Feds raid Obama-touted solar panel company, 900 American workers lose jobs after company files bankruptcy

Sunday, September 11, 2011 by: Jonathan Benson, staff writer
Tags: Solyndra, bankruptcy, health news

(NaturalNews) Just days after Fremont, Cal. based solar panel company Solyndra declared bankruptcy and the subsequent layoff of 900 employees, FBI agents raided the company's headquarters for reasons that have yet to be made public. Solyndra had received more than $500 million in stimulus funds from a federal green energy program to grow and develop new technologies, but the company has now gone downhill.

Solyndra, of course, is the same company that President Obama last year touted as an excellent example of the future of green energy. While touring the company's facilities, Mr. Obama glowingly spoke of Solyndra's plan to hire 1,000 more workers, and to make enough solar panels throughout its lifetime to replace eight coal power plants.

Everything has changed, though, as the company scrambles to reorganize and deal with its massive financial problems, which it had allegedly concealed from members of Congress.

"As our investigation continues, we hope to hear directly from Solyndra's executives next week -- the same executives who visited Capitol Hill as part of a PR (public relations) campaign in July and misrepresented the company's financial situation," a group of lawmakers is jointly quoted as saying by The Washington Times.

Meanwhile, American taxpayers will likely end up footing the bill for this massive debacle, as most of whatever cash is retrieved from the sale of company assets and equity will go to investors -- which according to Zero Hedge includes the George Kaiser Family Foundation (http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/solyndr...) -- creditors, and company employees. Whatever is left, if anything, will be returned to the government.

The entire charade, however, reeks of fraud and mismanagement. The Solyndra scandal truly is a blow to the government's green energy initiatives, which have been driving traditional energy industries out of business in favor of wind and solar, only to now have taxpayer dollars squandered by companies receiving taxpayer grants.

Sources for this story include:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/sep...