FBI Raids Bankrupt Solar Venture Solyndra

Posted by on Sep 11th, 2011 // 10 Comments

FBI Agents posing as federal inspectors from the Department of Energy (DOE)  raided the offices of Solyndra only days after the company filed for bankruptcy. An FBI spokeswoman has confirmed the raid, but refused to divulge any more details regarding the operation.

The Department of Energy’s inspectors office usually investigates businesses that they believe are committing fraud.

After Solyndra filed for bankruptcy, they closed their solar panel plant in Fremont, California. The reason the company cited for its bankruptcy was that silicon solar panels have been exponentially dropping in price. For years Solyndra had some of the most advanced solar panels in the industry. However, as rival’s technology became cheaper and more efficient, Solyndra has not been able to compete.

The company’s factory was built on a $535 million loan from the Department of Energy. President Obama said that this venture had the opportunity to help aid the United States in shifting from a fossil fuel driven country to a nation that depends on renewable energy more.

Many have been skeptical of Obama’s “Green Job Plans” from the start. ”The FBI raid further underscores that Solyndra was a bad bet from the beginning and put taxpayers at unnecessary risk,” House Energy Chairman Fred Upton told the National Journal on Thursday. “President Obama’s signature green jobs program went from a darling of the administration to bankruptcy to now the subject of an FBI raid in a matter of days.”

According to the Department of Energy, Solyndra’s bankruptcy will not affect the other businesses involved in the loan guarantee program. The Department of Energy has spent nearly $40 billion dollars on this program. Their ventures have been anything from solar power to nuclear power.



  • punstress

    Seriously, Google links to a news source that thinks the plural of “business” is “business’s”? That was only the worst of many typos in this story. Get me rewrite!!!

  • aaron mcdaniel

    You mean they closed BEFORE they filed for bankruptcy right. Because i was there. And that’s a serious distinction. By my calculations, they closed several hours before they filed

    • Mike

      They laid off on Wednesday and filed for bankruptcy on Monday.

  • Mike

    Let me try again.

    They laid off on Wednesday, lawsuit on friday and bankruptcy on Tuesday.

    • Mark

      Mike I am thinking dates are necessary in this comment. Wed August 31, Friday Sept 2, Tuesday Sept 6

  • dano

    If govt is contemplating a New Deal like treatment of current economic woes, and will be pouring lots of money on the problem, seems to me this plant and it’s skilled workforce could be a less costly yet productive subsidy than many others. Albeit unproffitable, it is still a substantial asset that can put people to work at relatively lower cost.

    And lets have a little look at just where the $535 million went. How many execs involved were able to stuff their pockets before the end.

  • http://www.google.com Frank

    (The reason the company cited for its bankruptcy was that silicon solar panels have been
    exponentially dropping in price.)

    What kind of bull excuse is that? Solar panels have been exponentially dropping in price ever since the first panel was manufactured. A company that plans on making and selling solar panels would know this. They would have been able to predict what the panels would be selling for years in advance with better than 95% accuracy. For them to say this was the reason for the bankruptcy implies that they didn’t anticipate such low prices and couldn’t compete with them. If they are saying that… Then they are full of shit.

  • Path

    Fantastic

  • http://www.marinblog.com Hal Warrington

    Definitely a especially high-quality post.

  • http://solaruniversecal.com/solar SolarUniverseCal

    Solar power is really the only way to go. We all need to do our part to spread the word. It’s just about getting the word out that solar and going green takes “just about the same effort”.

© 2010-2011 LocalizedUSA, LLC. · RSS.. Subscribe Subscribe