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ABC News Investigations of the Year: The Solyndra Scandal

01.01.70

Federal auditors had flagged the $535 million loan to Solyndra, saying some applicants had benefitted from special treatment. And by September, when Solyndra had shut its doors and declared bankruptcy, members of Congress wanted answers. Congress began demanding information about the loan, which had aroused suspicion because one of the lead private investors in Solyndra was an Oklahoma billionaire who also served as an Obama "bundler," raising money during the 2008 presidential campaign.

The bundler, George Kaiser, said he never tried to parlay his political ties to Obama into a loan for Solyndra, and said the topic never came up during a series of West Wing meetings he held with senior administration officials in the days before the loan was approved. White House officials have also been vocal in disputing allegations of political favoritism, releasing over 185,000 pages of internal emails to prove there is no evidence of cronyism.

The emails, released in part as a response to Congressional subpoenas, did show there had been deep misgivings inside the Obama administration about approving the loan to Solyndra -- a company struggling to make a profit on solar panel sales at a time when aggressive Chinese competitors were driving down prices. By October it was clear the government would be fortunate to recover even a small fraction of the loan money -- especially because the Energy Department made the unusual decision to let private investors recover $75 million of their investments first, before any of the federal loan was repaid.

Source: ABC News