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Corrupt Government Title: Solargate Update: Barry Obama wanted kickback $469 mil more to Solyndra The Obama administration’s Department of Energy was poised last summer to give Solyndra a second major taxpayer loan of $469 million, even as the company’s financial situation was growing more dire. The Energy Department was actively pushing to provide the second loan guarantee to the troubled solar-panel manufacturer in April and May 2010, when Solyndra’s auditors warned the company was in danger of closing due to its rapidly mounting debts and expenses, according to complete e-mails just released by a House committee investigating the original loan. White House career staffers, who had first raised concerns in the fall of 2009 about the Department of Energy providing Solyndra with its first taxpayer-backed loan of $535 million , wrote e-mails in gallows humor in April 2010 about the prospect of giving Solyndra more money. That spring, industry analysts were publicly questioning how the Silicon Valley startup could so quickly be running out both the federal loan and $933 million in private capital. “Apparently the loan size for Phase II is $469 million,” one Office of Management and Budget analyst wrote of DOE seeking a second loan for Solyndra. The analysts’s name was not released by the committee. “I’ve been told we should expect the see that project soon for conditional commitment.” Another joked: “Possible to close and default on one before closing on a second??? Could be a new record.” The agency didn’t shelve the idea for a second loan until October 2010, a Department of Energy spokesman has confirmed. That was the month that Solyndra executives and investors first warned the department that the company was facing the threat of having to liquidate without emergency cash. Solyndra, which suddenly shut down on Aug. 31 and sought bankruptcy protection, has left taxpayers on the hook for repaying that first half-billion-dollar loan. Its also left many, both Republicans and Democrats, questioning why the Obama administration was so supportive of the startup. Republicans have alleged the administration was showing favoritism to a firm backed primarily by investment funds tied to a major Obama campaign bundler, George Kaiser. Solyndra, the first clean energy company that the fledgling administration backed with a stimulus-funded loan, had been a showcase of Obama’s effort to spur a clean energy industry on U.S. soil. Obama personally visited the firm in May 2010, after being warned not to go by a donor and adviser in the venture capital field who noted the auditors’ warnings the firm could very likely fail. Even in May 2010, Energy Secretary Steven Chu’s top advisers — his senior adviser on stimulus , Matt Rogers, and his chief of staff, Rod O’Connor — were telling the White House not to worry about the auditors’ warnings on Solyndra’s finances. They also referenced the need for more federal money for Solyndra. O’Connor told a top White House adviser to Vice President Biden that the warnings were exaggerated, when a venture capitalist and Obama donor had flagged the company’s finances as a reason the president shouldn’t visit Solyndra as scheduled on May 25. O’Connor also raised the issue of more government support for Solyndra “Bottom line is that we believe the company is okay in the medium term, but will need some help of one kind or another down the road,” O’Connor wrote on May 24. Rogers, who had been a senior consultant at McKinsey before joining the administration and returned to that company last fall, told the White House the same day that such auditors’ warnings were typical for startups. Rogers acknowledged shifts in the market that were not favoring Solyndra, but stressed the short term and raised no concerns about the president visiting the company in a high-profile press conference touting Solyndra’s work. Rogers predicted the company could run into trouble in 18 to 24 months if European markets stumbled, but stressed “the company should be strong going into the fall with their new facilities on line.” The next day, Obama headlined a press event carried on national television broadcasts from Solyndra’s warehouse, and called the company an “engine of economic growth.” Solyndra filled out the application for a second loan days after receiving the first one in September 2009. The agency had put Solyndra’s request for a second loan guarantee on a fast-tracked, priority list, two sources familiar with the company’s application told the Post. The sources asked to remain anonymous because the probes of the loan are ongoing. A Department of Energy confirmed the agency had been reviewing Solyndra’s second loan application through much of last year. “Solyndra inquired about applying for a second loan guarantee, but DOE and Solyndra mutually agreed not to pursue that application until after the project we were already supporting was complete,” LaVera said in a e-mailed response to the Post’s questions. “In early fall of 2010, Solyndra informed the Department that it was having an acute liquidity problem and that it would need to raise additional capital to continue operations.,” LaVera said. “Solyndra subsequently hired Goldman Sachs to assist with the equity raise. In early November, it became clear that that effort was not likely to be successful and DOE began to discuss funding alternatives with the company and its existing investors. “ The company closed on Aug. 31. Federal agents executed a surprise search warrant on Solyndra headquarters days later, part of a criminal probe into the company for possible accounting fraud.
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