Solyndra saw staff "mutiny" before Obama visit

Yahoo ^ | 12/01/11 | Roberta Rampton

[Libloather]

Solyndra saw staff "mutiny" before Obama visit
By Roberta Rampton | Reuters – 15 hrs ago

**SNIP**

An initial public offering was on the skids, and finally, there was a "mutiny" by the company's entire executive team, who flagged the crisis to the company's board of directors.

The e-mails between senior advisers to George Kaiser, a major investor in the company, provide the best view yet into how problems took root early at Solyndra.

The company had received a $535 million federal loan guarantee in 2009 and was held up by the Obama administration as an example of how it could help create green jobs.

Behind the scenes, Kaiser's Argonaut Private Equity was trying to right the flailing company. "To put it bluntly our poster child of private equity is acting up something fierce," a senior official from the George Kaiser Family Foundation said in an internal e-mail dated May 8, 2010, warning Solyndra's long-term business plan was in jeopardy.

[Libloather]

It went from bad to worse.

[reefdiver]

As usual, no charges, no trial, and of course - no jail

It's apparently not a crime to squander the tax payer dollar

[ecomcon]

All due to government involvement.

After the initial public offering was withdrawn from the market in June, Solyndra hired a new CEO, Brian Harrison, and Gronet became the chairman of the board. It would have looked bad to fire Gronet, the founder, who had a good relationship with the Energy Department and was the face of the company in Washington, where the company wanted to focus more of its sales efforts, the Argonaut e-mails said.

"He has star power in DC and we need our government to step up if at all possible," one e-mail said. The company was counting on a second loan guarantee from the Energy Department for $469 million, but ultimately it was not approved.

By June, Solyndra was working with a Washington lobbying firm on a strategy to get government contracts with "Buy America" procurement rules that would give its panels an advantage, the e-mails showed. "Getting business from Uncle Sam is a principal element of Solyndra's channel strategy," an unidentified official said in an August 10 e-mail provided to Republican investigators by Argonaut.

[Timber Rattler]

At the same time, existing customers were "disgruntled" because panels they had bought from Solyndra were not producing as much electricity as promised. "Unfortunately, Gronet again took a unilateral stance and over the objections of his sales and marketing folks to argue with customers over their data set or power readings -- Gronet clearly never learned the 'customer is always right' slogan," wrote Mitchell, who had a seat on the company's board of directors.

Heh. Crooked to the core, and stupid too.

[chuckee]

“Getting business from Uncle Sam is a principal element of Solyndra’s channel strategy,”

Good catch. Not only was the government guaranteeing the loans but Solyndra was counting on the government as the buyer of last resort for its defective overpriced product that was unwanted in the competitive marketplace. Not so much crony capitalism as it is incestuous capitalism.

[indthkr]

Chief Executive Chris Gronet was the face of Solyndra in Washington, and it's inside man.

Brian Harrison was brought in as a likely fall guy at the last minute, not to mention it's poster child at the congressional hearings. Gronet should have been sitting in that chair on Capital Hill.

[bert]

How much money from the $535 million is in the Obama campaign chest and the pockets of relatives of Sec Chiu

The loan was grand theft

The Democrat party is a criminal enterprise

[indthkr]

"defective overpriced product that was unwanted in the competitive marketplace."

If you're talking about a competative marketplace with the Chinese, then you really don't know what you are talking about.

Chinese panels are government subsidized at a massive level.

[NonValueAdded]

The House Energy and Commerce Committee has been investigating the loan since February, collecting more than 250,000 pages of documents from government departments, the White House and private investors.

Yes, we want the gubermint to perform comprehensive due diligence but merde, look at all the paper that was generated. 250k pages? That in itself is an issue.