in 2009 before his administration fast-tracked approval for the loans.

Solyndra is now the third solar company to go belly-up this year. Yet the Energy Department is doubling down on failure. As the FBI and House GOP investigators launch a probe into Enron-style accounting problems with Solyndra’s books, Energy is doling out more than $850 million in new loan guarantees for another California solar firm sponsored by NextEra Energy, along with nearly $200 million more for separate solar-manufacturing facilities.

(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...

[Soul Crusher]

Emails link Solyndra to Biden office
Townhall.com ^ | September 14, 2011 | Bob Beauprez


The rapidly evolving scandal surrounding a $535 million government loan to Solyndra, a California solar energy company, that shuttered its doors and filed bankruptcy last week, has now been connected to the office of Vice-President Joe Biden.

Emails obtained by investigators for the House Energy and Commerce Committee and released to ABC News demonstrate how deeply involved the White House was at the highest levels in fast-tracking the approval of the politically well connected start-up in direct conflict with numerous private as well as government warnings that the survival of the company was very doubtful.

On March 10, 2009 according to ABC a White House budget analyst warned in an email that "This deal is NOT ready for prime time."  That followed an email from Ronald A. Klain, Chief of Staff to the Vice-President on March 7 that said, "If you guys think this is a bad idea, I need to unwind the W[est] W[ing] QUICKLY." 


The White House and the Department of Energy pressed forward and fast-tracked the approval of the first green energy loan of the Obama Administration in March, 2009.  In addition to questions about possible political cronyism and corruption, the terms of the loan included a subordination of the taxpayer's interest to private investors and the lowest interest rate of any such loan approved by the Obama Energy Department.

As reported earlier this week on these pages, numerous industry analysts had raised questions about the viability of Solyndra's business model.  Peter Lynch, a solar industry analyst, explained in simple terms to ABC News the folly of Solyndra's plan; "It's very difficult to perceive a company with a model that says, well, I can build something for six dollars and sell it for three dollars.  Those numbers don't generally work." 

In 2008, the investment analysis agency Fitch rated Solyndra "B+" – right between "highly speculative" and "speculative."  Dun & Bradstreet rated the company only "fair."


PricewaterhouseCoopers had filed a public audit with the SEC that Solyndra "has suffered recurring losses from operations, negative cash flows since inception and has a net stockholders' deficit that, among other factors, raise substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern."

New information disclosed that Solyndra first approached the Bush Administration for a loan.  That request was denied during the Administration's final weeks in office.  Solyndra ramped up lobbying efforts with the new Obama Administration taking advantage of the billions earmarked in the new President's $800 billion economic Stimulus legislation.  Company executives visited the White House meeting with some of the Administration's most highly placed officials.  Those visits included four by a principle investor in Solyndra that was also a major contributor and bundler for Obama's 2008 campaign in just two days the week prior to the announcement of loan approval.   

In the early days of the Obama Administration, the DoE analysts were questioning the risk of the Solyndra request.  One exchange was particularly prescient saying, "a major outstanding issue" was that Solyndra's financial numbers showed the company would run out of cash in September, 2011.  It did.


Not only did the Obama Administration ignore all the warning signs and the advice of their own government analysts, Barack Obama scheduled a visit to Solyndra in 2010 to hail the company as "leading the way to a brighter and more prosperous future." 

For months before the collapse of Solyndra two weeks ago, Energy Department officials had been sitting in on regular board meetings apparently blind to the facts. 

Questions of company operations and political corruption have already prompted investigations by the FBI, the Inspector General for the Energy Department, and the House Energy and Commerce Committee who will begin hearings tomorrow, September 14.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Soul Crusher]

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/emails-obama-white-house-monitored-huge-loan-connected/story?id=14508865



Damn - this is getting seriously bad for obama. 

[Soul Crusher]

Elections Have Consequences: Bush Administration Rejected Solyndra Loan
Pajamas Media ^ | 9-14-11 | PJ Tatler
________________________ ________________________ ___


Worser and worser:

The White House also noted to ABC News that the Bush administration was the first to consider Solyndra’s application and that some executives at the company have a history of donating to Republicans. The results of the Congressional probe shared Tuesday with ABC News show that less than two weeks before President Bush left office, on January 9, 2009, the Energy Department’s credit committee made a unanimous decision not to offer a loan commitment to Solyndra.

The geniuses in the Obama administration don’t seem to realize just how damaging this is to their case.

Put the Bush DOE rejection of Solyndra together with the emails that broke last night:

The August 2009 e-mails, released to The Washington Post, show White House officials repeatedly asking OMB reviewers when they would be able to decide on the federal loan and noting a looming press event at which they planned to announce the deal. In response, OMB officials expressed concern that they were being rushed to approve the company’s project without adequate time to assess the risk to taxpayers, according to the e-mails, which were provided by Republican congressional investigators…

And you have a true scandal that reaches directly into the Obama White House, and which clearly fits into the overall Obama “green” agenda. The main question demanding an answer now is, What did the president know and when did he know it?



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------











WHAT DID OBAMA KNOW AND WHEN DID HE KNOW IT!!!!!!!!

[Soul Crusher]

Solyndra employee to Mark Levin: “Everyone knew that the plant wouldn’t work”
Hotair ^ | 09/15/2011 | Allahpundit



Yes indeed. Everyone knew. That was the point of last night’s post. And in fact, what you’re about to hear isn’t the first case of a Solyndra employee insisting that the whole enterprise was widely known to be a bust inside HQ. Remember this snippet from a recent Mercury News story?

One former employee, Mohammed Walahi, who began working as a process technician for Solyndra in 2005, showed up at the company Thursday morning to file a workers’ compensation claim for a repetitive stress injury and was surprised to see FBI agents instead of security guards. Solyndra’s employees were laid off with no severance pay and an immediate end to health benefits, and Walahi, 41, has a wife and two young children to support.

He lashed out at his former employer, saying Solyndra manufactured solar panels that often contained imperfections that had to be thrown away.

“At least $100,000 a day was thrown away,” Walahi said. “If they are wasting $100,000 a day, how much is that a month or a year? Of course that’s going to lead to bankruptcy.”

The latest news is that the Treasury Department is launching its own probe into Solyndra, which, given that the FBI and the Energy Department are pursuing investigations too, tells me that we’re firmly in five-alarm ass-covering mode now. Here’s the scariest part of the new report from ABC:

The $535 million loan to Solyndra included a quarterly interest rate of 1.025 percent, the government bank reported in July. Of 18 Energy Department loans cited in the bank’s report, Solyndra’s rate was lowest. Eight other Energy Department projects, each also backed by the Federal Financing Bank, came with rates three or four times higher, the report shows…

Department of Energy officials said the rates for all of its green energy loans were set by the bank using a formula, and Solyndra’s favorable terms were not the result of special treatment.

“All borrowers under the [government loan guarantee] program receive the same treatment,” Energy Department spokesman Damien LaVera wrote to iWatch and ABC News in response to questions.

Given that we’re still handing out billion-dollar loans to green ventures, it’s actually more troubling to think the department’s interest-rate formula might be so skewed that it would consider Solyndra a safe investment when even low-level employees knew the business was set to crash than that this was the product of some backroom deal. How many more green boondoggles are we on the hook for thanks to that “formula”?

Here’s what I still can’t figure out: Why would a White House that staked so much political credibility on “green jobs” want a business as risky as this to be its showcase venture early on? You would think they would have gone out of their way to stick with very safe green investments at the beginning to build a track record of success. Then, as the public got comfortable, they could branch out into riskier/more cronyistic projects. As it is, by the time this is over, the term “green jobs” will practically qualify as profanity. Why would the White House blow it that badly? Who gained? Click the image to listen.

CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE AUDIO IMAGE

[Soul Crusher]

[Soul Crusher]

Obama Tainted by Loan Guarantees to Solar Firms
Townhall.com ^ | September 15, 2011 | Michael Barone



One factor favoring President Obama's re-election, according to a recent article by political scientist Alan Lichtman, is the absence of scandal in his administration.

Lichtman may have spoken too soon.

The reason can be capsulized in a single word: Solyndra.

That's the name of a company that manufactured solar panels in Fremont, Calif. (which voted 71 percent for Obama in 2008).

Solyndra was the first company to receive a loan guarantee from the Department of Energy as part of the 2009 stimulus package. This wasn't small potatoes. The loan guarantee was for $535 million.

It was, Vice President Biden said, "exactly what the Recovery Act was all about." Energy Secretary Steven Chu, a Nobel Prize winner, said it would help "spark a new revolution that will put Americans to work." It was part of the Obama administration's program to create so-called "green jobs," which we were told were the key to future economic growth.

The beauty part is that a loan guarantee doesn't require the federal government to shell out cash unless and until the recipient defaults on the loan. If the company's business plan works out, the loan costs the government virtually nothing.

Obama paid a visit to Solyndra on a trip to California in May 2010. "It is here that companies like Solyndra are leading the way toward a brighter, more prosperous future," he said. Hailing the green jobs loan guarantee program, he went on, "We can see the positive impacts right here at Solyndra."

The White House even prepared a video about the company. The Solyndra personnel sound articulate and intelligent, and seem to be really nice guys.

Unfortunately, there were other things going on at Solyndra for those with eyes to see. As my Washington Examiner colleague David Freddoso reported, an audit of the company performed by PriceWaterhouseCoopers two months before Obama's visit noted that the firm had accumulated losses of $558 million in its five years of existence.

The auditor noted that Solyndra "has suffered recurring losses from operations, negative cash flows since inception and has a net stockholders' deficit that, among other factors, raises substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern."

One of the original investors in Solyndra was Oklahoma billionaire George Kaiser, who was also a major contributor to Obama's 2008 campaign. In early 2011, Kaiser and other investors provided an additional $75 million in financing to Solyndra. They did so on condition, approved by the Energy Department, that they receive priority over previous creditors, including the government.

On Aug. 31, while Obama was vacationing on Martha's Vineyard, Solyndra filed for bankruptcy. On Sept. 8, the day of Obama's "American Jobs Act" speech to a joint session of Congress, FBI agents conducted searches of Solyndra's headquarters and the homes of the firm's CEO and founder. Newspaper accounts speculate that the government may wind up losing the whole $535 million.

The House Energy and Commerce oversight subcommittee conducted a hearing on Solyndra on Wednesday. Documents have been sought not only by Republicans but also by Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman, former chairman of the committee.

It's possible the subcommittee will find nefarious goings on at Solyndra. Was the administration's decision to grant a loan guarantee of half a billion dollars influenced by a major campaign contributor? Did the Energy Department disregard obvious caution flags about the company? Did somebody slip somebody a bribe?

But let's assume for the time being that there was no criminal conduct here, no violation of government procedures, no fraud. Let's assume everyone in the administration acted with good faith.

There's still a scandal -- the scandal of the government handing out hundreds of millions of dollars to unproven and speculative businesses. Even the shrewdest venture capitalists lose money on most of their investments. But when they lose, it's their money, not ours.

The scandal is still going on. The Energy Department has been busy handing out more loan guarantees in the past few weeks -- $150 million to 1366 Technologies of Lexington, Mass. (73 percent for Obama in 2008), 80 percent of $344 million to Solar City of San Mateo, Calif. (72 percent for Obama in 2008). Will one of them be the next Solyndra?

The real scandal is the "green jobs" loan guarantee program itself. And the ones getting scammed are American taxpayers.

[Soul Crusher]

The Solyndra saga

Obama administration put taxpayers on hook for failed venture

 An FBI agent stops a driver from entering the Solyndra headquarters in Fremont, Calif., on Sept. 8, 2011.

(David Paul Morris/Bloomberg)
September 15, 2011


http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/ct-edit-solar-20110915,0,3127441.story




We know the Obama administration can't get enough of renewable energy. We know it can't get enough of "shovel-ready" projects for soaking up its taxpayer-funded economic stimulus handouts. Now a colossal green stimulus failure has put Democrats on the defensive and raised the prospect of an ugly scandal.

Solyndra Inc. was a California-based maker of advanced solar panels. Its executives talked a good game, and the company attracted substantial private investment. It also caught the fancy of the Obama administration just as a pile of money came available from the $787 billion stimulus legislation of 2009.
 
Joe Biden Before you can say, "Let the sun shine in," Solyndra was basking in the limelight. The federal government backed loans of more than $500 million to the company. President Barack Obama toured its manufacturing plant. He touted its plans to hire 1,000 new workers and embraced its fuzzy math about producing enough solar panels in its expanded facility to replace the power from eight coal-fueled electricity plants. "It's here that companies like Solyndra are leading the way to a bright and prosperous future," the president declared at the time.

Fast forward to the not-so-bright and prosperous present: Solyndra is bankrupt, its factory shut down and its workforce on the street. The FBI raided its headquarters earlier this month, presumably suspecting fraud. Its top executives failed to appear Wednesday at a hearing on Capitol Hill where Republicans were itching to grill them.

A series of emails between White House officials and Office of Management and Budget watchdogs suggests that Solyndra got its federal guarantees prematurely, under pressure from the Obama administration, which wanted to stage an event featuring Vice President Joe Biden announcing the guarantees at a ground-breaking ceremony. A perfect example of shovel-ready stimulus!

But staffers reviewing the deal were voicing concerns about not having sufficient time to conduct proper due diligence on the financial underpinnings of the loans. The evidence suggests taxpayer dollars were put at undue risk for the sake of an administration photo op.

The Energy Department says it was the Bush administration that first made Solyndra a candidate for loan guarantees and set the timetable for consideration. The White House claims its communication about the project reflected merely a "quite active interest" in the outcome. Yet those explanations ring hollow in light of OMB emails referring to "rushed approvals" and "time pressure." As one note said, "There isn't time to negotiate."

No time to negotiate on behalf of the taxpayer? That's maddening.

There are a lot of questions around this deal. At least one investor in it was a prominent Obama fundraiser. Some Democrats say Solyndra executives may have misled them. If the federal government can't responsibly manage the money it's doling out in the name of economic stimulus, then it has no business doling out the money — period.

At a minimum, this episode illustrates the perils of sinking taxpayer dollars into risky private ventures. A thorough review may turn up many other problems, but this much we know: Solyndra made a bad bet. It ran into a buzz saw of cut-rate competition from China, and it made faulty assumptions about commodity costs and the supposed advantages of its product. The result: belly-up in no time flat.

Government loan guarantees to promote innovation aren't a bad idea. The U.S. has an interest in finding new and old energy sources — see the other editorial on this page. Public investments, however, must be based on due diligence. Not big money politics. Not stimulus rollout timetables. Not sun-struck ideology. The government gets on thin ice when it starts picking business winners and losers.

A nickel's worth of business sense and a dime's worth of caution might have saved Uncle Sam millions — and the Obama administration a heap of trouble.