The George Kaiser Family Foundation’s investment through Argonaut Ventures to Solyndra is a gift that just keeps giving as a perfect example of “Crony Capitalism” that subjugates American taxpayer interests below that of a private investor. In this case Kaiser, with a local reputation as a brutal profiteer and generous benefactor (as long as each charity does exactly what it is told), structured a deal that was all politics.
The Fremont, California based CBS affiliate reports that after filing bankruptcy last year, solar company Solyndra still owes American taxpayers half a billion dollars. But CBS 5 caught them on tape destroying millions of dollars worth of parts without a serious attempt to sell the parts to recover value for taxpayers – or investors. Wow, these Liberals are so very brilliant.
At Solyndra’s sprawling complex in Fremont, workers in white jumpsuits were unwrapping brand new glass tubes used in solar panels last week. They are the latest, most cutting-edge solar technology, and they are being thrown into dumpsters.
Forklifts brought one pallet after another piled high with the carefully packaged glass. Slowly but surely it all ended up shattered.
And it’s not a few loads. Hundreds of thousands of tubes on shrink-wrapped pallets will meet a similar demise.
Solyndra paid at least $2 million for the specialized glass. A CBS 5 crew found one piece lying in the parking lot. Solyndra still owes the German company that made the tubes close to another $8 million. So why is a bankrupt company that owes a fortune to creditors, including American taxpayers, throwing away millions of dollars worth of assets? Solyndra is not commenting. But court documents reveal the company received permission from the bankruptcy trustee to abandon the high grade glass, the court agreeing that it was of “inconsequential value” because the cost of storing them exceeds their value.
An employee for Heritage Global Partners, the company in charge of selling Solyndra’s assets, told CBS 5 they conducted an exhaustive search for buyers but no one wanted them. But how exhaustive was that search? The tubes were never included on the list of Solyndra assets put up for sale at two auctions last year.
If they were, David Lucky told CBS 5 he would have bought them. “We certainly would have bid on them, yes,” Lucky said.
Click here to read the full report and see the video.
Tulsa Today’s first report on Solyndra may be found by clicking here. Tulsa Today has other reports on George Kaiser and his Foundation, but the most prominent “inside the game” players are avoiding media. The problem with that approach is that avoidance only works for a time and, at some point, not returning calls is not enough to stop publication.