Feds Claimed SunPower’s $1.2 Billion Federal Loan Would Create ‘10-15′ Permanent Jobs
by Mike FlynnThe Department of Energy bragged about giving a $1.2 billion loan guarantee to SunPower, a politically connected solar energy company, to create “10-15 permanent jobs,” raising critical questions as to if California SunPower is the next Solyndra in the ongoing Crony-Gate scandal.
Unlike Solyndra, which went bankrupt after receiving the loan from the government leaving taxpayer on the hook, SunPower’s deal is more complicated. Many questions are being raised about how the company was able to obtain the loan and what they did after they got the money. Questions include:
- How could the Department of Energy give a loan to a company that was under a shareholder suit alleging securities fraud and misrepresentations?
- The son of Rep. George Miller (D-CA) who was paid $178,000 to lobby on behalf of the company represented SunPower as a lobbyist. Why did Rep. George Miller tour the SunPower facility – which is outside his congressional district – and what other official action did Rep. Miller take on behalf of the company that is represented by his lobbyist son?
- Did the company’s hefty political contributions to the Obama campaign and the DCCC play a role in the deal?
- Did U.S. taxpayers help pay for the company to open a facility in Mexico after the announcement of the loan?
- Was the U.S. government aware that company executives were in the process of selling a portion of the company to a French company – an action that was undertaken two weeks after the loan was awarded? Did the loan allow insider’s to cash out leaving other investors holding on to the stock that has dropped by more than 60% since the loan was awarded?
Questionable Finances
In 2009, a year before the DOE awarded the loan, investors in SunPower filed a class action lawsuit against the company alleging SunPower and certain of the Company`s executive officers were in violation of federal securities laws.
The lawsuit alleged the company knew or recklessly disregarded and failed to disclose or indicate the following: (1) that the Company made unsubstantiated accounting entries during the Class Period; (2) that, as a result, the Company’s financial results were overstated during the Class Period; (3) that the Company’s financial results were not prepared in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (“GAAP”); (4) that the Company lacked adequate internal and financial controls; and (5) as a result of the above, the Company’s financial statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times.”
Despite questions about potential violations of federal securities law, the Department of Energy approved the loan guarantee in 2010.
All to create 10-15 permanent jobs. That’s not some silly estimate, its what the Department itself thought would result from the billion dollar loan.
Email this to a friend | Print |
Share on Facebook
| Tweet this
| 
Follow Us on Twitter
Subscribe via RSS
Got a Tip?
72 Comments
So 10-15 Permanent jobs for 1.2 BILLION dollars? What a joke. This isn't a no scenario, it's a HELL NO situation. HELL NO!
Same reason it was foolish and even more expensive to bail out the banks.
This one will make Solyndra look small.
Anybody bring the tar? I have feathers waiting.
Seems like an ideal money laundering scheme playing out once again…….
The banks were not bailed out. They were taken over by our government. Propaganda 101.
Is this company not bound by Sarbanes-Oxley? This sounds like another Enron.
Ten to fifteen jobs for some very lucky Obama supporters, or their offspring.
Hey zombie protestors – take it to the White House!
I'd rather bring back public stockades.
Quit whining. The Obama policies programs have created over 15 million jobs and there is no debating that. While it is true that all the new jobs are in China does not change the fact that he stimulated huge job growth.
No tar here, but I do have a torch and pitchfork…..
I'd not grouch about that idea either. Rotten eggs and tomatoes are easy.
That's a great ROI, isn't it?
Hell, make that a jobs bill. $130 million minimum wage.
Why aren't the Occupy Wall Street folks chanting "Obama lied, people died"? Oh, yeah.
What's a billion bucks between friends?
It’s disturbing how this Administration insists on creating its own reality. Such behavior is the hallmark of statist regimes, and it is becoming increasingly obvious to more and more people who, like me, still are naive enough to look at the most recent scheme and think. “What the heck? This can’t happen in the US.” Well, yes it can.
We have an Administration who wants to make our country over in their own image. It’s disturbing enough to think that they believe they have these divine powers, but even more disquieting to realize they think that no one will oppose them, not even the laws of physics (in the case of “green jobs” and the Solyndra debacle). That is arrogance of the highest order.
Rahm Emanuel on the Opportunities of Crisis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mzcbXi1Tkk
"The time is near at hand which must determine whether Americans are to be free men or slaves."
George Washington
"Feds Claimed SunPower’s $1.2 Billion Federal Loan Would Create ‘10-15′ Permanent Jobs"
If their lips are moving………….you know the rest.
15-20 permanent jobs for 1.2Billion for how long? Government should have just gave all the money and let us spent it.
If this madness had happened under Bush, or any other Republican for that matter, MSM talking heads would be exploding with rage left and right. The cameramen would never be able to keep their lenses clean! NYT paper dispensers would be vaporized in fireballs all over NYC.
As it is, they seem to be preoccupied with how racist and inauthentic a black man Herman Cain is. Sick.
Incompetence of the highest order! The stupidity is stagering. Liberals prove once again they are profoundly irrational!
they won't because the topic feels good, and the, 'if it feels good, do it', mentality reigns supreme with orally fixated feces players. So just place that opposable thumb over that hose end and wash away their castles
I agree, they utilized the Chicago Bully tactics and infiltrated/threatened banks to allow the Government dig it's claws in. Bank executives even testified that they were threatened to take the $$, even if they didn't need it. Just as the case with GM… Everything this Administration touches turns septic. It's deliberate, methodically well thought out plan to destroy from the inside out. What better way to destroy something, from the inside. Look at D.C., State & Local Governments, Schools….
Hell. If they keep spending, they will be talking about real money soon. According to Bob Beckel, our out of control debt is not and never has been a problem. Maybe he's so fat because he's so full of ..it.
But, but, solar is THE FUTURE man!
"giving a $1.2 billion loan guarantee to SunPower, a politically connected solar energy company, to create “10-15 permanent jobs,” . . . Nice, how much is that an hour?
Greece is the word, don't worry, be happy.
And the company is moving to Mexico. Isn't that impressive. The taxpayer fronts a company 1.2 billion and the company relocates off shore. But, but, but, we should be very happy. Maybe 12 to 15 Jobs will be realized. Do the math. 1.2 billion divided by 15 equals approximately 90 million per job if my WAG is correct. There is something seriously wrong with this crony socialism. Seems like Chicago payola styled politics to me.
Like most Statist they think we are dumb sheep. When people like myself understand monetary policy, and economic policy go hand in hand. This is why I post, so I can share what I have seen work in my adult life, and with historical evidence. It is hard to deny facts.
Give me $1.2 billion and I can guarantee at least 20 "permanent jobs" — by which I mean I'll pay out that amount to my family and friends over the next ten years or so.
Sounds like a democratic/progressive plan…
How much evidence do we have to have before NObama and his goons are put on trial for treason, bribery, paybacks, not upholding their oath, not enforcing hte laws…???? There is SO much against this man, its incredible… yet he still walks a free man. Put him in jail already!!!
My Gosh, the government gave a company over $1Billion dollars for fifteen jobs? That's an outrage! What? It wasn't a loan, but a guarantee to pay back the loan in the event SunPower went bankrupt and couldn't repay it? That's hardly a difference, we're still on the hook when they go belly-up, right? What's that? NRG Energy, a Fortune 500 company, and one of the largest diversified energy companies, just acquired the project and "now bears full ownership responsibility for the project" (from NRG's press release)? Still, it's only 15 jobs; it's not fair to count the 350 construction jobs, because everyone knows that construction jobs aren't real jobs. And the fact that this power plant will generate enough electricity to power 100,000 homes without burning fossil fuels (and the attendant CO2 that generates, which doesn't matter, because CO2 has nothing to do with global warming, which isn't real anyway) is entirely beside the point. What business does the Department of Energy have promoting energy, anyway? And the French? That's just icing on the cake.
Another bang-up expose from our intrepid reporter, Mike "in like" Flynn! Kudos!
You sure you can get to 20? You must have an awful big family.
Taken over implies that the bankers weren't already Obama's pals.
Amid all the snark and sarcasm, you failed to mention one pertinent fact: If central planning of an economy actually worked as well as you and the Left think it does, the Soviet Union would be here today as the world's leading power.
Way to move the goalposts, gb; that's not what this column is about.
15 jobs for $1.2 billion means each job cost 80 million. Who the hell thunked this one up. Ohh its the spender in all time chief the Oman and his minions.
Will the DOJ do its job and GET the people responsible or will there be another cover up like the Philly voter intimidation fiasco?
Barry Soetoro, the spend a billion dollar per job genius. /Sarkmark
If the took all this stimulus money, could they have paid off all Americans Credit Card, education and home mortgage debt? How far?
If I had no debt, I'd spend more, and it makes more sence than giving the money away for no gain. 15 jobs for $1.2 billion? $8 mil per job? Really?
"Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master."
George Washington
In the 1970's we called these slush funds. Of and by the bureaucrats. That is how they magically found an account that had money in it to finance these endeavors.
Correct……
It's all in the way your articulate the theft….
If NRG just purchased the company why is the government involved at all? If that power you speak of is available, why does the company need a loan guarantee? Aren't they selling their clean, efficient, intermittent power?
Oh yeah, that intermittent thing, do they have their own generators on site, either gas, diesel or coal, you know, for when the sun doesn't shine? That being at least half the time. Or do they depend on the already operating, highly efficient coal or hydro systems for those periods when they are off line?
I'm glad to see you realize global warming is a crock and that CO2 does not cause warming at all. In fact, it's a life giving gas for all the plant life and forests you so want. You are, at least partly right with your comment, Helen.
That is how progressive statist roll!
Nice spin. I like how you reference construction jobs as if they were the sole reason for the fraud.
I also think it's funny how the lower half wants to pay 80% more for energy because they think it's going to make Al Gore happy.
Your comment is the perfect example of someone so out of touch they find a sense of accomplishment by posting the most irrelevant twist to the facts, the true hopie-changie way.
Liberal math at its finest.
The big joke is, if the plant could operate at full capacity(250 megawatts) with an average 10 hours of sunshine every day, 7 days a week for a year the gross revenue (at 10 cents per kw/h) would be $9.125 million per year. If the gross revenue was the same as the net revenue and all revenue was applied to the loan, it would take 131 years to pay back $1.2 billion.
This is why Obummer says "energy cost will necessarily skyrocket"
Fine, I'll dispense with the sarcasm (as best I can, anyway). SunPower applied for the loan guarantee (not the loan, but the backstop in the event of a default). By securing these guarantees, companies are able to borrow funds at better rates than they would otherwise, thereby improving the odds of a successful outcome. Many industries besides alternative energy take advantage of loan guarantees. The SBA has something like $118Billion in loan commitments where they provide a guarantee, banks provide home loans to Veterans under VA programs with a loan guarantee (to the bank) of around $70Billion. The government provides loan guarantees to agribusiness to help increase their ability to export; heck, we provide loan guarantees to Israel! So, the idea of the government standing in as a "co-signor", as it were, is not exclusive to renewable energy.
Now, if you stop to reread your post, I think you'll find a few of the flaws in the rest of your argument. For example, NRG is a diversified power generation company. By diversified, I mean they generate power from different sources, including natural gas, oil, coal, and nuclear (wind, too), which they sell to the electric utility companies with whom they contract. So, I think they probably can figure out where to get power when it's cloudy, or dark.
Sadly, though, I don't have a suitable response to your last paragraph, so I'll just leave it be.
Mike,
Come on man!
A 1.2 billion dollar loan? Creating 10-15 jobs?
You've got to be shltting me?
That many?
Theo, Theo, Theo,
There you go again.
You truly are an infection in the Petri dish of life.
"So, the idea of the government standing in as a "co-signor", as it were, is not exclusive to renewable energy"
Nobody stated that but you, however , the idea of the government standing in as a "co-signor", as it were, seems to thrive in this corrupt environment that 0zero has created. Sure Bush did it but 0zero was supposed to change the way washinton operates, not make Bush look like a Saint.
Sorry, I think you lost me there. Are you saying the the loan guarantees are fraudulent? If so, how? And by the lower half, do you mean below the waist? And 80% more for energy? Is that how much PG&E is raising their rates due to their 25-year agreement to purchase the electricity from this project? I didn't see that in any news stories I read, but I didn't read them all, obviously. And I don't know Al (not personally, anyway), but I have to imagine he's already pretty happy, what with his investment in Google and all.
So, in sum, I guess I really don't know what you're talking about, although I imagine you're right there with me.
Obama campaigned on eliminating loan guarantee programs? I don't think so, and I don't think any President or candidate has proposed eliminating federal loan guarantee programs, unless it's specific ones they find objectionable. Matter of fact, agree or not, I would imagine that Obama would make an argument for the government's active involvement in programs of this type. I understand that philosophy of governing is anathema to most of the folks who frequent these sites, but I don't think you can reasonably state that this type of incentive is out of line with Obama's overall approach.
Bush didn't do it first, by the way; these sorts of guarantees have been around for a while. But as an aside, if you were President, you would eliminate these guarantees across the board? No Small Business Administration guarantees, no VA Housing guarantees, nothing? That shouldn't lock up the credit markets for too many businesses/people.
Your logic is irrefutable, as always. Too busy "cleaning your gun" to formulate a rebuttal?
Nah.
My guns are clean.
A rebuttal is not forthcoming.
One cannot rebut blather.
The spin master writes "Obama campaigned on eliminating loan guarantee programs?"
Um…what? He campaigned as the most accountable administration we could elect. Now here we have his own advisory board recommending he stay away from green scams like Solyndra but 0zero goes full speed ahead.
There is no problem with loan guarantees unless the loan is guarantee'd by someone who received a handsome donation and is only looking out for his buddies. Why is that simple concept so difficult to grasp?
When your advisory board and numerous other financial committees recommend you don't spend tax payer funds on fraud like renewable energy and you still push forward then YES, it is fraud.
It does not matter today anyway..what matters is 0zero's shrinking support and the fact that the new candidates in 2012 will suffer greatly if they dare cling to the Green Fraud agenda of failure.
This administration needs to Occupy Leavenworth.
The entire bunch should join Madoff. After all they are challenging all of his fraud records.
You've got the right idea, but you missed by a zero. It is actually $80 million.
Yeah in Mexico.
Brilliant!
And Main Stream Media is silent while the country gets plundered.
Fear not, for when (and not if) this administration is tossed out on their collectivist behinds, the inquisitions will begin. The anger in this country at this administration's corruption has surpassed the anger of Bernie Madoff's victims. Its important that those running in the republican party nominations for president outline plans to determine what happened to all that cash. If not, the smell of tar will surely be in the air in Washington.
Why doesn't this surprise me? Maybe because it's only obama cash! Obviously our MARXIST-IN-CHIEF has no problem redistributing the wealth! It's the only thing he is good at!
Which advisory board and numerous other financial committees do you mean? And I won't play cute with you; I'll assume you're speaking about Solyndra and not SunPower. Solyndra's loan was promoted by the last administration, by the way.
Darn that windows calc with the little numbers and no comas!
Thanks.
You would never get EPA approval for that and the PPE required by OSHA would make it cost prohibitive.
Typical Washington D C.
This is a classic Obama "shovel ready" jobs program. Only the shovel is for shoveling all of the sh*t Hussein Obama is dumping on this country. That flim-flam man needs to be sent back to Chicago in 2012….if not sooner via the Impeachment Express.
Why aren't the libs complaining about how many homeless or childrren this money would have fed? They'd be shouting it from the rooftops if Bush had done it.
Money laundering out in the open – pure and simple
We know you were born ignorant, but were you born stupid as well???
The only reason it's pertinent, is that there is not a single objective study that shows solar power reduces CO2 levels, but plenty of direct measurements and analyses that show they INCREASE atmospheric CO2 levels.
Perhaps if you remove your head from where the sun never shines, you would know that.
Who said I liked any loan guarantees by government, Helen?
Here's another example http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/279802/ame...
Take your time, read it through and you'll come to this:
"The deal was so lucrative for the project developers that last October, some of Obama’s top advisers, including energy-policy czar Carol Browner and economic adviser Larry Summers, wrote a memo saying that the project’s backers had “little skin in the game” while the government would be providing “a significant subsidy (65+ percent).” The memo goes on to say that, while the project backers would only provide equity equal to about 11 percent of the total cost of the wind project, they would receive an “estimated return on equity of 30 percent.”
The article goes on to lambaste GE for winning such a lucrative deal.
This is why "green" energy projects are singled out for criticism.
I saw them brag about it on the news? 10 to 15 jobs and these dupes bragged about! This why there are no jobs
because Obama wants to waste money on this junk. The American people are being duped everyday by this left wing stooge!
It's funny. Before I actually read the comments from non-trolls ,I scan down the page to see who the first moron will be with all of the red next to their name and negative points.
BRAVO,Theo588, you've made your point on a site that you waste a lot of time on apparently,THAT YOU HATE.
You must be logged in to post a comment.