Solyndra May Have Lied to Get Loan Guarantee, Watchdog Says

Solyndra LLC executives may have intentionally misled the Energy Department as they sought $535 million in federal loan guarantees, the agency’s inspector general concluded after a four-year investigation.

“The investigative record suggests that the actions of certain Solyndra officials were, at best, reckless and irresponsible or, at worst, an orchestrated effort to knowingly and intentionally deceive or mislead the department,” Gregory Friedman, the Energy Department’s inspector general, wrote in an Aug. 24 report released Wednesday.

The department’s review of the Solyndra application was “less than fully effective,” according to the report.

Solyndra collapsed two years after it received its first U.S. loan in 2009. Its September 2011 bankruptcy led to an investigation by congressional Republicans and withering criticism of the loan guarantee program, which had been funded by the 2009 economic stimulus program. It’s failure became an issue in the 2012 presidential campaign. (by Jim Snyder, Bloomberg Politics)

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