Other emails obtained by The Washington Post show that officials from the Office of Management and Budget felt that the White House put them under the gun to approve the Solyndra deal. The OMB officials urged Obama to give them more time to thoroughly review the deal. Steve Spinner, a major Obama 2008 fundraiser and now an advisor for the Department of Energy, wrote in an email about the final decision, "how f*cking hard is this?" He urged them to approve the loan. Spinner is married to a partner at the law firm of Wilson Sonsini, which represented Solyndra in its loan application.
Mr. Spinner was supposed to have recused himself from all things Solyndra because of his marriage. Guess that wasn't necessarily so...
After being put under the gun, the Department of Energy announced on March 29, 2009, that it had approved a loan to Solyndra for $535 million. This loan guarantee made Solyndra the poster child of the "green stimulus."
On May 26, 2010, Obama visited Solyndra, boasted about the loan and said, "the true engine of economic growth will always be companies like Solyndra." He praised Solyndra as a Recovery Act (stimulus) success story.
Just like his other stimulus!
In fact, Obama was so impressed with the failed solar company that the administration wanted to give it another $469 million on top of the $535 million to make it an even billion dollars in taxpayer cash.
Adding fuel to the fire, Solyndra executives cashed in big-time just days before filing for bankruptcy. Bill Stover, the company's CFO who pleaded the Fifth before Congress at a September hearing, was awarded at least $120,000 in bonuses on top of his $367,000 salary. Karen Alter, senior vice president of marketing, received two $55,000 bonuses on April 15 and July 8 of this year, on top of her $250,000 annual salary. Ben Bierman, executive vice president of operations and engineering, received $120,000 in bonuses this year on top of his $276,000 salary.
FBI would be investigating fraud (etc.) and prosecuting?
The scandal took another turn when, on September 8, 2011, the FBI raided Solyndra's headquarters.
Currently, Congress, the Department of Energy, and the FBI are investigating the Solyndra loan. Just this week, the Energy and Commerce Committee's investigative subcommittee authorized a subpoena of all White House documents on Solyndra. The subpoena of the documents could include details of the president's own travel and communications.
Energy Secretary, Steven Chu, is set to testify before Congress on November 17, where we will hopefully learn more details of the crony loan guarantee.
I'm sure that will be revealing!