Backers of renewable energy and of Obama, take notice. The Solyndra scandal is escalating.
Bruce Krasting details possible motives for the FBI raid on Solyndra and homes of its senior management. Briefly, Argonaut Ventures is controlled by Oklahoma billionaire George Kaiser. They have made major investments in Solyndra. Kaiser is also a prominent Democrat and bundled contributions to Obama in 2008.
Argonaut made a $75 million loan to Solyndra in Feb. 2011. DOE officials were present. Argonaut, in an unusual deal, was made a senior debtor and thus gets preference over the federal government ‘s$527 million loans in the bankruptcy. Argonaut has apparently put up another $4 million to make them Debtor in Possession. The plans are to sell Solyndra in 30 days, far too short a time. If no buyers are found, the DIP gets the assets of Solyndra.
The only way the federal government can block this is by claiming that Solyndra management participated in fraud. This appears to be exactly what the FBI raids on Solyndra is about.
There are a lot of loose threads here that need to be tied together. Taxpayers money must be recovered first. I hope everything was on the up-and-up and Solyndra was funded entirely on its potential merits rather than political influence. Alleged political favoritism will kill public enthusiasm for reorienting policy towards renewable energy. Solyndra seems to be a tale of dirty solar. Hopefully it won’t block out the sun.
I’ll have much more on this on Monday in a piece for CAIVN.