Solyndra Solar raided by FBI

Given the actions of the current DOJ , I fear your trust may be misplaced .

On the Pennsylvania Turnpike heading west towards the wind turbines at Somerset there is a roadside billboard that says “wind dies and the sun sets.” The billboard is sponsored by Pennsylvania coal
I think that captures my own sentiments perfectly.
Cheers,
John

Can we expect Solyndra Solar to be mentioned early in the Pres’ speech tonight, or not at all?

“We trust this is the start of a real investigation and not a “securing embarrassing documents” operation.”
This is the Holder DOJ. You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy…

Yeah, it’s not as if rights matter to these guys.
Mark

I don’t think this is about finding missing money at all. I suspect that it is about sealing off the Soylandra records from a congressional inquiry. The FBI has “sealed” all of the seized records. I expect them to remain sealed thru November 2012.

I started my high-tech company in 2002 with around $15K in money I saved up. I grew the company without borrowing one cent. I how have offices in six states with international distribution and employ some 25+ employees who all have an excellent company health care plan, profit sharing, and other benefits. I’ve watched over 70% of my competitors go out of business while my company continues to grow even in this awful economy and time of government antagonism towards small business.
With a half billion dollars, Barry couldn’t get his pet “green” company off the ground. This tells me the following about Solyndra:
1. Was never intended to operate as a legitimate company.
2. Never had a business plan based on real business concepts.
3. Didn’t start with a real product concept.
4. Hired incompetent people from management down.
5. Staked their success on pipe dreams without any thought on how to get there.
6. Invested in R&D that was all R and no D.
7. Had no market.
9. Developed a supply line that saw the company as a feeding trough.
10. Failed to empower employees that were capable of meeting corporate goals.
11. Had a management team that spent all their time at the golf course.
Seriously, for a company to fail with a half billion start up capital, all of the above and more have to be true.
This is a poster perfect example of what happens when government decides to pick the winners and losers in a market driven economy. It will pick losers every time. Perfect timing for our business inept president to tell us how he’s going to create jobs tonight. Grab your pocketbooks because it will surely involve you paying for a bunch more Solyndras.

Another view from the Polipundit on the Solandra Affair – Coverup
Does anyone really think that Holder signed off on this as a legit raid?
This is to lock the records down until after the election. Now the DOJ controls the pace of any investigation, the bankruptcy proceedings can’t proceed and there won’t be any fuel for the eventual civil suits.
This was not a clean raid in the interest of justice, it was the first step in the cover-up.

Did someone mention Fisker, funny they get there batteries from A123 (AONE) public in 2009 at $20 now trading around 4.80, and guess what they also have government grant of 250 million and are running at a loss, sound familiar.

“Jim G says:
September 8, 2011 at 5:06 pm
Wonder if any of that $535 million made it into Democrat campaign funds, one way or another.”
That’s the first thing that cross my mind. I wonder if the subcontractors were paid in full?

I’ve been around the FBI some. No they arent’ going to help hide evidence. This could be quite
unpleasant for the solyndra fols and certian gon’t bodies..
The problem being the DOJ hierarchy…

Actually, a finding of fraud would be the best outcome for the DOE and administration. If not, the DOE et al. will have to admit that they are lousy venture capitalists. The DOE should take a page out of DARPA and fund basic research and small scale applied science, letting the business development side of things to the big boys. (N.B., Republican administrations are no better.)

Are there any ‘green’ execs sipping a drink at a topless beach on the Mediterranean right now?

Don’t forget about Evergreen Solar and also the “weatherization” initiative, which not only
included “training” but also tax incentives for customers. There are plenty of others as well.
Of course, don’t expect NBC/CNN to lift a finger to do any investigative journalism. They are part of the administration now, to judge by their embarrassing emails.

I wonder if they left all the tons of ultra hazardous material that go into solar cell production just sitting around or if they ever even bothered to build a production facility in the first place.

Something like 200 automobile manufacturers went under years ago as the cream survived and eventually prospered. I’m sure some of them had outrageous start up assistance. China is creaming ours though. I just love Sam Walton & Richard Nixon. /sarc

HankH says:
September 8, 2011 at 5:26 pm
With a half billion dollars, Barry couldn’t get his pet “green” company off the ground. This tells me the following about Solyndra:
——————————-
It’s even worse than that. Solyndra got $530M (guaranteed) from the government but they also raised over $1B in VC. Even with that much cash they barely made it past the loan guarantee. This one should sting the greens for a very long time…

Douglas DC: I’ve been around the FBI some. No they aren’t going to help hide evidence.
Doug, I’ve got two words for you – Ruby Ridge.

This whole thing stinks to high Heaven – another example of the tax-payer being milked for all they’re worth. I bet you the shysters behind this scam have still got their millions, let’s just hope the end up grabbing their ankles in the clink.

Heck – this is old news and chicken feed, when contrasted to the ‘new’ Obamanation ‘jobs’ proposals of another half Trillion dollars! And their all ‘green’ jobs, for stop light Progressives. They call them ‘green jobs’ because they are too yellow to admit they are red socialists. aka ‘Stop Light Progressives’.
It all makes me profoundly sick, my friends. I really don’t mean to belittle the Solyndra debacle but it is just the another forced kiss in the rape of my country. Tonights proposals by Our Dear Leader are just his rationalizations and justifications for another assault….

It’s about to get worse, with records of Solyndra-associated folks visiting the WH numerous times in the last two years coming to light. I do hope someone with a lot of time on their hands and the right resources is going through the new jobs proposals sniffing out further pay-to-play deals. It seems Obama may be a happily married man but he still believes in having “friends with benefits”.

If it was Russia, I’d guess the reason for the raid was that Solyndra executives failed to pay FBI executives their rightful share of 528 millions.
Of course, in USA such disputes are usually resolved more civilly as far as I’m aware, but then with Global Warming guys you can never be sure.

As an Australian I can only hope that The FBI are honest brokers and do their job as mandated.
Political interference in the course of justice is an offense against the separation of powers in my country. The tone of many commentors here seem to suggest that the FBI is bought and payed for. For your countries sake I hope this is not the case.
The shenanigans this company must have got up to to waste this amount of money is biblical in its proportions, and a true accounting is neccessary. No ifs or buts.

Solyndra was in a used shutdown automotive plant. we know it and the lad were not as expensive as new construction. Also it killed 1,000 jobs.

Solyndra failed because Chinese manufacturing and exporting costs completely trumped Obama’s stimulus spending. Seriously, that’s what happened. The Chinese simply filled the need for solar panels faster and cheaper than a “subsidized” American company did. Those loan guarantees (which, btw are much preferred to simply granting money, at least there’s a chance taxpayers get paid back with interest with a loan guarantee) likely would have worked if the labor and regulatory costs in this country weren’t so comparatively high. Of course now that the company is folding, that loan guarantee has likely turned into a loss for taxpayers.
When the entity that has no manufacturing regulations helps tip your economy into recession, and then to combat that recession your attempts at throwing money at startups fails because of your opponents speed and flexibility… I think it’s time to stop throwing money at problems and start rolling back regulation.

Jeremy says:
September 9, 2011 at 7:23 am
Solyndra failed because Chinese manufacturing and exporting costs completely trumped Obama’s stimulus spending. Seriously, that’s what happened. The Chinese simply filled the need for solar panels faster and cheaper than a “subsidized” American company did. Those loan guarantees (which, btw are much preferred to simply granting money, at least there’s a chance taxpayers get paid back with interest with a loan guarantee) likely would have worked if the labor and regulatory costs in this country weren’t so comparatively high. Of course now that the company is folding, that loan guarantee has likely turned into a loss for taxpayers.
When the entity that has no manufacturing regulations helps tip your economy into recession, and then to combat that recession your attempts at throwing money at startups fails because of your opponents speed and flexibility… I think it’s time to stop throwing money at problems and start rolling back regulation.

You are describing exactly why Solyndra couldn’t get more private funding. People investing their own money determined that Solyndra likely wouldn’t be able to compete against Chinese companies. So why would the DOE think this is a good investment?

wayne Job says:
September 9, 2011 at 4:51 am

As an Australian I can only hope that The FBI are honest brokers and do their job as mandated.
Political interference in the course of justice is an offense against the separation of powers in my country. The tone of many commentors here seem to suggest that the FBI is bought and payed for. For your countries sake I hope this is not the case.
The shenanigans this company must have got up to to waste this amount of money is biblical in its proportions, and a true accounting is neccessary. No ifs or buts.

The FBI is part of the executive branch of US tri-cameral government (executive, legislative, judicial).
The president of the United States is the top dog of the executive branch.
So ask yourself how interested the president is in having one of his police agencies expose corruption that leads back to the white house. Can you spell “zero interest”? I knew you could.
Congress (legislative branch) has to intervene in these situations by calling for special investigations and prosecutors outside the control of the president. If a majority in congress is same political party as the president they too have no interest in damaging the white house. It’s unlikely full investigations of the Chicago-style politics going on in the current white house will be investigated until after the next election when there will almost surely be a republican majority in congress and a republican president. I can hardly wait but have little choice absent impeachable offenses.
In the more distant past one could count on the free press in the United States to do the hard legwork of exposing corrupt government activities but the free press ain’t what it used to be and does nothing to investigate corruption on the left or even report what they know and don’t expend many investigative resources on corruption by the right. The press has become nothing but cheerleaders for the left waving their hands around with little in the way of substance.
What a fine mess, eh?

Projects like this are a terrible waste of public money (by which I mean money taken from tax payers). Something ought not to be marketed until it is ready to be marketed without subsidy.
Public money should be put into assisting research, leaving business in the usual manner to introduce products to the market as and when they are viable.
Accordingly, I consider that public money should be directed at projects like this:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2035496/Laser-fusion-Huge-flash-released-energy-world-using.html
It is from projects like this, that the real salvation will come from.

Brian H @ 2:18 a.m. “Actually, Tesla is fine.”
While I’ve thought of investing in Tesla, I haven’t been able to determine whether it is a wise investment right now, based on their current price. I think you’re right, however, that they have a good chance of making it long term.
One of the key things with Tesla is that they are producing a high-end product. It is not targeted at the masses, who are feeling a serious pinch in the pocket book right now and watching every dime, but at the richer set, who still have plenty of disposable income. By going for that market initially, they are largely insulating themselves from the recession. Also, the Tesla products are pretty sexy, which means folks are willing to pay more than the product might be worth from a pure “utility” standpoint (same strategy as Apple). Stated more simply, Tesla has priced their products high enough to actually be able to turn a profit in a decent period of time, and has made the products sexy enough that people are willing to pay those high prices. Having these two factors (together with the “doing the right thing for the planet” that the other “green” companies also have) could end up making the difference.

Updated details from ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/obama-officials-sat-solyndra-meetings/story?id=14476848
Officials from the Department of Energy have for months been sitting in on board meetings as “observers” at Solyndra, getting an up-close view as the solar energy company careened towards bankruptcy after spending more than $500 million in federal loan money.
Word of the Energy Department’s unusual arrangement came as federal agents on Thursday converged on the California headquarters of the failed solar company, focusing fresh attention on the first corporate beneficiary of President Obama’s stimulus program to create new clean energy jobs.
… [Story continues]

“”””” Jeremy says:
September 9, 2011 at 7:23 am
Solyndra failed because Chinese manufacturing and exporting costs completely trumped Obama’s stimulus spending. Seriously, that’s what happened. The Chinese simply filled the need for solar panels faster and cheaper than a “subsidized” American company did. Those loan guarantees (which, btw are much preferred to simply granting money, at least there’s a chance taxpayers get paid back with interest with a loan guarantee) likely would have worked if the labor and regulatory costs in this country weren’t so comparatively high. Of course now that the company is folding, that loan guarantee has likely turned into a loss for taxpayers. “””””
Not so Jeremy; you can’t blame this on the Chicoms
Solyndra went “down the tubes” literally, because their technology was a “pipe dream”.
Where did they get the idea that a round tube will get you more than the 1 kWm^-2 that the sun will deliver to a flat plate. So Solyndra, had to lay down pi times the solar surface, that their competitors have to.
In solar cell power, pretty much nothing matters except solar energy to Electricity conversion effiiency. Solyndra could have made their solar sensitive arrays for zero cost, and they still would have failed; becaue anybody with any common sense, who was planning on buying solar cell arrays, would make a beeline for the highest conversion efficiency producer, who was making a reliable product. Because land area is far more expensive that solar cells, and they aren’t making any more land area.
Actually, Sunpower Systems, and a very few others, have quite respectable products, and where solar PV makes sense; they will do quite well. I am not a fan of PV solar energy, except for niche applications; usually where the land has already been ceommitted for use, and solar arrays can be added without interrupting the primary land use. Several Silicon Valley companies (Applied Materials for example) have built carport structures on their former parking lots, and put solar arrays on top. Employees now park their cars protected from the sun, and the company recovers some solar energy.
I’m opposed to taxpayer moneys being used to subsidize, and select for success, politically selected companies; rather than let normal market forces determine the winners and losers. Solyndra was a loser from the start, and selected to fail big time by Obama cronies, possibly with Energy Secretary Chu’s blessing.
There are NO economic barriers to PV solar energy; it is the technology which is falling short.
With only 100 Watts per square foot maximum to begin with, you cannot afford to waste any of it, on low efficiency PV conversion, even you could sprady the active material onto the substrate out of a garden hose.
The economic test of ANY so-called “alternative energy” process is simple.
Using just the energy that your favorite plant produces for availability in a useful form; plus all the in situ raw materials in the universe; and nothing else, simply duplicate your plant, and then sell any excess energy you have left, at market prices, and make yourself a fortune.
Of course, if you have no energy left over, and your duplicate plant is not finished; then your process is an (available) energy losing process, and should be nipped in the bud, before you waste even more of our precious energy from current sources.
The Chicoms too will fail, if their “cheaper” solar panels, consume more energy to make, than they make available during their operating lifetime..
Try putting up some other “value added” structure on a piece of “waste” land, that you own, and see how long it is before the propety tax collector, comes after you for his pound of flesh. Why would it be different for your solar farm panels.

@P Walker says:
September 8, 2011 at 3:37 pm
Yep!

The Department of Justice has replaced Military Intelligence as the ultimate oxymoron under Obama’s reign. Political Lawyers, gads.
The FBI are usually fair brokers. Ultimately most of them are just cops trying to do a job.

The government losses are worse than portrayed above. The scandal is enormous and White House involvement is undeniable. The FBI seizure indicates that criminal activity is likely. The basic facts are set forth in this ABC News Article: http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/solyndra-lowest-interest-rate/story?id=14460246&singlePage=true
Solyndra is a thinly capitalized company. George Kaiser’s foundation, Argonaut Ventures, provided the necessary working capital in the form of a loan of $73 million. This was parlayed into $535 million in a DOE guaranteed loan that appears to have involved White House involvement in exchange for prior political contributions to Obama’s 2008 campaign.
Apparently, the government lawyers overseeing the loan failed to have the Argonaut loan subordinated to the government loan. This is standard when the borrower’s working capital was loaned by shareholders rather than paid in exchange for the purchase of capital stock. This failure is catastrophic because the Argonaut loan is superior (paid first) to the government loan in the bankruptcy proceedings.
Worse, Solydra probably has no assets other than those acquired with borrowed money. Its plant, equipment and inventories will in the end be sold at for fire sale prices. This presumes that even brand new solar panel plants in the US cannot compete in domestic or global markets. For example, GE just made arrangements to build a new plant is China employing 5000 to replace plants it closed in the US.
We the taxpayers will take it in the shorts for $535 million as the consequence of what appears to be a classic “pay to play” scam. How else can the sweetheart interest rate for the Solyndra loan and the failure to subordinate the Argonaut loan be explained?
We can expect delays and non- labout the progress of the investigation. The DOJ will stall matters until after the 2012 elections, just as they are trying to to with Fast and Furious/Gunwalker investigations. I my opinion either one of these scandals is enough to destroy Obama’s presidency. Time will tell.

Pull My Finger says:
September 9, 2011 at 12:21 pm
The FBI are usually fair brokers. Ultimately most of them are just cops trying to do a job.
Far from it!
They impress jurors with their hightech scientific analysis. Problem is, their hightec science is not available for peer review (shades of climate science).
So we have people sent to prison, because the lead in a bullet in the box matches the crime scene (but so do over a billion other bullets).
The OKC expert testified he knew it was ammonium nitrate and a wood sliver picked up in the gutter in a downpour had ammonium traces. He left it on his lab bench, and he had the sole key to his lab. ( anyone familiar with the chemical knows it goes into solution if a cloud passes over head). Also not mentioned was that the janitor comes in every night and washes the lab down with ammonium cleaners.
All the FBI does is serve as conviction salesmen for the AG, so they can maintain their 97% conviction rate. Truth has no bearing on how they operate — as witness the Boston trio who spent 30 years in prision (originally a death sentence) over a murder that was committed by a FBI witness. Everyone all the way to Hoover felt that protecting their witness was more important than the lives of 3 nobodys.

Solyndra for dummies. Heh.

Bryan C says:
September 10, 2011 at 11:44 am
I hate being pessimistic about our governing bodies, but I’m afraid I have to agree with several posters….this raid was a “clean up” of incriminating evidence. This investigation will simply wither away.
——————–
They may –make that will– be able to avoid any criminal prosecutions, but I’m sure the republicans will pound this mercilessly in next year’s elections. Who knows, it might even influence some of those California dreamers.

The New Deal era introduced the big project “Cost Benefit Analysis” concept which was enacted into law. I would assume that the Economic Environment should require an Environmental Impact Statement and possibly a Free Trade Legislation, (market manipulation) might also come into play. There is a reason shovel ready projects are on hold? They are not yet viable.
We do not make Lesson Plans in school so why make a Business Plan?
Fail to Plan…………………. Plan to Fail.
Herbert Hoover, ………………..he’s back.
You cannot Impeach the Very First African American President of the United States. That’s just not an Option.
I met this Japanese student while I was working at a site for Habitat for Humanity. I was cracking goofy one-line jokes all day. Finally he say’s “that I am too old to tell jokes”. Then I asked him what he was studying in College. He responded he was in his first year of studying Economics.
Now who is the comedian?